Studies in Blasphemy—I / MARK 7:1-21

“Blasphemy in the name of God.”  Sound odd doesn’t it?  If you read that phrase too quickly, you might have read it, “Blasphemy of the name of God.”  “Blasphemy in the name of God;” what in the world is that? 

There are seven great “I am” statements Jesus made, each one tells us something about who He is: He’s the good shepherd, the vine, the door, the way, the truth, the life; He’s the light of the world, the bread of life, the resurrection and the life. 

That’s what He said about Himself, which is the truth.  But what were others saying about Him?  Peter and the all the disciples, except one, said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”   Nathaniel had said, “You are the King of Israel.”  John the Baptist said, “He’s the Lamb of God.” 

But, as we know, not everybody believed it was accurate to describe Him in those terms.  John warns his readers about that when he writes, “He came to His own, but His own received Him not.”  He had enemies. What did they say about Him?  To read what they said is a study in blasphemy, it is to study and act of blasphemy in the name of God, a sin they had no idea they were committing.

Mark 7

“The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus.”  What they see, they deem scandalous behavior, like seeing your pastor at a bar, swearing. 

 These religious leaders had seen “His disciples eating food with hands that were ‘unclean,’ that is, unwashed.”  Mark has to explain to his non-Jewish readers what “unclean” means:  ^“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.” 

They ask a question which insinuates that since His students aren’t observing the ceremonial traditions, Jesus is responsible for this and is condoning sin and is therefore complicit in the “sin” by what He’s teaching them: “Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?’” 

The key word here is “tradition.”  We have to understand the Pharisees’ frame of reference.  They viewed life, the godly life in the context of “the traditions of the elders,” a body of material handed down orally from generation to generation until 200 AD when it was finally put in writing. 

It’s hard for us to appreciate the esteem in which this material was held, but we can get a glimmer of it by what an ancient rabbi (Elieazer) wrote: “He who expounds the Scriptures in opposition to the traditions has no part in the world to come.”   And, “It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the rabbis than to contradict Scripture itself.”  (Talmud)  That’s about as high a regard as could be held for these traditions. 

One might wonder if gentiles were so “unclean,” why did God send Jonah to them?  If they were to be excluded, why did the prophet Isaiah predict that the Messiah would be a light to the gentiles?  As things would work out, Rahab, a gentile, would be in the line of the Messiah.  Why would the prophets predict that in the Messiah’s kingdom, gentiles would be included and worship the King?  And what about the Old Testament believer Melchizzadek who was honored by Abraham?  We could bring up Ruth; she was a gentile. 

But it gets worse, as we’ll see. 

They’ve asked Jesus a question.  What’s His answer?  He doesn’t answer it!  He ignores it completely.  Why?  For one thing, it’s a silly question and on the other hand, their question brings up the real issue that they need to face and Jesus is going to make them face it. 

Remember when Paul wrote that Titus should live in such a way that “the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.”  Nothing bad to say about us?  How can we prevent that?  We see here that these people had bad things to say about Jesus.  What he’s talking about is that Titus live in such a way that there’s no charge that will stick and since they have no ammunition, what they say that’s “bad” is silly.  This charge against the disciples and therefore against Jesus is silly, but not to the Pharisees. 

The real issue is not whether Peter, James, and John wash up or not.  The issue is the Pharisee’s source of authority.  Their source of authority is religious tradition.  Their final authority should be the Old Testament, but what was happening was that their tradition was leading them away from the will of God!  “"Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." He was also saying to them, "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.”

How did their traditions lead them away from a direct order God had given them?  Jesus points to one of the 10 Commandments: “Honor your father and mother.”  They were to do this by financial support and physical support when needed.  But, because of a tradition called “corban,” they got around it. 

By the tradition of corban, you could dedicate something you owned to God.  This didn’t mean you gave it to the synagogue or to the priests or to the Temple .  This didn’t mean that you couldn’t use it or keep it.  You could keep it and use it, but by corban, you weren’t obligated to give it (say money) to your parents in their time of need.  You could say, “I’d really like to help you but I’ve dedicated that to God.”  And by observing that tradition, you violate a command of God and are putting a tradition over the Word of God which is commanding you to honor your parents.  The word is a strong one—you are “divorcing yourself from the Word of God.”  (Interesting to note that Jesus verifies Moses’ authorship of that part of the Old Testament and He calls it God’s Word—cf. vss. 10 and 13) 

It is blasphemy to put man’s word, tradition as the final authority.  And this is a study in blasphemy because they are accusing Jesus of being a sinner in that He’s teaching His students to ignore the traditions with which they were raised and they are placing something (tradition) over the Word of God. 

Jesus points out to them that the food itself didn’t defile them, even the eating of food said by God to be unclean.  What defiled them was the disobeying of the Word of God by eating.    

But before we jump all over the Pharisees any farther, let’s see if we might be guilty.  We can lay aside the Bible for the traditions with which we were raised.  And, like the Pharisees, not realize what we’re doing.  We do it by building “fences.”  Here’s how it works.

Imagine the words, “The Sin of Immorality” inside a circle and the circle is serving as a fence.  Around the fence are the words, “Do not dance.”  The command, “Do not dance,” is a fence to keep us from immorality.  But the fence isn’t the Word of God.  The Word of God is inside the circle.  Yet, we elevate our command to be of equal value to the command of God.

Put the words “The sin of drunkenness” inside the circle.  Outside the circle, “the fence” is the command, “Don’t drink.”  But “Don’t drink” is not a command of God; “Don’t get drunk” is.  (Eph. 5:18) 

Put the words, “The sin of gambling” inside the circle.  Outside the circle put “Don’t play cards.”  We see how this works—the fence is to keep us from getting close to the possibility of the sin. 

Now let’s say that you have what society calls, “a drinking problem.”  Every time you take a drink, you can’t stop.  All right, by all means, put your fence in place, but when you do, recognize it’s not the Word of God and recognize that you can’t impose that as a fence for everyone.  Same with going into a bar.  I can order a take-out from a restaurant, and if I want to enjoy free peanuts while I wait, I have to sit at their bar. But I’m not tempted in any way to get drunk or even take a drink while I sit there.  It never even crosses my mind.  But let’s say you can’t do that.  OK.  Build your fence, but don’t build your fence for me and take away my peanuts.  I never recommend a person take a drink, because you don’t know what could happen, but I can’t claim that my opinion on the matter is the word of God.   

I think that playing cards is a huge waste of my time.  Like playing Monopoly; what a waste!  Playing cards is not going to lead me to betting money because I like money too much.  Others may not be able to play cards without being led that way, so they build their fence, but I don’t have to.  (If you want to waste your time, apart from betting the house, go ahead.) 

What happens is that the believer comes to look upon being “godly” or “spiritual” by the building of the fences.  But the fences aren’t the keeping of God’s commands.  Then we begin to focus on the fences and not the God who gave the command.

There’s another reason why we can’t cluck our tongues over the Pharisees because we can be just as bad about our traditions.  Have you ever tried to change the order of the church service?  I don’t mean eliminate something; I mean move it somewhere else in the service.  You see what I mean. 

The New Testament does talk about the different elements of a service, but not the order of the service.  There is no order of a service given in the Bible.  So the order of a service just comes down to what we like or what we think “works” best.  Would it be all right to sing all the songs last?

So what do we take away from this? 

1. Our authority is the Word of God not the traditions of CLC.  (To cancel our Thurs. before Easter service wouldn’t violate the Word of God; I’m just saying.)

2. Recognize in your life what your “fences” are and don’t criticize others if they don’t have your fences.  They have theirs; you have yours.  Don’t order your life by their fences and don’t try to order their lives by yours. 

3. Recognize that you don’t have to answer silly complaints.

4. Deal with people about the serious issues: the source of authority, the gospel.  Let the Surgeon General inform people about the dangers of smoking.  We have more important issues to deal with.

5. Avoid legalism which is the keeping of man made rules and thereby trying to earn the favor of God.

6. It’s our thoughts that defile us, not the violation of tradition.

* = Free Grace Teacher or Ministry