Mark 7:1-23; The Heart of the Matter

Mac Holt June 28, 2026 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL 

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Transcript

Mark 7 Reading And Prayer

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We're gonna be in Mark 7, 1 through 23 this morning. We read that with you now. Now, when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders. 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. And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the traditions of the elders, but eat with defiled hands? 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. In vain do they worship me, teaching us doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. And he said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles his father and mother must surely die. But you say, If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corbin, that is given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down, and many such things you do. 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, and he said to them, Then are you also without understanding? 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. 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. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, as we turn now to your word, we are desperate that you would again be faithful to your promises and you would speak to us. God, that you would make your son, his gospel, and your ways big and beautiful to us for the first time for the thousandth time. Father, would you be faithful? Show us how good you are. Lord, bless this man for his sins are many, and draw a straight line with a crooked stick. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen. There's a fascinating documentary series on HBO called Bama Rush. And I thought that it was appropriate because I am in the great state of Alabama this morning. The show is called Bama Rush, and the tagline for that show is Acceptance is Everything. The show follows four girls as they're going through sorority recruitment. It's a process that can be very hard on

The Hunger To Be Accepted

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a person. I'm sure that some of you have been through that. Constantly performing for a verdict. Accepted. You got a bid. And the show goes through everything that these girls must have. They have to have a perfect rush resume, perfectly filtered photos, projecting the best version of themselves. And so they hire rush consultants. These adults who are paid to advise them through the process, telling them, here's what you should talk about, here's what you should avoid, here's what you should wear, here's how you should walk. There's this gut-wrenching scene towards the end where one young lady is meeting with her rush consultant, and it's getting closer to judgment day, bid day, and she has a panic attack. She says, What if I don't get in? What if I messed up? What if I said the wrong thing? And the consultant responds, Well, what are you hoping to get from Rush? And she says, Someone to love me for who I am. I hope you catch the irony of this scene. She's saying that to her consultant. The very person who's telling her, here's how to walk and dress and talk so that you will be accepted. I want to be loved and accepted for who I am, but I know that it's not enough. And so I've hired you, Rush Consultant, to teach me how to perform so that I can get in, be accepted. Because who I am without that performance is not enough. Now, instinctively, all of us are doing this in every sphere of relationship. We know there is something in us that needs to be cleaned up so that we can be accepted. And that is certainly true when it comes to relating to our God. If we were honest with ourselves, honest with who we have been and what we have done and thought, even just this last week, we know that we are not clean. We know that we are not innately acceptable to God. And so we devise all of these methods to clean ourselves up, thinking God will accept me if I'm clean enough. And in our text this morning, Jesus holds up that very idea and then dismantles it. And he's going to confront us with the beautiful news that you are far more sinful, far more messed up than you ever dared to imagine. And I want to consider that confrontation through two points this morning: the failure of our cleansing and the cleansing of our failure. So let's begin with the failure of our cleansing. Let's set the scene. You've got the Pharisees and the scribes, the religious professionals. They're here with Jesus. If you've been around the church, you've heard of these guys. And they get a really bad rap. But if you knew them, you'd be very impressed by them. You'd think I should be more

Legalism And The Performance Trap

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like them. Extremely devout. Everyone looked up to them and wanted to be more like them, imitating their habits, their discipline. Everyone thought these people are as close to God as you can get. And they walk the distance of Birmingham to Montgomery to ask Jesus this burning question: Why do your disciples not wash their hands before they eat? It's a long walk if you're concerned just about someone's hygiene. They are utterly perplexed by Jesus. This rabbi, this teacher who's performing miracles and has a massive following, and yet he neglects Jewish purity laws. You see, God gave Israel the Old Testament. He gave them the law. And it was instruction on how to have nearness with God, acceptance by God, relationship with God. And a big part of that law were these rules for purification, an extremely complex system of practices the Jews had to do to make themselves clean, to make themselves fit for relationship with God. If you want a fun way to spend your Sunday afternoon, go read the book of Leviticus. It will outline that for you. And the purpose of those laws was to develop a certain instinct in the Israelites. God is holy, we are unholy. God is pure, we are impure. And those laws provided the protocol for symbolically getting cleansed so that you could enter God's presence. Well, as time went on, the Jewish leaders began to think: well, if these laws are the way to get clean, maybe we could make it so that we never get unclean in the first place. And so they create these extra rules and traditions to do just that. And one of those traditions is the very thing that Jesus and his disciples are ignoring: ritual washing before eating. Shocking to the Pharisees. Doesn't Jesus care about being close to God? How can him and his disciples neglect this? Now, I know this seems strange. Outside of basic hygiene, this just seems to miss us, but we cannot skip past this. You see, the impulse behind the Pharisees making these traditions and laws, that impulse is alive and well inside of me and you. For centuries, Christians have called that impulse legalism. Now, maybe you've heard of legalism before, and you think of it as this teaching that you can be saved, made right with God by your works. It's so much more than that. Legalism is this web of beliefs and attitudes and feelings about what God is like and how we relate to Him. It's a temperament of the heart that relates to God based on our performance. It's whispering, you are more or less clean, more or less acceptable to God based on what you do or fail to do. Now, one result of this impulse is we set up these markers outside of what the scriptures dictate to indicate closeness, acceptability to God. And then we judge other people off of those markers. It's ritual washing for the Pharisees. For us, maybe it's movie and TV and music choices. Maybe it's allegiance to a political party, parenting styles, school choices, any number of things that we look for in others to say that's someone who's close to God. But I think the whisper of legalism can be most clearly heard if we take a stethoscope and we hold it to our own heart with this question. Do you think God likes you? Do you think God likes you? We were eating dinner one night, and I told my middle son Sam how excited I was that him and I, just the two of us, were going for donuts the next morning. And he responded by saying, Because you like me, right? That's a strange response from a four-year-old telling you we're going to get donuts tomorrow. I said, Buddy, I love you. And again, he said, Again, you you really like me, right? He has heard a thousand times that I love him. Every morning, every evening, every time I leave for work, buddy, I love you. Kiss on the head. He's heard it a thousand times. That word has been used so many times that it's probably lost its power by how familiar it is. And the question my son was asking, worrying over deep down, was how do you feel about me? Do you like me? To those of you that are Christians, you've heard again and again that God loves you. Maybe you've heard it so much that the word is losing its power. So take this stethoscope, hold it to your heart with this question Does God like you? How does he feel towards you? Does his affection, his passion towards you change? Do you feel and I'm using that word intentionally, I'm not asking what do you think, but what do you feel deep down? Do you feel that God finds you more acceptable, attractive, that he likes you more because of your good habits and discipline? When you're getting quiet times in, you've been patient with the kids for like four hours straight. Does he like you more? When you fall back into that sin you hate? Does he turn his face in frustration? Maybe you think that God finds you most acceptable when you find you most acceptable. When you're waking up early and you're eating healthy and working out and finding success socially and at work, all the things that make you feel acceptable, clean, and you feel like right now in this good week, I have more of his smile. Well, all of this, these feelings and thoughts of why and when God finds you acceptable, of what you can do to get God to like you or not like you, they're part of this web of legalism. And Jesus has no time for this. You hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching his doctrines the commandments of men. Jesus is angry. Worldly tax collectors, prostitutes, Jesus is welcoming, compassionate, but self-righteous legalism makes your Lord come undone. Why? Because legalism is so dangerous. Legalistic obedience silences our need for Jesus with performance for Jesus. Here's what I mean. All of these ceremonial laws were given to train Israel to see God is holy, we are unholy, God is pure, we are impure. The law was given to make them desperate for God's grace. But they were using those laws and their own additions to them to prove that they were pure and they did not need God's grace. Y'all, one mark of Christian maturity, Christian growth is desperation for God's grace. Desperate need for Jesus. But so often we try to outrun our need for Jesus by performing for Jesus, obeying God's law, serving him because we think he will like us more. Or we think if we do these things, he's going to make our life turn out okay. And this traps you in a vicious cycle. You perform quiet times in church involvement and fighting sin and serving others, and you think he's so proud of me, he really likes me right now. And then shocker, you fall back into sin. And you feel so defeated and ashamed and far from God, maybe staying in your sin for some time. Eventually you come out of it and you start performing for him again, and you feel good about yourself because you feel like he's proud of you again. But the cycle plays out again and again, it's wearing you down. This hamster wheel of performance, outrunning your need for Jesus by performing for Jesus. If obeying God's law is a way for you to avoid your need for God's grace, you are in a terrifying place. You could be so moral and devout and disciplined, yet be an enemy of God. Why? Verse 20.

What Really Defiles The Heart

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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. Jesus is saying, Do you know what makes you unclean, defiled, unfit for relationship with God? It's not your disciplines and devotion, it's your heart. The center of your being that governs your desires and your thoughts, it's twisted and it's sick. So much so that it keeps you from even realizing how messed up it is. So just look at what spontaneously bubbles up out of it. Evil thoughts, slander, hatred, lust. And so here lies the heart of the matter. You cannot make yourself acceptable to God by your performance. Because the problem is your heart, and it's sick with the disease of sin. And because of this sin sick heart, God will not be in relationship with you. You will find no acceptance. You are far more messed up than you dared to imagine. Now let's see why that is good news. We've seen the failure of our cleansing. Let's look to the cleansing of our failure. So, what are we to do? Our hearts are sick, fountains bubbling over with the disease of sin. We're defiled, unclean, unfit for acceptance by God. Y'all, what is fascinating about this text is how Mark arranges it. He's got the Pharisees here who refuse to touch anything that would make them unclean. And he places it here to make it directly contrast with what's happening at the close of chapter six. I think it's the interpretive key for this whole text. Let me read it for you. When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesareth and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he came in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces

The Contagiously Clean Jesus

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and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment, and as many as touched it were made well. Notice the contrast. Pharisees, obsessed with their own performance, consumed with keeping clean and pure, never touching anyone or anything unless first they cleansed it. And the sick. This class of people who knew that according to Jewish law, they were unclean. Chronic illness meant they were barred from the temple and presence of God. They knew nothing was going to change this. And more than that, they were dying. They're exhausted by pain. They're frustrated by their sickness and the futility of it. There's nothing they can do to heal themselves. And then you have Jesus. And rather than avoiding the sick, avoiding the unclean, he goes to them and invites them to touch him. And with a touch to be united to him. Everyone who touches Jesus gets well. Everyone who grabs hold is healed. As one friend put it, he's the contagiously clean man. So notice the contrast. It's the people who knew they are hopelessly unclean who get cleansed. While those looking to their own efforts at cleanness completely miss the contagiously clean man. Those who are desperate for a purity, a cleanness outside themselves, lay hold of his garment and are cleansed. But with every healing touch, Jesus takes to himself the consequences of their impurity. Have you ever wondered why Jesus had to be crucified outside the city? In part, it was a consequence of his taking these people's defilement and impurity. It was the lepers and the chronically sick who were kept out of the city so they wouldn't contaminate anyone else. That's who Jesus was healing here. And he's taking their place. Crucified outside the city, marking this fact. A fact that finds its fulfillment in his cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus took their uncleanness, their defilement from everyone who grabs hold of his garment, and he suffers the separation from God it deserves. This is what Jesus has come to do for each of us. Your heart is sick, it is defiled, and so you are separated from God. But he loves you so deeply, and yet can have nothing to do with someone who's unclean. His holiness, his purity is like the blazing heat of the sun. And though he longs to have you, for him to come close would consume you, his purity would destroy you. So what does he do? He takes on flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, the only human ever perfectly pure, perfectly clean and holy, who could stand in the presence of God and not be consumed. And that Jesus invites all who are Who have unclean hearts to come to him and lay on him their sickness, their uncleanness. Do you know what will make you acceptable to God? What will make you clean? It has nothing to do with your performance, your devotion, your discipline. It has everything to do with the righteousness of Jesus. A righteousness, a purity that's outside of you. And all you must do is reach out and grab hold of it by faith, to trust Jesus and his perfection to be your perfection. And you not only get to touch his garment, you get to wear his garments. Isaiah 61, 10, I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul will exult in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of

Wearing Christ’s Righteousness By Faith

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salvation. He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness. Wrapped in righteousness, covered in a purity, the fruits of a performance that is not your own, and yet you wear it, and he sees you in it. A robe of righteousness. Y'all, I ran a marathon a few years ago. Never doing that again. But that was never gonna happen. He was three and like yay high. I trained for months. I went to bed early. I woke up early. I rehabbed injuries. More than that, I paid money to run on public roads. It's crazy. And for all my work, all my effort, I finished the race and they gave me a synthetic polyblend t-shirt. And so after the race, I went to my son, who again, all he wanted to do was run this race. It was never gonna happen. Objective impossibility. And I went to him and I gave him my t-shirt, and he was obsessed. He put it on and he didn't take it off for like a week. He's wearing it around our neighborhood. I'm sure my neighbors are thinking, buddy, why don't you get your kids some clothes that fit? Because the sleeves are down past his hands, the hem of it is dragging on the ground. It doesn't fit him. And yet he was still fully clothed in it, was he not? Fully clothed in the fruits of my success. He contributed nothing and yet got the full benefits of my victory. Do you see it? Christ's robe of righteousness is yours. If you know that you are unclean and your only hope is reaching out and grabbing hold of Christ by faith, you not only get to touch his garment, giving him your sin and uncleanness, you get to wear his perfection. Christ's robe of righteousness is yours. Sure, it might not fit you, right? It might be dragging on the ground and come down past your hands, but that's not the point. You're clothed in it. And you will spend the rest of your days growing up into that shirt, that robe, but the whole time you're clothed in it. And so every time the Father looks at you, he sees you wrapped in the righteousness and performance of Jesus. That's your hope. That's your confidence that you are clean and accepted by God now. And friends, what a sure and steady hope that is. If this is your hope, wearing the righteousness of Jesus, then you need to know that when God looks at you, he not only likes you, he overflows with pride in you. Because you're wearing the perfection of Jesus, his perfect faith, his sinless life, his unwavering love. God sees you clothed in his life. And so a Christian's confidence that God accepts them, likes them, approves of them has nothing to do with their performance and lawkeeping. A Christian's confidence is in wearing the purity, the perfection of Jesus. Maybe you are here this morning and you fear that you are wearing the failures of this week. The impure thoughts and longings that you hate but you indulged, that habit that you long to shake, but it clings so tight, all the disciplines you associate with acceptability and you blew it. And you're looking down at the ground, and you're unsure if you can look up at your father's face. What is his face towards me? And as you're looking down, you're missing whose shirt, whose robe you are wearing. Your only confidence is wearing the righteousness of Christ. You got to grab hold of that shirt, a fistful of it. I wear the clothing of Christ, and then you look up at your father's face. Do you think his face is anything other than shining pleasure at the perfect performance of his son? And grabbing hold of the purity of Christ that you now wear, it can't help but kill legalism. Seeing how radical this grace is will make you uncomfortable. It will get you asking, well, if I already wear Christ's righteousness and his perfection and his obedience, why do I need to obey? It kind of scares you. It sounds too free, too good. If I went all in on this grace, I could do anything. I could stop performing and I could fail and fail, and still he delights in me, still he loves me? If that depth of grace sounds like too much, you are starting to get it. You sound like the Apostle Paul in Romans 6. What shall we say then? Should we continue to sin so that grace may abound? Spoiler alert, no. His spirit now lives inside you and will never let you rest in sin. But it's this kind of heart, secure in the grace and performance of Jesus, that actually begins to obey Jesus out of love. And that's what he's after. A people who obey simply because they love their Jesus. And do you know how he's going to receive everything that you do for him out of love? I told you about my middle son Sam earlier. He just completed preschool. It's a big deal. And for this past year's classroom list, the teacher asked all the parents to buy a bunch of these little toys and send them in so that she could give them out to students as awards for things. And so we purchased this little box of toy cars on Amazon and sent it into school with Sam. And one day, Sam was awarded a little car that I bought for being the helper of the day. He was so excited. And when I got home, opened the front door, he sprints up to me. He says, Daddy, look what I got. Close your eyes, put out your hands, Daddy, and I did. And he places it in my hands. Again, the car that I had purchased. And he said, Daddy, I want you to keep it. And I gave him the biggest hug and kiss and told him I was so very proud of him. My chest just overflowing with affection for my son. A toy that I bought and he gave back to me, and yet I was so proud. If you are a believer, your obedience is like that. Nothing you've ever done or will do will add to God. If he wanted something done perfectly, he would do it himself. And yet he's going to take every one of your good works done out of love for Christ. Even giving a glass of water to someone in his name. And he's going to give you a big hug. He's going to say, Thank you. I'm proud of you. And so this is why we now obey. Out of love. Friends, God loves you. He is for you. You wear the righteousness of Jesus. Go to your Father in confidence. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. And thank you for your promises. Thank you for a gospel that sounds too good to be true. Father, I pray that we would look at the cross and the empty tomb and be assured that indeed it is real. And that you would feed us with this table to which we now turn to help us to trust you and love you and to love the world around us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.