The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

September 1, 2024

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

How’s Your Followership?

Followers of Christ Obey His Law from the Heart!

1The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed. 3(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

5So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”

6He 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.
7They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’

8You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

14Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”

21For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’” (NIV1984)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

“We need better leadership!” That is a mantra that we hear over and over again pretty much every time we get into an election season. No matter who is sitting in the seat of power, no matter what political party they are affiliated with, no matter whether it is on a local level, a state level, or a national level there are always going to be people who say, “We need better leadership!”

Leadership is extremely important. That goes without saying. Thankfully, both as individual Christians and as a Christian congregation we have the most amazing “Leader” there could ever be— our risen Lord and Savior! While we are very thankful that there are men and women in our congregation whom we can look up to as leaders, we fully and rightfully expect that they will lead us in the way that our ultimate Leader (Pointing to the cross) expects them to lead us.

Now let me ask you this: Do we need better followership? That’s a question that we don’t hear very often! But when we stop to think about it, that is also a very important question, isn’t it. Since we are all “disciples” of Jesus Christ, since we are all His “followers,” there is a tremendous benefit in asking the question: How’s Your Followership? For the next eight weeks we are going to look at various answers to that question. Today as we look at the question How’s Your Followership? in the light of these words from the Gospel of Mark let’s take this opportunity to look at this truth: Followers of Christ Obey His Law from the Heart!

Our text begins with some Pharisees and Teachers of the Law confronting Jesus— yet again. These men had already confronted Jesus on a number of different occasions and for a number of different reasons. They had confronted Jesus about His ability to forgive sins. (Mark 2:1-12) They had confronted Jesus about His willingness to associate with “tax collectors and ‘sinners.’” (Mark 2:15-17) They had confronted Jesus about fasting. (Mark 2:18-22) They had confronted Jesus about healing on the Sabbath. (Mark 3:1-6) They had confronted Jesus about casting out demons. (Mark 3:20-30) And what were they confronting Jesus about now? They were confronting Jesus about the “followership” of His disciples! To be more specific they were confronting Jesus because His disciples were “eating food with hands that were ‘unclean,’ that is, unwashed.” To help us see how and why the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law considered this to be a serious shortcoming in the “followership” of Jesus’ disciples, Mark tells us, “The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.”

According to these religious leaders, the fact that Jesus’ disciples did not wash their hands before they ate meant that their hands were “unclean.” And since the disciples were eating with “unclean hands” then according to these religious leaders the disciples themselves were “unclean.” According to these religious leaders Jesus’ disciples were not a good example of “followership”!

What was the problem with this way of viewing the “followership” of Jesus’ disciples? The problem was that the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law had put the “traditions” of men on the same level as— if not above!— God’s holy Law! According to the Old Testament Ceremonial Law certain foods and certain animals were indeed “unclean.” According to the Old Testament Ceremonial Law people, places and objects also became “unclean” by coming into contact with anything that God had declared to be “unclean.” The Old Testament Ceremonial Law, however, said nothing about God’s people becoming “unclean” because they did not wash their hands before eating. That was a “tradition,” that was something that the religious leaders of God’s people had added to God’s Law and then demanded that everyone follow it.

Do we do anything like that, my friends? Do we have any “traditions” that we consider to be “sacred”— so “sacred” that we get upset with people who do not follow our “traditions”? Many of us can undoubtedly remember the day when you didn’t dare come to church unless you were wearing your “church clothes”— which usually meant a suit and tie for the men and a dress for the women. Would we feel comfortable attending a church where the music was provided by a band or would that remind us of the fact that in the Old Testament God’s people worshiped the Lord using symbols and harps, trumpets and flutes, tambourines and dancing? (See Psalm 150) It wasn’t all that long ago when it was “traditional” for all the men to sit on one side of the church and all the women and the children sat on the other side of the church. These are just a few examples of the “traditions” that some people considered “sacred”— “traditions” that some people might miss right down to this very day!

We always need to be careful, my friends. We always need to be careful that we don’t elevate the “traditions of men” so that they are on the same level as— or even above!— what God reveals to us in His holy Word. We always need to be careful that we don’t ever fall under the same condemnation that Jesus pronounced on the religious leaders who had a problem with the “followership” of Jesus’ disciples. Look at verses six to eight of our text. Jesus says to these religious leaders, “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. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

By putting their focus on outward obedience to the “traditions of men” the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law had failed to truly “honor” God. They had failed to hold on to the “commands of God.” They had failed to give God what He wants more than anything else— the honor, the obedience, the devotion of their hearts! Was God perhaps unclear about what He wanted from His children? Not at all! In Proverbs 23:26 God very clearly says, “My son, give me your heart.” Through His servant Micah God very clearly says to His people, “With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:6-8).

The Pharisees’ focus on outward obedience to the “traditions of men” revealed that they were not concerned about following God’s Law from the heart. This obsession with outward appearance and their neglect of following God’s Law from the heart led Jesus to expose them as “hypocrites”— “hypocrites” who made a show of their giving, their praying and their fasting; “hypocrites” who loved being held up as outstanding examples for others to follow. (See Matthew 6) And yet, as Jesus looked into their hearts He saw how much they loved money (Luke 16:14); He saw how much they were filled with pride (Luke 18:9-14); He saw their selfish ambition (Luke 11:43); and He saw their self-indulgence (Matthew 23:25).

Jesus continues to look into the hearts of His children — including ours! What does He see? Does He see some of the same sins that had infected the hearts of the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law? Does He see someone who is very careful to look very pious when other people are around, but not so pious when they are around people they probably won’t see in church on Sunday morning? Does He see someone who measures their life using the secular yardstick of this sinful world rather than the perfect standard revealed in God’s holy Word? Does He see someone who hopes that a few good deeds done in the presence of others will at least balance out the sinful deeds that are done when others are not around? There is no question that Jesus does indeed look into our hearts. The question is— What does He see?

Turning back to our text we hear Jesus proclaim a mind-shattering truth. Since washing your hands before you eat so that you do not make yourself “unclean” was engrained in the fabric of the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day and age, many of the people who had gathered around Jesus were undoubtedly confused by what Jesus was saying to the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law. That’s why Mark tells us, “Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him “unclean” by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him “unclean”…For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man “unclean.”’” And in one of the verses not included in our text Marks tells his readers, “In saying this, Jesus declared all foods ‘clean’” (Mark 7:19).

Ever since the days of Moses God had made a clear distinction between “clean” and “unclean” foods as a way to maintain a clear distinction between God’s people and all the people surrounding them. The purpose of this distinction was to preserve the pathway through which the Promised Messiah would come into this world. Now that the Messiah was here, now that God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had been fulfilled in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth— there was no longer any need to continue the distinction between “clean” and “unclean” food! Did God’s people immediately embrace and implement the fact that all foods are now to be considered “clean”? No they did not. As we can easily understand, after so many centuries of carefully distinguishing between “clean” and “unclean” food, it took God’s people time to absorb the reality that they were free to eat whatever they wanted. (See Acts 10:9-23)

The ”heart” of what Jesus is teaching us here (please pardon the pun!) is that by nature our heart is sinful. By nature our heart rebels against the “heart” of God’s Moral Law— the portion of God’s Law that will always be in effect until the very end of time! Look at all of the sins that Jesus says “come out of a person’s heart.” They are all condemned by the Ten Commandments.

The fact that by nature our “heart” is sinful and rebellious takes away any possibility that someone who claims to be a Christian, someone who claims to be a “disciple,” a “follower” of Jesus Christ— it takes away any possibility that they can ignore any one of the Ten Commandments and say, “Well I think that I can do this because I think God wants me to be happy!” That attitude would make that person just as hypocritical as the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law whom Jesus condemned here in our text!

So where does that leave us, my friends? How does this portion of Scripture help us to answer the question: How’s your followership doing? This portion of God’s holy Word not only reminds us of how important it is for us to live a sanctified God-pleasing life, but it also reminds us of how important it is for us to examine why we are striving to live a sanctified God-pleasing life. If we are striving to follow God’s Law, if we are striving to live according to the Ten Commandments because we hope to earn God’s favor or because we hope to look pious in the eyes of others then our outwardly sanctified life is not God-pleasing! If we are striving to live a sanctified God-pleasing life because our sinful rebellious heart has been changed by the powerful message of the Gospel— what Jesus has done for us— then even when we stumble and fall in our life of sanctification, the God who looks into our hearts is pleased with us!

We all know how important leadership is. We all know how important it is to have good leaders— on a local level, on a state level, on a national level and on a congregational level. May God grant that as Christians, as disciples, as followers of the greatest “Leader” of all— may God grant that we will always remember how important our “followership” is!

My prayer then this morning is that we will not only spend the next week asking ourselves the question, “How’s my followership?” but I pray that each and every day we will indeed strive to follow His Law (Pointing to the cross)— from the heart!

To God be the glory!

Amen