Following Jesus in the Real World
Studies in the Gospel of Mark
Study Guide for Sunday Sermon on April 20, 2008
Mark 7: 1-23
Introduction
What does it mean to be holy? What defiles a person or makes him impure?? How does a person become pure and stay pure? That’s the theme of the passage that is before us this week.
Keeping pure was the core value of 1st century Judaism. Why? It was because the Jews held the conviction that God is absolutely holy, absolutely pure. So, if God is holy then anyone who wants to approach God must be holy (see, for example, Psalm 24: 3-4).
But being holy and keeping pure was a very difficult thing. There were a vast number of ways a person became impure. Among other things, touching a dead animal, eating the wrong kind of food, associating with the wrong kind of person (like prostitutes, lepers, tax collectors or anyone affiliated in any way with the New York Yankees), automatically made you impure. From this perspective, Jesus and his followers were probably perceived as being habitually impure.
To make someone pure you had to remove the “dirt” which required using some sort of “detergent”. The two main detergents for removing moral and ritual impurity were blood (the more powerful of the two) and water (the more common and available of the two).
The quest for purity had social as well as religious ramifications. In the minds of religiously careful Jews pure people were “in” but impure people were “out”. Peasants and fishermen, who frequently had neither the time nor the ability to stay ritually pure, were perceived as outsiders, looked down upon, and slighted.
Here in this passage, Jesus agrees with the Pharisees that purity is a major concern but disagrees with them about what causes impurity and about what clears it up. By redefining purity, Jesus redefines who is in and who is out in God’s kingdom; he redefines the membership and composition of God’s people. And he reveals something that neither the religious leaders nor his disciples were expecting about the character, values, mission and purpose of God
May God bless your study and reflection and may He use it to shape your mind and heart and soul to your good and His glory.
For Personal Study and Reflection
Day 1: Read Mark 7: 1-23
Begin by reflecting upon the following questions: What is our culture’s understanding of purity? Does our culture even think of purity today? If so, in what context does it do so?
What is purity? What is its purpose? What does purity protect us against?
To whom does our culture look to as examples of purity? Why?
Where does impurity come from according to our culture? What defiles a person?
What is your understanding of purity? Is purity an important theme in your life, something you think about often? What is your understanding of how impurity or defilement enters a person’s life? How does a person protect himself or herself against impurity?
Now read Mark 7: 1-23. What are your first impressions of this passage? What strikes you? Why?
What questions does it raise for you?
What do you see as the key issue in this passage?
Day 2: Read Mark 7: 1-5
Mark tells us that the Pharisees and some teachers of the law came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus. This is the second time in Mark’s gospel that religious leaders travel from Jerusalem to observe Jesus (see Mark 2-3). Why do you think these religious leaders traveled all the way from Jerusalem to Galilee? What was their mission? What were they trying to do?
Why do you think the Pharisees come now? What had been going on (review the events of chapter 6)? Why might this stir the interest of the Pharisees?
What are they looking for? What do they see? Given what you have read about the 1st century Jewish understanding of purity in the introduction to this study, how do the Pharisees view the disciples?
Mark makes a parenthetical comment in verses 3-4. What does Mark tell us? How does he describe the tradition of ceremonial washing? What does he say more generally about the Pharisees observance of traditions?
Contrast how the Pharisees view the people of the marketplace with how Jesus views them. What is the marketplace for the Pharisees? When the Pharisees are in the marketplace what are they trying to avoid? And when the Pharisees come from the marketplace, what is the first thing they do? What does Jesus do in the marketplace? What is the marketplace for Jesus? How does he view it? What is his reaction to the people in it?
What question do the Pharisees raise with Jesus? What is their complaint?
Mark highlights the word “traditions” in this passage. What's good about traditions?
What's potentially bad about traditions?
What place does tradition have in your religious life?
Now put yourself in the shoes of the people who worked and lived in the marketplace. If you had been one of the marketplace people how would you have felt about approaching the Pharisees? How would you have felt about approaching the God of the Pharisees? Why?
If you had been one of the marketplace people how would you have felt about approaching Jesus? Why?
Who are the “marketplace people” the unclean people, in our culture? How do we view the “marketplace”? What view of God do we communicate to them? How does that affect their willingness to approach God?
Day 3: Read Mark 7: 6-13
What does Jesus say to the Pharisees in verse 6? Do you think this is what the Pharisees were expecting? Why or why not?
Jesus then quotes from Isaiah 6:13. How does Jesus use this passage from Isaiah? Why does Jesus use Isaiah to make his point? How would the Pharisees have viewed Isaiah? What kind of authority would Isaiah have carried for them?
What contrasts does Isaiah draw? So, what is Jesus saying about the Pharisees and their religious observances?
How did these traditions of the elders develop? What do you think their original purpose was?
In 586 B.C. the Jews had lost their land, temple, festivals and king. Only one thing remained to preserve their national identity: the Torah. To safeguard it the rabbis built a fence around it, codifying countless oral traditions. They were trying to establish clear boundary markers in an effort to preserve their shaky identity, so that, in the words of Tevya (from Fiddler on the Roof), "Every man would know who he was and what God expected of him." During the Maccabean period (around 165BC -63 BC) many Jews chose death at the hands of the Romans rather than forsake these traditions.
What does Jesus imply about the “traditions of the elders”? What had happened to this original purpose? What kinds of rules had these traditions become?
These traditions of the elders began to be viewed by the Pharisees as having equal authority with the Scriptures themselves.
Look at verse 8-9. What does Jesus accuse the Pharisees of doing? What is the broader issue here?
How does Jesus make his case in verses 10-13? What is “Corban”? How were the Pharisees rejecting the commands of God? What “logic” did the Pharisees use to justify their actions?
The Law of Moses required the Hebrew people to “honor” their parents. That term “honor” did not suggest mere “lip service”; it included the idea of caring for them in their various needs.
Some of the Jews, however, had concocted a scheme to avoid parental responsibility. They would designate certain of their financial resources as “Corban.” The Greek word korban is related to the term “korbanas”, signifying the “temple treasury.” In Jewish practice, therefore, the word “Corban” had been coined as a sort of “vow” term. According to the prevailing tradition, one could designate his financial resources as “Corban,” which, practically speaking, was a way of “tagging” them, suggesting, “this belongs to God,” and thus was not to be used for personal interests.
There is a passage in the writings of the Jewish historian, Josephus, that illustrates the fact that funds from the temple treasury were “Corban,” hence could not be used for secular purposes, e.g., city improvements, as in the building of an aqueduct for water supply (Wars 2.9.4).
Jesus uses this example to show how their oral law, the traditions handed down by the elders, violated the clear scriptural command to honor one’s parents by providing for their financial and material needs. In so doing, they flouted the law of God.
Day 4: Read Mark 7: 6-15.
What in your religious life is comparable to the “tradition of the elders”? What are rules or ways of doing things that have come not from Scripture but from your church tradition or culture?
How do these traditions affect other people? Do any of them serve as hindrances or blocks to people coming to God? If so, are you willing to drop these traditions and make changes in what you do?
Now focus on verses 14-15. What does Jesus call everyone to hear and understand? According to Jesus, what makes a person unclean? Where does impurity come from?
Contrast the Pharisee’s view of defilement with Jesus’ view. How does a person become unclean?
Do you think most people have a view of purity that is more in line with that of the Pharisees or with that of Jesus? Why do you think so?
What are the practical implications of Jesus’ teaching concerning how one becomes impure?
Day 5: Mark 7: 14-23
How do the disciples deal with the teaching Jesus gives concerning the source of impurity? What do they ask Jesus? How do they refer to the teaching Jesus gave? What's ironic about that?
How does jesus answer their question? Where does impurity come from? How does a person become “unclean”?
Why would Jesus teach on these things to his disciples? Go back to Mark 4: 11. Jesus says, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables.”
What is Jesus saying to the disciples? What does he expect them to understand by now? Why didn't they understand?
They didn't understand because they had become outsiders – outsiders hear parables when there are none (see Mark 4:12). But because they ask, Jesus treats them like insiders – he explains.
Earlier, in Mark 6: 52 we were told that the disciples had become hard of heart. Now, Jesus is talking about the relationship between sin and the state of our hearts. Why is Jesus driving home this point now? What is the condition of the disciples? What might they be tempted to blame for their frustration and disgruntlement? What is the relationship between sin and the state of our hearts?
Hardened hearts lead to sin. The disciples might be tempted to blame external conditions – they were sent out by twos, came back tired, were promised rest and didn't get any, had to handle a mob of thousands and stay up all night rowing against the wind. So, they might think they had a right to be cold toward the crowd and angry with Jesus. Jesus was being unreasonable and unfair. They, in their minds, thought they deserved better!
What is our tendency when confronted with our own sin? Who do the disciples really have to blame?
We tend to blame it on external situations – not our fault! But Jesus is showing that they really have themselves to blame here.
What is the state of your heart? Are there ways that you have been justifying your own sin, making excuses for it? What will you do now? Will you turn to God in confession and repentance and ask for help?
For Small Group Discussion and Reflection
Read Mark 7: 1-23
There are two issues, related to one another, in this passage. One issue has to do with the relationship between Scripture and religious tradition. The other and overriding issue has to do with what it means to live a pure and holy life.
So, what is religious tradition? What relationship do you see between religious tradition and the Scriptures?
How is tradition useful? What religious traditions do you find most meaningful? Why?
When and how does religious tradition lose its usefulness and become an obstacle to the true worship of God and the fulfilling of His mission? What examples have you seen of religious tradition outliving its usefulness?
How would you contrast the Pharisees’ view of holiness and purity with that of Jesus? Which view of holiness is most prominent in churches today? Why?
Jesus says that it is what is in our hearts that determines whether we are pure or impure.
Jeremiah 17: 9 says: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” So, how can we tell the state of our hearts? And, how can our hearts be “cured”?
Their are countless ways in which we blame externals for our sins.
· I'm sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night.
· I'm sorry, but my spouse/child/roommate/traffic made me late to and I forgot.
· I'm sorry, but I'm having a bad day.
· I’m sorry but it’s the economy/the weather/the noise/the stress
In each case, we imply that it is the situation that's the problem and not our own thoughtlessness, inability to love or think about others, or faithfulness to our word. Even if we acknowledge a particular sin, we want people to think it's the rare exception. What do you think Jesus would say to us if we offered him these excuses?
What does real repentance look like? What does it focus on and deal with?
Jesus mentions 13 different sins (not to give a comprehensive list of sins but to give some key examples). All of us are vulnerable to most or all of the sins Jesus mentions. But we may be more vulnerable to some than others. And there may be particular sins you are tempted with this week. In what ways can your small group help you to withstand your temptations? How can your small group help you receive the Lord’s cleansing?
How do you want your small group to pray for you this week?
