Mark 7:1-13--Traditions and Commandments

Mark 7:1-13
English Standard Version

Traditions and Commandments
7 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

​9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)-- 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

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We probably read this section and agree with the Pharisees as we too have learned that it's good hygiene to always wash your hands before eating anything, but hygiene is really not the issue here.  The issue is that the Pharisees are trying to elevate their traditions of what are best practices up to the same level as the Law of the LORD and Jesus is having none of that.  They come to Jesus, based on the actions of His disciples and not anything He had done Himself, and asked why Jesus didn't make them wash their hands before eating like the Pharisees said should be done.  Mark, who usually tells the short version of the story, gives more detail about the traditions of the Pharisees here like perhaps he knows he needs to explain it to an audience that may contain people not familiar with those traditions.  They wouldn't eat without washing their hands and they would always wash their hands when they came in from being out in public because they feared that someone unclean could have touched something that they touched and then they would become unclean by coming in contact with something that had been defiled.  They also washed their plates, cups, bowls and serving utensils more often than others did (again, we'd say that's not such a bad thing, but it was only when something unclean (like a lizard that crawls around on its belly) got into the oven or plates, or bowls, or so on that they became unclean.  They washed things all the time for fear that something unclean might have gotten into them while they weren't looking, and Jesus is condemning them here for having that kind of attitude about unintentional sin externally while not caring about the condition of their hearts where they are intentionally sinning all the time--that is what is making them unclean in the eyes of God (and He would know as He is the one that is going to judge the living and the dead).

​Jesus then quotes these verses from the book of Isaiah to condemn their hypocrisy.

​“‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;
 in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

The Pharisees hated the comparison because Jesus just compared them to the generation right before the Exile.  They thought themselves much better than that generation and put these traditions in place to try to make sure that the LORD would never again exile His people.  It seems though that at some point they began worshipping the traditions (and themselves who made the traditions) instead of worshipping the LORD according to His Word.  We still have this problem today where we elevate the traditions of men and our local assemblies to the level of (or sometimes above) the Word of God and we risk becoming just like these Pharisees who condemn people for not being subject to our authority in places where we never had authority.  Jesus said it to them this way, "You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”  The issue was never that they wanted the disciples to wash their hands (which really wasn't a bad thing), but that in so many areas where the Law spoke clearly, the Pharisees came up with their own interpretations and traditions to allow themselves to be transgress the Law.  Jesus takes these on in the Seven Woes if you are familiar with that passage.  Mark only includes one of the indictments that Jesus listed.

Jesus confronts them with the clear commandment that they are to honor their father and mother (the fifth commandment), but they have a tradition of giving all their money to the sanctuary and then they have no money left with which to help their mother and father in their old age because the money has been "given to the LORD."  The problem is that they were really giving the money to themselves as they controlled the money in the Temple treasury as we'll see them take money out of the treasury to pay Judas for betraying Jesus.  That is no way to honor your parents according to Jesus (and God the Father since Jesus spoke only the words that the Father told Him to say).  This would be a "high crime" in the Old Testament because it would be a willful act of rebellion against the Law of the LORD and it would likely be worthy of death.  They were trying to accuse Him of something for which there was no Law so they could find a reason to arrest Him and He showed them that they were guilty of many violations of the Law that were worthy of death every time they willfully disobeyed the Law of the LORD.