G I G O

Mark 7:1-22

In the reading this morning from Mark, the Pharisees are once again on the attack against Jesus. Jesus has just demonstrated such amazing powers that they can’t attack him. He has been healing, casting out demons. He fed 5,000 men plus the women and children who were present from just a few loaves and a couple fish. That story made the rounds rather quickly and everyone heard about it.

The Pharisees could not attack Jesus directly, so they chose to attack him indirectly by attacking his disciples and they did this by observing that his disciples did not wash their hands before they ate.

Today we would argue that one should do that as a matter of hygiene but this was not the motivation of the Pharisees. The reason a Jew trying to live according to the law washed his hands was because the food might have been in contact with someone unclean and washing made it clean. The issue was one of separation, not of hygiene (although hygiene was a side benefit).

Jews living by Torah, the Law of Moses, washed their hands and the Pharisees were bothered by the fact that the disciples of Jesus did not do this. Because Jesus was their teacher, their leader, he was responsible for their behavior. He had obviously not stressed to them the importance of following the law. What was wrong with him? So their question about his disciples was an indirect attack on his leadership.

Jesus did not bother defending his disciples. He jumped right away to the core of their problem.

To understand this story, you have to remember how detailed and specific was the law religious Jews followed. This law was one of thousands developed from the established list of 613 laws taken from the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. I talked about the extent of the law in an earlier sermon in this series of sermons from Mark’s gospel. From this list of 613 laws, many more were added to clarify questions that came up.

Not only did you have to wash your hands when coming back from the marketplace, you had to cleanse any bowls or vessels you purchased in boiling water.

It is in the Sabbath laws that one sees most clearly the obsession with the law. The most conservative of Jews prohibit dragging a chair across the floor on the Sabbath because it might form a rut, which would be digging. Taking a bath on the Sabbath is forbidden by Jewish sects, because steam rising from the hot water might lift up some dirt, resulting in cleaning – which is work. Orthodox Jews forbid killing a mosquito or other biting insect. Certain Jews have ruled that on the Sabbath a radish may be dipped into salt – but not left there too long, because this would begin the pickling and preserving process – which is work. Orthodox Jews will not carry a handkerchief or eyeglasses on the Sabbath, nor wear anything that might need to be taken off later in the day, and have to be carried home from the synagogue. If the weather gets warm, for example, it is forbidden to remove one’s jacket to be more comfortable. Some sects forbid taking out or putting in of false teeth on the Sabbath. Many forbid opening the refrigerator, because a light would turn on. So on Friday the bulb is unscrewed so the light does not turn on when the door is opened on Saturday.

Every action had to be considered to see if it violated the law. Even in this day, there are top scientists in Israel who use their brilliance to invent ways to get around the prohibition of working on the Sabbath. Timers are used to cause the lights to go on and off without having to actually turn them on or off. Cars are started without having to turn on the motor. It goes on and on and on.

Jesus jumped right over this obsession with observing the Law in all these detailed ways and confronted the Pharisees with their own violation of the Law. The fifth of the ten commandments God gave to Moses says we are to honor our father and mother.

[Jesus] said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!  10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’  11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God),  12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.  13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

Corban means offering. What the Pharisees did was that they dedicated certain possessions, a piece of land, a herd of sheep, a field, money or whatever to God. They maintained use of it for their own purposes, but because it had been dedicated to God, they could not use it to help their parents. They were free to use it as they liked but were released from any obligation to help their parents with this money. Not only were they released, but they were prohibited from using this money to help their parents after declaring it to be Corban.

The Pharisees worked hard to obey the more superficial regulations but ignored the heart of the law.  This is what Matthew records Jesus saying in his accusations against the Pharisees:
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

The Pharisees were so intent on obeying the more superficial additions to the law that they missed the intent of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness.

Jesus used this occasion to teach the crowd.
Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.  15 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.’”
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.  18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’?  19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’  21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,  22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”

When I hear something, I almost always react by thinking of an exception and in this case, my mind went immediately to Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 4.
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.  6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

This exhortation by Paul encourages us to fill our minds with things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. And the reason he exhorts the Philippians to do that is because filling their minds with those things will help them to experience the peace of God.

What is implied is that filling their minds with things that are not true, noble, right, pure and so on will harm them and they will miss the peace of God.

So Jesus said that it does not matter what goes into a man, it is only what comes out of a man that matters. Paul said that it does matter what goes into a man. Are Jesus and Paul in disagreement with each other?

I don’t think so and these two passages reveal the importance of reading Scripture in context. It is very dangerous to take a verse and build a theology out of it. Scripture must always be viewed in its context if we are to avoid disturbing and heretical teachings.

When Jesus taught that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’ … What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean,’ what he warned about was superficiality. All the dietary laws and Sabbath laws and minutia in the law they had developed put their focus on the laws and they completely missed the point of the law, to serve the cause of justice, mercy and faithfulness.

The actions of the Pharisees were what caused Jesus concern. They violated the heart of God by not caring for their parents. They violated the heart of God by being more concerned with their interpretation of the law than they were with the suffering of a person Jesus healed on the Sabbath. They violated the heart of God by being concerned with the fact that the disciples were not washing their hands before eating and missed the fact that the disciples were following the promised Messiah.

And so Jesus condemned them by calling them hypocrites and quoting Isaiah.
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.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

Jesus attacked the obsession with superficial laws but Paul was warning against ungodly influence. His concern was that we please the heart of God by being at peace with him. And this requires that we fill our minds with those things that will encourage us to live godly lives.

Jesus said that the food you eat is not the issue. Paul said it matters what we fill our minds with. Both Jesus and Paul were concerned with the heart and the heart is not served either by obedience to superficial regulations or by filling our minds with the sin of the world.

Last week I preached from the story of Herod and John the Baptist and focused on the necessity of self-control in our lives if we are to be open to the opportunities God brings us to serve and participate with him.

In that sermon I talked quoted Proverbs 25:28
Like a city whose walls are broken down
is a man who lacks self-control.

Self-control, like a wall, protects us. In his discussion of the fruit of the Spirit, of which self-control is the ninth in his list, Paul lists the invaders from which we need protection.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

The teaching of Jesus and the exhortation of Paul offer us two ways to encourage the development of self-control in us so that we can better resist the acts of the sinful nature.

When Jesus confronted the Pharisees and called them hypocrites, he did so because in their focus on the minutia of the law, they were missing the heart of the law.

The word hypocrite has its origins in the theater. A hypocrite was one who role-played, play-acted, someone who pretended to be someone other than who they really were.

The two words from which hypocrite is taken mean literally to judge under a cover. So a hypocrite is one who hides who he really is and makes judgements about others.

Jesus taught about this in his Sermon on the Mount
Luke 6
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

The lesson for us in this is that we have to work to become open and honest with ourselves, with each other and with God. In terms of the image of the wall, it is like building a beautiful bed of flowers around a wall that is in ruins. The flower bed may look lovely but it is doing nothing to protect the city from being invaded. In the same way, when we focus on the superficialities of faith, we have less time to focus on the heart of our faith and we make ourselves vulnerable to the acts of the sinful nature that pull us away from the heart of God.

It is when we focus on drawing near to the heart of God that we grow in the fruit of the Spirit, including self-control. The wall that protects us from our sinful nature becomes stronger and we become more effective agents of God as we relate to those around us.

The Christian life is not centered on our reading or study of the Bible. It is not centered on going to church and praying. It is not centered on reading a devotional guide each morning. These are all means to an end and the end is that we draw near to God in an intimate relationship where he speaks to us in whatever way he chooses to do that with us, where he leads us and guides us into his will. It is possible to do all these things and deceive the world and perhaps even ourselves that we are Christians seeking after the heart of God.

How can you avoid being a hypocrite?

I was talking with some people this week about surrendering ourselves to God. I recounted numbers of times when I was able to give myself without restriction to the will of God in my life. Those moments stand out to me as turning points in my relationship with Christ. I was able to say from the heart, “Father I give myself to you without restriction. What you want in my life is what I want in my life. Your will be done, not mine. I surrender to you as much as I am capable of doing. And for the parts of me that resist you, I ask you to break down the defenses that prevent me from surrendering that part of me to you. I ask you to break any part of my will that resists you. I want nothing more and nothing less than to be your servant, to be used by you for your purposes. I trust you because I know that your best for me is what is best for me.”

We need to go to the heart of God without holding anything back. When we do that, we are able to get past the more superficial attempts to be Christian and we will become more like Christ.

When we focus on total surrender to God we will not be like the Pharisees who missed the wonder of Jesus healing a man with a withered hand. We will not be like the Pharisees who missed the fact that it was the Messiah they were talking to and instead criticized him for not teaching his disciples to obey the law.

I encourage you this week to take time to talk with God and to surrender to him. Pray for the grace to surrender. Ask God for his help. Confess that you are unable to surrender and ask God to work against your will to help you surrender.

The exhortation of Paul offers us a second way to encourage the development of self-control in us so that we can better resist the acts of the sinful nature.

Paul’s exhortation encourages us to be careful of the influences in our life that might lead us to be open to these influences. So in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he wrote:
Finally, brothers [and sisters], whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

One of the early computer terms that developed was GIGO, the title of this message. GIGO is an acronym for Garbage In Garbage Out. The point is that computers do an excellent job of managing and calculating data but if the operator puts in the wrong information, the wrong information comes out.

Annie and I had a personal experience with this. When we moved to Morocco, we sent our household possessions in a sea container. This container disappeared, was reported to be lost, made its way from the US to Malta to Malaysia to India and eventually back again to the Mediterranean Sea and Morocco. Six months after leaving the US, it finally arrived at our house.

The problem is that when the computer operator entered the number of the container on the dock in New York City, he entered the wrong number and from that moment on the container did not exist. GIGO.

This same is true for us. When we ingest garbage, we produce garbage. When we fill our minds with things that are not good for us our behavior begins to change and we become like what we ingest.

There is a new Christian group that I like quite a bit. They are called Celia Rain and play Irish/ Gallic music with very creative, informative lyrics.

I put the words of one of their songs in the bulletin, just under the section where you can take notes of the sermon.
Junkyard by Ceili Rain
Saw a movie where a guy
Kills another guy – twice
Don’t know if I can forget about it
Saw a guy finish a fight
With a butcher knife – slice
Pretty sure I won’t forget about it
Is it ok if I say

My heart is not a junkyard
My mind is not a dump for all the gunk around
My spirit’s not a junkyard
No, it’s Holy ground

Saw a photo on the net
Can’t believe that I’ve seen
Don’t know if I can forget about it
Two kids were playing in some dirt
That’ll never come clean
Wish to God I could forget about it
No one’s safe ‘till we all say

My heart is not a junkyard
My mind is not a dump for all the gunk around
My spirit’s not a junkyard
No, it’s Holy ground

There is now solid evidence to suggest a relationship between exposure to violent television and movies and aggressive behavior. Researchers have found that children are more physically and verbally aggressive immediately after watching violent television and movies. It is also clear that aggressive children and teens watch more violent television than their less aggressive peers.

The same is true of video games. When someone spends hours playing a violent video game, they are more likely to use aggressive behavior toward others.

When you watch a pornographic video, there is a part of the brain that is chemically stimulated and the image in the video that is stimulating is associated with that chemical reaction. So, for example, when someone watches a pornographic video involving a girl scout selling cookies door to door, the person who watches that video begins to associate any girl scout he sees with that video.

When you view pornography on the internet or in a video, you begin to view women and men as objects to be used for pleasure rather than as God’s creation who need to be treated with respect and dignity.

Reality television that is taking over television puts people in humiliating, demeaning situations and people watch this abusive behavior and find it entertaining. What is happening is that their minds are being pulled away from God and they are enjoying the abuse of what God created and then declared to be very good. As a consequence there is a subtle shift in the way people in life are viewed. The humanity of people is pushed away and they find it easier and easier to use people for their own purposes. What others need, what they feel is not so important. Increasingly they view people as existing to serve their purposes.

If Jesus and Paul could talk with you this morning, they would be in agreement and they would urge you to seek with all your heart, the heart of God. They would urge you to surrender all you are to God.

And they would urge you to be careful about what it is you put into your mind. They would ask you to pay attention to the message that comes through to you from the videos you watch and the music you listen to and the things you read and watch on the internet.

What goes into us affects us and what comes out of us determines who we are. But because we are affected by what comes out of us, we guard what goes into us.

Don’t feed yourself a diet that will encourage you to move toward destruction. Feed yourself a diet that will encourage you to give yourself without restriction to God.