Adam, Zac, Hayley, Jessica, Cassidy, Micah, Megan & Kati,

Witness to Jews

Part 3 (7:1-23)

Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1-23)

This is the Mark’s final record of Jesus in Jewish Galilee. Notice that after this he’s off to Tyre and Sidon (v24), then the Decapolis (v31) and when He’s done witnessing to Gentiles, He sets starts heading to Jerusalem. Also notice that the main opposition here in Jewish Galilee has come from Jerusalem (v1).

Mark dedicates a significant chunk of space to this one conflict, including parenthetical explanations in verse 4 and 19. This shows just how important it is to him and his readers. One the one hand, he’s showing his readers the core difference between Christianity and Judaism and on the other hand he’s providing some clear teaching on an area of concern for the Romans (ceremonially “unclean” foods and foods sacrificed to idols). Paul wrote to them about the same issue: “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing [no food] is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean” (Romans 14:14).

I always thought that “Corban” simply meant devoting to God any financial help you would’ve given your parents. It turns out that the practice of Corban actually meant willing your whole estate to the temple, so that after your death it became the property of the religious establishment. While you were still living, you were allowed to live in your house and make full use of what belonged to you, but you were prohibited from giving it to others or spending significant financial resources on them – the most common, anticipated need would be to support your parents financially in their old age, which was specifically prohibited by Corban.

What’s going on here is not just a Jewish respect for their traditions – they had made their “traditions”, their interpretations of the Old Testament law, equal to the law itself. When their interpretation of one law conflicted with another, it was their interpretation that had priority, not the scripture. Their oral set of interpretations was called the Mishnah. Here’s what Edwards says about it:

Pharisees accepted the evolving oral law as equally authoritative [as the Old Testament law] … Although the claim cannot be sustained by the Old Testament itself, rabbis promoted the idea that Moses had received two laws on Mt. Sinai, the written Torah and the oral Mishnah. The Mishnah was believed to preserve an unbroken chain of authorized tradition extending from Moses to the “Great Synagogue” of Jesus’ day. The Mishnah called the oral interpretation “a fence around the Torah” – “fence” being understood as preservation of the integrity of the written law by elaborating every conceivable implication of it … The Torah alone, according to advocates of the oral tradition, was believed to be too ambiguous to establish and govern the Jewish community. The oral tradition as preserved in the Mishnah, on the other hand, prescribed in infinite detail how the intent of the Torah ought to be fulfilled in actual circumstances.

But Jesus beef with the Pharisees wasn’t just about their traditions (the oral Mishnah) versus God’s Word (the written Torah) – it was also that their traditions taught a kind of righteousness (external) that was totally alien to true righteousness (internal). The Pharisees’ righteousness was all about cleansing and traditions and rules. Real righteousness (and uncleanness) comes from the heart, as Jesus catalogues in verses 21-23. The traditions of the Pharisees had created a fake kind of righteousness that was possible for humans to achieve. Genuine righteousness – from the heart – is much more difficult. We each find ourselves struggling and striving and straining, yet unable to be righteous ourselves. Only Jesus was able – and is able, in us – to live in true righteousness.

Dear Jesus, as we struggle with our flesh and often fail, teach us to look to You and not within ourselves for the ability to love others genuinely and fight down our natural selfishness and pride. In all of this, we love Your grace and cling to the pure righteousness that You lived on earth, which is held out to us as our hope and salvation through that moment on the cross when You gave it to us and in exchange took all our wickedness on Yourself.

-- peter