The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
CLEAN AND UNCLEAN
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
CLEAN AND UNCLEAN
Lesson Plan:
1. Outward Washings - Substitute for Spirit and Truth (vs 1-5)
2. Outward Ceremonials vs. Inward Purity and a Clean Heart (vs 6, 14-23)
3. Traditions of Men Instead of the Word of God (vs 7-13)
Lesson Setting:
Time: April, A.D. 29. Closely following our last lesson
Place: Capernaum or vicinity
Research Thoughts: The custom of washing hands before eating. The practical and the ceremonial. The visit of the Pharisees from Jerusalem. The traditions of the elders vs. the Word of God. Honoring our parents. Corban, and how it broke the fifth commandment. Lip service contrasted with heart service. What defiles a man?
Introduction: This is a particularly difficult lesson to make practically useful. However, the lesson can be both attractive and effective by the method presented by an elderly Bible professor to his class, titled "A Bible School Bonfire," and which hopefully will assist others in personal study and perhaps presentation of this timely and much needed lesson. The wise professor said, "About four hundred years ago the great reformer Savonarola had an immense Bonfire of Vanities in the Piazza, the great square in Florence. The youth of the city, in white robes, with olive crowns on their heads, went from house to house gathering all the vanities of life, i.e., the apparatus for gambling, pictures that incited to vice, worldly musical instruments, rouge pots, false hair, perfumes; powers, mirrors, bad books, and many things that were perfectly innocent, but regarded as worldly. These were piled in a huge "Pyramid of Vanities" sixty feet high, crowned with a symbolic figure of the old debauched Carnival. Within were an abundance of fuel and gunpowder. This pile was set ablaze in the evening to the sound of trumpets, and the old Carnival tumbled into the flames amid the songs of reforming triumph. For Savonarola's desire was to train the youth of Florence to have none but pure words on their lips, no pleasures save of an angelic sort, and a zeal for unseen good. However mistaken in some of the things that he would burn up, yet there is no kind of conscious obedience that is not an advance over lawlessness, and these boys became the generation of men who fought greatly and endured greatly in the last struggle of their Republic. One of my friends celebrated the completion of her new house and the beginning of her new home-life by a very interesting and attractive ceremonial. The intimate friends of the family gathered around the open fireplace, in which was kindled its first fire. A number of young ladies held in their right hands a bundle of fagots. These fagots represented the host of possible evils which might assail this home, now to be burned in the fire, while an original poem was read. As each evil was mentioned, the fagot representing it was cast into the fire, so that like the evil spirits besieging the city of Prague, at the call of the cathedral bells to prayer, they all folded their tents like the Arabs and as silently strolled away. The original poem: Burn, Fire, Burn! and quickly destroy The very last of Earth's alloy. Burn up only Pains and Aches, Our morbid memory of Mistakes. Burn up our Prejudices, and Remembered Ills on every hand. Burn, Fire, Burn! our Foulness cure; Purify as thou are pure. Burn, Fire, Burn! with one accord, O Fire and Heat! bless ye the Lord."
Scripture Reading: Mark 7:1-5
1. Outward Washings – Substitute for Spirit and Truth
An interesting thought: what if every Bible class had such a bonfire? If certain evils could be consumed in the flames of love, duty, wisdom and common sense, in the living warmth of devotion, and the purifying fires of the Holy Spirit, would preachers and elders rejoice with exceeding great joy? Would teachers and students join in a chorus of praise? The elderly and wise professor continued, “A few years ago I read about a preacher in England who held such a children’s service. Before him was a brazier filled with burning coals, in which he proposed to make a bonfire of the evil things found in the human heart. A boy brought a little black seed, representing a Bad Motive, and it was burned up in the brazier. A little girl brought a package of thistledown, representing Idle Wishes. Then followed a basket of Falsehoods, Black Lies, Half Truths, and Exaggerations, shown on black-marked strips of paper. These had been gathered in the street, the playground, at home, in the stores. They were soon consumed to ashes. A man brought in a shovelful of hot coals, representing Anger, Harsh Words, Bitter Complaints, spoken about others; but among them were two pearls of Thanks, saved from the fire. Two boys brought a Vial of Poison which was taken to the fire. A small safe, labeled Treasures, was brought. The preacher, lifting the lid, saw a red monster, Revenge; a green dragon, Jealousy; a black demon, Malice, and flung them all into the fire.” You may not actually burn up the evils as described in this lesson, along with those which naturally belong to them; but perhaps you might by some symbol, or perhaps by writing them down and destroying them in some clear but simple way. Perhaps you might express to yourself some kind of determination to destroy each evil in your own character and life. The Historical Situation: The Jewish authorities at Jerusalem heard rumors of what Jesus was doing in Galilee, the marvelous works, the great crowds, the feeling that Jesus might be the Messiah. Some of them came to Galilee and watched Him closely to see what fault they could find in Him, through which they might bring Him before the Sanhedrin, putting an end to His claims and work. One day they found what they wanted. They had failed to find a single law of God which He had broken, but now they see His disciples disregarding, under His eyes, one of the traditions of the elders, the customary ceremonial washings before partaking of their food.
v 2 ... “They saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashed hands.”
v 4 ... “Except they wash their hands oft” (R.V. diligently) “eat not.” Let no one imagine that this custom refers to cleanliness, and health, and that Jesus was opposed to washing the hands for these purposes before eating. He himself complained of the Pharisee’s neglect to furnish the customary water for him at the feast to which he had invited him; and He washed the feet of His disciples at the last supper. The Israelites, who, like other Oriental nations, fed with their fingers, washed their hands before meals, for the sake of cleanliness. But these customary washings were distinct from the ceremonial ablutions: in the former water was poured upon the hands; in the later the hands were plunged in water. Therefore, when some of the Pharisees remarked that our Lord’s disciples ate with unwashed hands, it is not to be understood literally that they did not wash their hands at all, but that they did not wash them ceremonially, according to their own practice. The Pharisaic law was a caricature, a distorted exaggeration of a law meant for health and cleanliness. In his book, The Jewish People in the Time of Christ, Schurer wrote: “Based on the law of cleanness in Leviticus 11-15, no less than twelve treatises of the Mishna deal with this subject, and on the Levitical foundation is raised an enormous and complicated structure. Nothing was left to a free personality; everything was placed under the bondage of the letter. A healthy moral life could not flourish under such a burden, action was nowhere the result of inward motive, all was on the contrary weighed and measured. Life was a continual torment to the earnest man, who felt every moment that he was in danger of [unconsciously] transgressing the law. On the other hand pride and conceit were almost inevitable for one who had attained to Mastership in the Knowledge of the Law.” So rigidly did the Jews observe these ceremonial purifyings, that Rabbi Akiba, being imprisoned, and having water scarcely sufficient to sustain life given him, preferred dying of thirst to eating without washing his hands. Now, Jesus, while accepting real cleanliness, swept away all this network of heartless, soulless ceremonial. Burn, Fire, Burn – (a) All mere forms in which we put no meaning, no heart, no soul. (b) If they are good forms we burn them best, not by throwing them away, but by burning up their emptiness, and filling them with the true spirit of life and worship and truth. (c) Burn up in this way all mere “saying prayers,” by making them real prayers. Burn up the practice of refusing on Monday to live up to the hymns we sing on Sunday. Burn up, not Good Resolutions, but the neglect to keep them.
Illustration: A Christian doctor in the East gave to some of his patients the last of a specific medicine for cholera, ordering further supplies for other sufferers. On returning with more medicine he was delighted to hear the chief man of the place say, “We have been so much benefited by your medicine that we have decided to accept also your God.” To prove the reality of what he said, he led the doctor into their temple, where they had arranged the empty bottles in order on a shelf; and immediately the whole company of natives prostrated themselves upon the floor in worship to the bottles as a god.
It is quite possible that some Christians may occasionally fall into an analogous idolatry. An excessive reverence or admiration for certain formulas of worship, capable of conveying a true blessing when the worship is really in the Spirit, but useless as empty medicine bottles when the Spirit is lacking, may not be so remote a character from the worship of empty bottles.
Scripture Reading: Mark 7:6, 14-23
2. Outward Ceremonies vs. Inward Purity and a Clean Heart
v 6 ... “Well hath Esaias,” Greek form of ‘Isaiah,’ “prophesied,” spoken forth the truth of God, which was as true in Christ’s time as in Isaiah’s, and is equally true today.
v 6 ... “Honoureth me with their lips,” in their professions and teachings, “but their heart is far from me.” They have no heavenly disposition, no love to God, no desire to obey Him. They are wholly on Satan’s side, traitors to God and His kingdom. A little later when Jesus had left the multitudes and entered the house with His disciples they asked Him to explain His meaning. He replied ...
v 18 ... “Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him,” make him morally unclean, impure. It cannot affect his character. Jesus does not say that it was unimportant to keep the Mosaic law distinguishing between clean and unclean meats. The meat cannot affect character, but disobedience can. Nor does He refer at all to the fact that one may take disease into his system through eating and drinking; and that disobedience to the laws of health is a moral wrong, and deteriorates character. Jesus lays down the principle that what is taken into the body does not affect character. It is the moral act, and not what is eaten, that defiles the man. Eating ambrosia and drinking nectar do not make one heavenly; nor, if transubstantiation were true, could eating the real body of Jesus make any one better or holier.
v 20 ... But “that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.” Because they come from the heart, and affect character and moral nature. They defile the soul, which is the man. It is not the coming out of the mouth that defiles, but the kind of things which come out. The uttering them not only shows what is in the heart, but also intensifies the evil qualities themselves. Every vile word a man speaks, every base, low story he tells for the joke he sees in it, every angry word, every oath one utters, and all the list Jesus mentions – these show the kind of soul a man has, and uttering them stirs up the dregs like the dregs in the bottom of a swamp. Burn, Fire, Burn all impure thoughts. Burn, Fire, Burn – all profane words; Burn, Fire, Burn – all pride and selfishness; Burn, Fire, Burn – all anger and passion; Burn, Fire, Burn – all meanness and disorder; Burn, Fire, Burn – all unkindness and disobedience.
Scripture Reading: Mark 7:7-13
3. Traditions of Men Instead of the Word of God
v 7 ... “In vain do they worship me.” Such worship was good for nothing as worship. It neither pleased God nor profited man. It was of no use for character or morals.
v 7 ... “Teaching for,” as their “doctrines,” precepts, duties, principles of virtue, “the commandments,” binding rules and regulations, “of men,” like their traditions.
v 8 ... “For laying aside the commandment of God,” the eternal principles of virtue and righteousness, of love, to God and man, “ye hold the tradition of men,” such formalities “as the washing of pots and cups,” in their ceremonial way, which have nothing to do with true religion and the making of men happier and better. They were particular about trifles, but cared nothing for the principles of morality. They could tithe to the last atom of mint, anise, and cumin, and then devour widows’ houses, be dishonest, immoral, and selfish. Their formal prayers fostered pride, but kept them from no ‘respectable’ crime. And that was why the Pharisees were the only class which Jesus cared publicly to expose. They were sapping the foundations of religion and making impossible the commonwealth of Israel, and the coming of the kingdom of God through them. The destruction of Jerusalem forty years later was the direct outcome of their teaching.
Illustration: The daughter of a doctor was complaining to her father of the drudgery of home- work. The doctor pointed to some rows of empty bottles and said: “These bottles are of no value in themselves, but in one I put a deadly poison, in another a sweet perfume, in a third a healing medicine. Nobody cares for the vials; it is that which they carry that kills or cures. Your daily work: (a) at the office the files stored or the meetings attended; (b) at home the dishes washed or unwashed or the floors swept; in and of themselves they count for nothing. It is the anger or the sweet patience or zeal or high thoughts that you put into them that shall last. These make your life.”
Illustration: It is said that a certain electric road had two classes of cars, one kind of a blue color, which were new and good, and the other consisting of worn out cars in yellow. A conductor reported to the authorities that people would not ride in the disreputable yellow cars. “How about the blue cars?” “Yes, they ride in them all right.” “Then paint them all blue.”
A Notable Example: Jesus makes His statement clear by an instance – “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition” (v 9), by means of which they gained revenue.
v 10 ... “Moses said,” inspired by God, and with God’s authority, “Honour thy father and thy mother” (Ex. 20:12). And He enforced His command by a penalty “Whoso curseth,” speaketh evil of, treats with disrespect and neglect, “father or mother, let him die the death.” This is the appropriate penalty of such a crime, because it strikes at the very root of national life and prosperity, and of religion and morality, of good homes and home training.
v 11 ... “But ye say,” in clear contradiction to God, “If a man shall say to his father or mother, ‘It is Corban,’ that is to say a gift,” better “Given to God.” The R.V. states the saying more clearly than the Authorized, “That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is Given to God.”
v 12 ... “And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother,” thus absolving him from this obligation to honor them by supporting them, or caring for them in their old age. Thus any man could be excused from spending money for the comfort and support of his parents if only he would contribute the amount to the Temple treasure, or the support of religion. The Rabbis, in commenting on the Mosaic law of vows (Lev. 27; Num. 30), decided that any man wishing to avoid the burden of supporting his parents could make a vow to give all such money to the Temple, but without specifying the time when it was to be given. So that he could use the money all his life for himself, but was forbidden to give any of this consecrated money to his parents. “Such casuistry would be incredible were not its parallel to be found in the Jesuitical casuistry of the seventeenth century” (Dr. Abbott). The warning for us is expressed in the following verse on an old slab in the Cathedral of Lubee, Germany: “Thus speaketh Christ, our Lord, to us: Ye call me Master, and obey me not; Ye call me Light, and see me not; Ye call me Way, and walk me not; Ye call me Life, and desire me not’ Ye call me Wise, and follow me not; Ye call me Fair, and love me not; Ye call me Rich, and ask me not; Ye call me Eternal, and seek me not; Ye call me Gracious, and trust me not; Ye call me Noble, and serve me not; Ye call me Mighty, and honor me not; Ye call me Just, and fear me not; If I condemn you, blame me not.” Burn, Fire, Burn! Ye fires of love, and Gratitude, Ye fires of Consecration to God, Ye fires of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, Burn, Fire, Burn – all disobedience to parents; Burn, Fire, Burn – all disrespect and discourtesy; Burn, Fire, Burn – all neglect of their wishes; Burn, Fire, Burn – all conduct that brings dishonor upon them, whom you represent. Taking the commandment in its widest sense, respect gray hairs everywhere and honor all in authority over you. Lack in this respect is a growing evil, full of mischief to our nation. Burn it up! Kindling wood for this fire. “A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother” (Prov. 10:1). “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother” (Prov. 6:20). “That our daughters may be as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace” (Ps. 144:12). “Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise” (Eph. 6:2). Burn, Fire, Burn – all neglect of your heavenly Father; Burn, Fire, Burn – all disobedience to His laws; Burn, Fire, Burn – all things of which He disapproves.
