Religious Fault Finders

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"The below work study is from InTouch Ministries"

Day 3:

 

Please carefully read Mark 7:1-7 and answer the following questions.

 

1.  It appears a group of Pharisees and Scribes followed Jesus around to monitor His actions so they would find a reason to criticize Him. What did they observe about the disciples that they latched onto, and how did Mark explain this to his Roman audience (v. 2-4)?

 

2.   What accusing question did they ask Jesus (v. 5)?

 

Sidelight:  Clean and Unclean

As we read in our Introduction, since the days of the Jews’ Babylonian Captivity, the religious leaders had been developing and instituting an oral law and interpretations of what the Scriptures really meant in their viewpoint. These became viewed as having the highest religious authority for Judaism, and in a sense supplanted the Scripture.[ii] A tradition; the Greek word paradosis, was something delivered by someone to a second person to keep or care for. A tradition therefore meant instructions handed down from one generation to another, to be observed by following generations. Holding is krateo, to keep carefully and faithfully.[iii] At issue here wasn’t whether Jesus’ disciples were practicing good hygiene. Rather it was all about their notion of being clean versus unclean (koinais, “common”). As Mark explained to his Gentile readers, this meant ceremonially unwashed, denoting whatever was contaminated according to their religious rituals was unfit to be called holy or devoted to God.[iv] They literally believed that sin, evil, and uncleanness could be transmitted from objects and from other people. The Pharisees took this to an extreme, and in a sense very few in Judaism would even have the ability to try to maintain a state of religious purity as they defined it. Thus their tradition excluded the vast amount of the Jews let alone the Gentile peoples. The whole notion of ritual cleanness was thus the heart of what the Pharisees were all about. It was that heart (or perhaps better the lack of it) Jesus attacked because of their ongoing hypocrisy.

 

3.  How did Jesus respond to this accusation, and bring the conflict the Pharisees had with Him to a head (v. 6, 7)?

 

4.  The word hypocrite comes from the Greek hupocrites; hupo means under, and krino means to judge, and originally meant one who judged from under the cover of a mask, assuming an identity and a character which he was not; an actor on the Greek stage, taking the part of another. The Pharisees were religious actors so to speak in that they pretended to be on the outside what they were not on the inside. They honored God externally, not from the heart, teaching their own commands rather than the Word of God as revealed. This a clear mark of religion (or a cult for that matter) versus what Christianity is, a living relationship with God. Religion always finds fault with others and substitutes external actions for a living walk with God, taking the Word of God away from the common person and substituting its own version. 

 

The Jews were supposed to be a light to the world, a living witness to the nations. Rather, these leaders fulfilled the passage Jesus quoted from Isaiah. Read Isaiah 29:13-16 and record how it applies to religious hypocrisy. Also, what are some things that Paul warned about how believers should respond to these types of so-called teachers that might come along (Colossians 2:8-23)?

 

Scripture Memory:  This week we will be memorizing Mark 7:21-23.  Review the passage several times throughout the day each day this week, and by the end of the week, you should have it memorized completely.

 

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts... All these evil things come from within and defile a man. Mark 7:21a, 23 (nkjv)