Only Jesus Can Change the Heart, Part II
Mark 7.9-23
Introduction
"Hallo!" said Piglet, "what are you doing?" "Hunting," said Pooh. "Hunting what?" "Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously. "Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer "That's just what I ask myself. I ask myself, What?" "What do you think you'll answer?" "I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said Winnie-the-Pooh. "Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do you see there?" "Tracks," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little squeak of excitement. "Oh, Pooh! Do you think it's a – a – a Woozle?" "It may be," said Pooh. "Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. You never can tell with paw-marks." With these few words he went on tracking, and Piglet, after watching him for a minute or two, ran after him. Winnie-the-Pooh had come to a sudden stop, and was bending over the tracks in a puzzled sort of way. "What's the matter?" asked Piglet. "It's a very funny thing," said Bear, "but there seem to be two animals now. This – whatever-it-was – has been joined by another – whatever-it-is - and the two of them are now proceeding in company. Would you mind coming with me, Piglet, in case they turn out to be Hostile Animals?" Piglet scratched his ear in a nice sort of way, and said that he had nothing to do until Friday, and would be delighted to come, in case it really was a Woozle. "You mean, in case it really is two Woozles," said Winnie-the-Pooh, and Piglet said that anyhow he had nothing to do until Friday. So off they went together.
Many of us spend our days like Winnie the Pooh. Whether it’s at work or school, as a parent or a spouse, we spend our time trying to find answers. We all have problems that need to be solved daily. But human beings have also spent their lives trying to find answers to the big questions; where did we come from? Where are we going? What is my purpose? How can I cleanse my guilt?
But we cannot solve these problems until we get to the heart of the issue. That’s true with work or school, isn’t it? Solving surface issues does you know good if you haven’t addressed the heart of the issue. That’s what Pastor Kevin and Valarie’s parenting class is all about, getting to the heart of marriage and parenting. The same is true with the big questions of life. Finding meaning in work, money, education, sex, relationships, only scratch the surface. Like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, like a Band-Aid over a gunshot wound, it doesn’t matter what you try, in order to change something you have to get to the heart of the issue.
This started last week when the Pharisees and scribes questioned Jesus why his disciples don’t follow their extra-biblical traditions. Jesus quoted Isaiah 29.13 and rebuked them for binding the conscience of God’s people with non-biblical rules. Now Jesus gives them another example of their legalism and then he gets to the heart of the issue. This pericope can be divided into two sections: (1) Verses 9-13 gives us the King’s Word. (2) And verses 14-23 reveal the King’s Work. Let’s start in verse 9.
The King’s Word (vv. 9-13)
I love the sarcasm of Jesus in verse 9. And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! Jesus is compassionate to sinners who know their need, but he has no time for legalistic hypocrites. Then he quotes the 5th commandment (Exod 20.12; Deut 5.16), honor your father and your mother and Exodus 21.17, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ Then Jesus illustrates how they’re rejecting God’s Word for their own tradition.
The leaders in Israel had established this tradition called Corban. Mark transliterates this Hebrew word (קָרְבָּן) and then adds editorial explanation for Gentiles like his original readers, and us, who don’t know Hebrew words and customs. Corban was a designation of one’s resources to be used exclusively for God. So if you were a 1st century Jew, you could go to a Drew McGuire and say that when you die your wealth will be left to the Temple, which means that while you can access it during your lifetime, no one else can. They would claim Corban so that they didn’t have to financially help their elderly parents. Jesus is rebuking them for obeying their non-biblical legalistic rule while simultaneously disobeying the 5th commandment.
They’re making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do. This is merely one example of how they’re holding to their legalistic non-biblical rules over Scripture. The application for us is that the authority for Christian living is found in sola scriptura – Scripture alone! Jesus stands before us as the true prophet of God. He is the Word who was with God and is God (John 1.1).
Jesus is showing them that they’re rejecting him because they reject the Scripture. Jesus is the meaning of Scripture (Luke 24). He is God’s Word for his people. This is the root of Islam, self-righteous justification. It’s the problem with Mormonism and RCC. But it’s also the problem with Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Pentecostals, Baptists, and every other denomination. It’s a problem for all of us.
We have the tendency to place our own traditions above the Word of God. So like Pastor Kevin mentioned last week, if we bind people’s consciences with extra-biblical legalism about whatever – hair length, dress code, alcohol, tobacco, and music – we are literally acting anti-Christ. To do so is to make void the Word of God by tradition.
The King’s Work (vv. 14-23)
Jesus then uses his Word as the starting place to get to the heart of the issue. Verse 14:
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.
You may notice if you have a KJV that there’s a verse 16. That’s because it’s in the Byzantine Text. There’s nothing unbiblical about what verse 16 says. A scribe probably added it later because it’s a common saying of Jesus. The ESV doesn’t include it because it’s not in the oldest manuscripts. It’s unlikely that Mark wrote it.
Jesus says there’s nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him. Jesus commanded the crowd to hear him and understand. The disciples hear him, but they do not understand. So when they get alone they ask him about the parable. Jesus responds, then are you also without understanding? The ESV tames the translation. Jesus literally asks them if they’re senseless or foolish.
That means that Jesus expected them to understand. Had they been reading their OT in a Christ-centered way, this wouldn’t have offended them. But they don’t understand. So Jesus explains, do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) That which enters the body is incapable of defiling a person because it doesn’t go to the heart. It goes to the stomach and is expelled, the Greek literally says, and goes into the toilet.
And then we have another Marcan editorial comment, thus he declared all foods clean. Now don’t fall into the same trap the disciples did by seeking to read this in a non-christ-centered way. The Bible is not saying that the food laws in the OT were arbitrary and now Jesus is simply changing them. All foods are now clean because the ceremonial Law was now fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Law reveals our sin. Jesus is living as the sinless Law-abider. Jesus can die on the cross as our substitute only because he obeyed the Law. The Law of Christ now supersedes the Law of Moses.
Listen to how NT Wright explains it,
“The Scriptures spoke of purity, and set up codes as signposts to it; Jesus was offering the reality. When you arrive at the destination you don’t need the signposts any more, not because they were worthless but precisely because they were correct. Learning to read the OT this way wasn’t easy in the early church, and it isn’t easy today. The starting-point is to realize that the Jewish scriptures aren’t to be seen as a timeless code of behavior, but as the story which leads to Jesus. This doesn’t mean we can casually set aside bits we don’t like or understand. When things are set aside, as the purity laws are here, it’s not because they’re irrelevant but because the deeper truth to which they pointed is now arrived. Everything the Scriptures were getting at reached a peak in Jesus Christ; from now on everything is different.”
Because the Law of Moses only revealed the need for cleansing, it didn’t offer final cleansing. Jesus reveals why,
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
It is not what goes into our body that makes us unclean, but what comes out. So the self-righteous health food-ers are wrong, it is not meat or sugar or anything else that makes you unclean. The fundamentalist teetotalers are wrong it’s not alcohol or tobacco that makes you unclean. It’s evil thoughts that come from your heart that makes you unclean.
It’s worth noting that in Greek the first six of the evil thoughts are plural. So it actually reads sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickednesses. Why? Because these are sins that are continually coming out of our hearts. The word envy is literally evil eyes. The word slander is blasphemy. Jesus mentions pride and foolishness. You cannot come out of Jesus’ list unscathed.
Jesus’ point is that the heart of the issue is an issue of the heart. Before the flood God saw that the intention of the thoughts of the heart of humanity was only evil continually (Gen 6.5). Jeremiah said that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can understand it (Jer 17.9)? The prophets foretold a day when YHWH would give his people a new heart and a new covenant. Jesus is here declaring that he has come to give us that new heart. True and final cleansing is found in the gospel of Jesus alone. This is the work that the king has come to do.
Jesus did not come merely to fulfill the Law. He came to impute that righteousness to us. Our culture holds the view that humanity is inherently righteous. Whenever someone is unrighteous it must be because of his or her environment, or education, or something outside of them that has corrupted them. But that’s not what Scripture teaches. The Bible says that we are inherently sinful. We need an alien righteousness – righteousness from outside of us – to invade our hearts and make us clean. And that’s what Jesus has come to do.
Righteousness is found in Christ alone. It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t eat, or drink. When you repent and believe, you are justified by faith. God the Father forgives your sin on the basis of the righteous life, sinless death, and glorified resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Christopher Robin came slowly down his tree. "Silly old Bear," he said, "what were you doing? First you went round the spinney twice by yourself, and then Piglet ran after you and you went round again together, and then you were just going round a fourth time" "Wait a moment," said Winnie-the-Pooh, holding up his paw. He sat down and thought, in the most thoughtful way he could think. Then he fitted his paw into one of the Tracks... and then he scratched his nose twice, and stood up. "Yes," said Winnie-the-Pooh. "I see now," said Winnie-the-Pooh. "I have been Foolish and Deluded," said he, "and I am a Bear of No Brain at All."
Jesus reveals to us that we are the problem. We have missed the mark. We have fallen short of the glory of God. Sin comes from within. The answers to life’s big questions: the meaning of life, cleansing from guilt, they cannot be found in ourselves, only evil comes from within ourselves. They are found in Jesus. It’s found in the King’s Word, Scripture alone. It’s found in the King’s work, Christ alone. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel. In order to change something you have to get to the heart of the issue, and the heart of the issue in an issue of the heart.