A Heart Transplant
Mark chapter 7:1-23 describes the day Jesus took the gloves off. His words fell like a “Velvet Hammer” into a heavy object falling like an ANVIL on the heads of the religious leaders. Fire and division came out of His mouth to call out the Pharisees as hypocrites and then He poured out the fire of truth to wake up the crowd.
The “beat down” is ugly and painful as He exposed their sinful hearts. Jesus made the point how Man-made rules and regulations became the object of obedience, while God’s commandments get set aside and left behind.
One pastor described it as a Looney Tunes Cartoon when Wiley Coyote, (Pharisees) tried to drop a large bolder on the Road Runners (Jesus) head only to bounce back and crush him. “MEEP MEEP.”
TRADITION
Key Verse -- Mark 7:13
And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others."
When pastor Drew spoke of tradition all I could think of (in my weird musical brain) is Teva singing “TRADITION “. The last line in the Song is: “without Tradition our lives would be as shaky as a “Fidler on a Roof” ---which is the title of the Broadway Musical “Fidler on the Roof” The First line in the song is “how do we keep our balance as the Fiddler on the Roof? Tradition! “How did this get started?” “I don’t know – it’s a tradition.” LOL It worth seeing this video at the end of the devotion.
In Jesus’ day the rabbis of the old covenant had added so much to the law of God that they had bound the people’s conscience. Where God had left men free, the Pharisees had put them in chains. Much of Jesus’ teaching and most of his conflicts with the Pharisees arose over this issue.
It is really a picture of all churches that have laws, rules, and traditions which are unscriptural. As the result of this, many churches can turn into nothing more than “religious clubs.” You will fit their narrative or be ignored or shunned, or not be a part of the crowd.
RULES
I remember during college years I was asked to play on a softball team for a Baptist church. Cool! But: Problem 1: I had to attend church on Sunday. Problem 2: I was a Devout catholic that had not missed church since second grade. So, I abided by the rules and went to Catholic church on Sunday morning and Baptist church on Sunday night. I did not mind; the girls were more friendly and cuter too! Plus, it was my first exposure to a gospel sermon.
Church rules are harmless unless the rules, regulations and tradition replace the word of God or added to the bible and become doctrine.
As a Catholic I practiced many church rules and traditions. The sign of the cross; dipping your hand in holy water and blessing yourself; genuflecting on one knee and facing the front of the sanctuary if you walked in the center aisle. I was confirmed in the fourth grade and received the Holy Spirit by the sacrament of the Confirmation. I did not actually receive the Holy Spirit until 20 years later when Jesus became the Lord of my life.
Cleaning off the Dirt or Ceremonial Brain Washing?
Mark 7:5 So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, "Why don't your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony."
I read that the modern Talmud is an exhaustive list of rules and regulations about tradition. Cleaning hands over hundreds of years turned into sixty-five pages and thirty chapters about manmade rules to lord it over people they thought were less than them. Tradition appears to be held in higher place than worship and even the Law (Moral Law) Ten Commandments – The Tradition is held higher than “Honor your mother and father”
Clean Hands or Clean Hearts?
NIV Mark 7:6 He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
All this religious washing had a good intent: to remind Jews that they were unclean before God. That was a good thing. However, they were completely off based on the true source of their impurity. Their problem was not outside but inside. It was not their hands but their hearts.
NIV Mark 7:18 "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'?
I admit that I am a Germaphobe -- Constantly washing my hands in the Kitchen and wherever there is hand soap or a bottle of Purell.
Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure (not a Purell) heart (Psalm 24:3–4).
HEAR & UNDERSTAND
Jesus proceeds to list thirteen sins to drive home the truth that all defilement originates from our defiled heart.
Mark 7:14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. "All of you listen," he said, "and try to understand.
V 20 “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.
V21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,
V22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, 1aenvy, slander, 2pride and foolishness.
V23 “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
Conclusion – a Heart Transplant begins with our thoughts and thinking.
(Gen 6:5).
“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints, and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
I Cor 10:5 Casting Down Imaginations and every proud thought that exalts itself against the Knowledge of God and Bring into Captivity Every thought to the Obedience of Christ…
How watchful we ought to be when we remember these verses! What a careful guard we ought to keep over our imaginations, our tongues, and our daily behavior! At the head of the blacklist of our heart’s contents, stand “evil thoughts.” Let us never forget that. Thoughts are the parents of words and deeds. Let us pray daily for grace to keep our thoughts in order, and let us cry earnestly and fervently, “lead us not into temptation.”Spurgeon –
Fidler on the Roof - Tradition
~ Steve Byers and his wife Debbie have lived in the Charlotte area since 2017 and have been attending LIFE Fellowship for five years. Steve is a musician and songwriter and sings in the Oxygen Choir. Steve and Debbie, have one son, Josh and a daughter-in-law, Avery. They are grand parents to Jaxon and Grayson.