Daily Devotional For Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Well, happy pre-fourth of July. It’s Wednesday. Tomorrow, we celebrate our nation’s independence. It was declared on July 4, 1777 — that is 248 years ago. WOW! As you know I have been taking us through questions asked in the Bible — some by people and some by our Lord. Today, we come to two questions Jesus asked His disciples that are contained in one verse (verse 18) with a qualifier by Mark in verse 19 — Mark 7:18-19, “And He said to them, `Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, (19) since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) — (ESV).

 By the time we get to Mark 7, Jesus is about one year away from His arrest, scourging, crucifixion and death. And still two years with Jesus 24/7, His own disciples still do not get it. Have you ever wanted to take a child’s face into your hands and look at him/her intently and ask, “Are you in there? Are you in there?” I wonder if our Lord ever wanted to do that with His 12 disciples or even do with us at times. So, what caused Jesus to ask these two questions to His disciples?

 It seems at the beginning of Mark 7, the religious leaders observed that the disciples did not wash their hands before eating. We might expect our mothers to be upset, but oh no, these self-righteous religious got all worked up about this. These arbiters and members of the Rules and Regulations Committed were upset, but they were upset for the wrong reason. Yes, the Old Testament Law required that priests had to wash their hands ceremonially in Leviticus 22:6-7 but not ordinary people. 

 Please do not give these religious leaders a break here. They were not concerned about sanitation or sanctification, but ritual traditions. This is why Mark tells us this in Mark 7:3-5:

 "For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,[ (i.e., ceremonially) holding to the tradition of the elders, (4) and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash (ceremonially);] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches” (ESV).

 So, let me tell how the religious leaders did this so you know what they observed Jesus’ disciples not doing. New Testament scholar William Barclay breaks this down for us. It is a little lengthy but it helps you understand why the religious leaders were upset and why the disciples are being rebuked by Jesus:

"Originally, for a Jew, the law meant two things: it meant, first and foremost, the Ten Commandments, and, second, the first five books of the Old Testament, or, as they are called, the Pentateuch. Now it is true that the Pentateuch contains a certain number of detailed regulations and instructions; but, in the matter of moral questions, what is laid down is a series of great moral principles which individuals must interpret and apply for themselves. For a long time, the Jews were content with that. But in the fourth and fifth centuries before Christ, there came into being a class of legal experts whom we know as the scribes. 

They were not content with great moral principles; they had what can only be called a passion for definition. They wanted these great principles amplified, expanded and broken down until they issued thousands and thousands of little rules and regulations governing every possible action and every possible situation in life. These rules and regulations were not written down until long after the time of Jesus. They are what is called the oral law; these rules make up the tradition of the elders.The word elders does not mean, in this phrase, the officials of the synagogue; rather it means the ancients, the great legal experts of the old days who came after Moses and Joshua.

Before every meal, and between each of the courses, the hands had to be washed, and they had to be washed in a certain way. The hands, to begin with, had to be free of any coating of sand or mortar or gravel or any such substance. The water for washing had to be kept in special large stone jars, so that it itself was clean in the ceremonial sense and so that it might be certain that it had been used for no other purpose, and that nothing had fallen into it or had been mixed with it. 

First, the hands were held with fingertips pointing upwards; water was poured over them and had to run at least down to the wrist; the minimum amount of water was one quarter of a log, which is equal to one and a half eggshells full of water. While the hands were still wet, each hand had to be cleansed with the fist of the other. That is what the phrase about using the fist means; the fist of one hand was rubbed into the palm and against the surface of the other. This meant that at this stage the hands were wet with water; but that water was now unclean because it had touched unclean hands. 

So, next, the hands had to be held with fingertips pointing downwards and water had to be poured over them in such a way that it began at the wrists and ran off at the fingertips. After all that had been done, the hands were clean. To fail to do this was in Jewish eyes not to be guilty of bad manners, not to be dirty in the health sense, but to be unclean in the sight of God. Anyone who ate with unclean hands was subject to the attacks of a demon called Shibta. To omit so to wash the hands was to become liable to poverty and destruction. Bread eaten with unclean hands was not better than excrement” (Source: William Barclay, The Daily Bible Series, “Mark, pp. 190-191).

 When I hear or learn of something someone is accused of doing that is wrong, my first response is to give them grace and the benefit of the doubt first. Bruce Barton in the Life Application Bible Commentary does this with the religious leaders as well:

“We must be careful not to gloss over the Pharisees and teachers of the law as out-of-touch religionists or nitpicky legalists. To do so would be to miss the dynamic message to our times today. Undoubtedly there were many authoritarian religious leaders who wanted to keep their place in the power structure at any cost. There were also many who were genuine religious conservatives, enraged by the challenge of the new teacher who cast long-established traditions aside. There were many religious people who thought they were rightly defending the honor of Yahweh. Some were profoundly self-serving, but many were sincere.

Many Bible-believing Christians also struggle with change and tradition. The Pharisees had established codes of conduct that they made equal with Scripture. Don’t we still do the same? In trying to maintain our faith against competitors and challenges, don’t we resent those who don’t conform and who disregard the history of why we do what we do? What human-made rules, policies, and doctrines have we given the same authority as God’s Word? Do we reject someone’s thought because we don’t like his or her background, training, or personal style? Pharisees exist today. Ask God for insight so as not to be one of them” (Bruce Barton, Life Application Commentary, “Mark,” p. 194.

 So, most of us probably do wash our hands before we eat, but why all the drama? The issue is that this delegation of religious leaders from Jerusalem believed that washing one’s hands kept them from being defiled. In other words, an external act cleansed them internally. This is why Jesus rebuked His own disciples because they have been taught this their whole lives and Jesus was saying this belief is wrong. The basis for this was that priests under Moses and Joshua entering the Tabernacle had to wash their hands to be ceremonially clean (see Exodus 30:17-21).

 Jesus’ rebuke is that the religious leader's purpose was not to get clean, but to keep up the appearances of being clean to show they were not like Gentiles. They hated Gentiles and even prayed, “Lord, thank You I am not like a Gentile dog . . .” Not a real dog, okay? It was also to pridefully demonstrate that they were out doing the common Jew. So, Jesus’ rebuke to His disciples through the two questions He asked them was to make a point — no ritual can make you clean or righteous to God. 

 This is not the first time in Mark’s Gospel Jesus rebuked His disciples. Look at the following verses in Mark:

• Mark 4:13, 40, “And He said to them, `Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? . . . (40) “He said to them, `Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’” (ESV).
• Mark 6:51-52, “And He got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, (52) for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened” (ESV). 

 It is possible that in Mark 7:18-19 Jesus may have been chiding them for their own failure to believe that He offered the true interpretation of Old Testament rules and regulations in contrast to traditional authority. Pastor and author Chuck Swindoll writes this:

“The disciples were a product of the same foolish, hypocritical theological tradition as the Pharisees. Even so, Jesus appreciated a crucial difference in them. The disciples—like many earnest, untrained Jews—suffered from ignorance. The scribes and Pharisees did not; they held onto their tradition because it gave them power over others and underscored a strong sense of righteousness for themselves. They liked the system, and they knew how to leverage it to their political and economic advantage. Pride fueled their position” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary, “Mark,” p. 191).

 Since Jesus was God in the flesh, He created Adam and Eve. This is why He is competent to give them a little Anatomy 101 lesson. It’s as if Jesus said to them, “Guys, the digestive system is not connected to nor part of the circulatory system. There are no rituals, no rules, and no regulations that can make it clean before God the Father. But there is another word that begins with a “r” that can — repentance. Repentance occurs when I admit to God He is right and I am wrong and THEN I do a 180 — I reverse course and bring my attitudes, my opinions, my feelings and my actions in compliance to the truth revealed by God in Scripture. Sometimes this means I have to make amends to someone, apologize to someone or confess my sin to another godly and holy disciple of Jesus Christ.

Questions To Consider

1.  What traditions do you elevate to the level of Scripture and why? If you do not, good for you, but let me give you some possible ones: church music — are you only hymn based, contemporary Christian based, southern gospel based or liturgical based only? Do you allow the type of music your church uses to give you an excuse not to sing and worship? How about Bible translation? — KJV only, NIV only, NASB only, or some other translation?
2. When you look at those “wretched” sinners, are you prideful or humble? Do you judge people more by the externals or appearances or by the integrity and character of their heart no matter what their external appearance looks like?
3. If your church skips something that has been normally a tradition or even cancels it, do you have a meltdown? Why or why not? If you do, is it possible you have made it an idol? Why or why not?
4. When you hear a sermon or Bible study that “bothers you,” do you evaluate your response and reaction on the integrity of that to the truth of Scripture or your own feelings?
5.     If you are in church leadership, do you ever use your position to leverage it to your own advantage, status, control and power? Why or why not? 

 Scripture To Meditate On: 1 Corinthians 3:2-3, “I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, (3) for you are still of the flesh” (ESV).

 Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, please forgive me when I let my personal preferences, biases and desires cause me to disobey You and Your Word. Lord, please reveal to me where I have made my feelings,  my attitudes, my feelings and my desires idols. David wrote in Psalms 51:7,”Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (NLT). Jesus, I want to honor You with my life. Please convict me that my pride of not being a worse sinner than someone else makes me clean. Only You can make me clean. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!”

I love you Southside!—Pastor Kelly