[1] Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, [2] they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. [3] (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,[a] holding to the tradition of the elders, [4] and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.[b] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.[c]) [5] And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” [6] And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ [8] You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
[9] And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! [10] For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ [11] But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)[d]— [12] then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
[14] And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: [15] There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”[e] [16], [17] And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.[18] And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”[f] (Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Growing up I used to dread the second last day of VBS. On the penultimate day, we would have an altar call where the speaker would invite all the students to come up in front of everyone and say “I rededicate my life to Jesus and accept Him as my personal Savior.” Now there are a lot of things that are theologically wrong about that statement but I didn’t know all that when I was young. Because I was a very shy kid, coming and standing in front of a thousand children was scary for me! There were others who were confident and eloquent and they would speak for 5-10 minutes.
There were some others who were super confident, who would brag about the number of gang wars they’ve been part of and it wasn’t a testimony at all but just an opportunity to talk about how “cool” their life was. But not me! I totally found myself at a very uncomfortable place but I didn’t want to be the only person who didn’t go up and say the magic words so I did it year after year.
Once I remember asking my oldest sister, “Why do we need to go up and say that statement every year when we know that our life is going to remain the same? We are going to return back to our same life and do the same things once we are back home”.
Even though I was a kid and an unbeliever, somehow I still knew that this didn’t make sense. If we know that we are faking it, wouldn’t an all-knowing God see through this? Would God find superficial religion acceptable? Surely not. We keep hearing about sincere, real faith. What does authentic faith look like? I think there are 3 things we can learn from this passage.
1. We must Renounce superficial religion (v1-5)
[1] Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, [2] they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. [3 ](For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,[a] holding to the tradition of the elders, [4] and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.[b] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.[c]) [5] And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
Jesus at this point has been performing ground breaking and stunning miracles! He miraculously fed over 10,000 people. He walks on water and all the people who even touch the fringe of his garment are healed. This by itself should be something that people should take note of. He’s not an ordinary man. He’s sent by God. Instead you find the Pharisees and scribes who come from Jerusalem trying to find out some fault in Jesus and his disciples. They accuse them of eating with hands that are defiled.
Now let me clear it out at the start. Their issue wasn’t regarding hygiene or cleanliness. Their issue was regarding the ceremonial washing traditions that the Pharisees added over the years. It wasn’t in the OT law. These were man made traditions. They took offense at the fact that Jesus’ disciples weren’t observing the tradition of their elders. And the word “defiled” means unholy and unclean.
In other words, they alleged that Jesus’ disciples were sinning and making themselves unholy by not following these traditions. Suddenly their understanding of judging someone as holy or unholy was on the basis of their own traditions. That was the main problem.
Now I know most of us as we are hearing this would think that the Pharisees and scribes were probably fools to go and tell Jesus this. No man in their right mind would have the guts to go and do that. Let me remind you that the Pharisees and scribes were the most zealous, pious and learned men of their time. They knew the Scriptures inside out. They weren’t crazy. If the most religious people of that time could stumble in this way, I think we have good reason to be wary of the attitude of superficial religion in our lives. How can we identify this in our lives? I think this passage gives us two hints:
1) You’ll find yourself imposing thoughts and rules over people that aren’t prescribed in Scripture.
You’ll find people say things like you need to pray at 3AM in the night. That’s when you can have the most powerful prayers. Truly mature Christians will pray during those hours. Does the bible command us to pray? Yes, but it doesn’t tell us that we need to pray during a specific time to see God answer prayer.
Once I had a brother who was telling me that we need to have 3 different types of bible study times during the day. One is our daily devotion, the other is a deep, in depth study of a passage and the third is where we just read a bunch of chapters or books of the Bible together to understand the overall context of the Bible.
Now all these things are great. We are commanded to read and study Scripture but if you’re using these 3 specific times as a mandate to judge another person’s faith, then you might be imposing your own thoughts and rules over what’s prescribed in Scripture.
2) You’ll find yourself constantly being critical of other people’s spiritual lives and judging them on the basis of your man-made rules
If you are constantly thinking about what this person is doing right or wrong, if you are constantly being critical of what’s right or wrong in a church, it’s quite possible that you may be struggling with this sin. As a believer we need to be discerning and there is a place for correcting our brothers and sisters in Christ but it’s all done in a context where we are spiritually involved and invested in the person’s life.
I want us to really think about this seriously. Do we see these two symptoms in our life? We might think that we are more spiritual than the others because we are better at observing these man-made traditions. It might make us feel more righteous but let’s recognize that this is plainly superficial religion. And this is something that needs to be renounced if you want to see authentic faith.
2. We must allow God’s word to Reveal our hypocrisy (v6-13)
[6] And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ [8] You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” [9] And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! [10] For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ [11] But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)[d]— [12] then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
We see Jesus using Scripture twice in this passage in order to reveal their hypocrisy.
Jesus quotes the Scripture from Isaiah to tell them that they think they are worshiping God but it’s all fruitless. Why is it fruitless? Because they reject the commandment of God and hold on to the tradition of men. And then Jesus gives another example from Scripture. In the OT in many places God commanded the people of Israel to “Honor their father and mother”. You see that in the 10 commandments and also later where God says if anyone reviles or curses their father or mother they are to be put to death. Honoring parents is very serious in the eyes of God!
But the Pharisees created a tradition where people could avoid and neglect giving financial support to their parents. All they had to do is say that this money is “Corban” – it is going to the temple treasury and they were exempted from taking care of their parents. They blatantly defied the actual commandment of God in order to establish their tradition. That’s the issue of superficial religion, it places our rules and our traditions above God. In essence we are more concerned about obeying our traditions rather than obeying God.
So how do we come out of it? We allow God’s Word to reveal our hypocrisy. The word hypocrisy actually means “pretender” like a stage actor. Superficial religion means that we are constantly pretending to be better than what we truly are. When we spend time with God’s Word, what it does is it cuts through our pretending and our acting and reveals what’s really in our hearts.
Hebrews 4:12 says For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Let’s ask ourselves this question, are we allowing God’s Word to reveal the hypocrisy in our hearts each day? Are we being open to the areas in which God shows us that we are pretending?
For example that prophecy from Isaiah: Jesus first quotes Isaiah when he says “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;” Doesn’t this convict our hearts of the times on a Sunday morning where we are singing these wonderful songs of love and praise to God but our hearts are far from him? We are singing “It’s all about You, Jesus” and yet our hearts say “It’s all about everything else”.
Once we allow God’s Word to reveal our hypocrisy, it should lead us to the next point.
3. We must repent of the real heart issue (v18-23)
[18] And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”[f] (Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Why do people cover themselves with superficial religion? So that they can conceal what’s truly there in their hearts. What’s really in our hearts? Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness!!
Man isn’t inherently good but bad according to these verses. You and I by nature are capable of the worst of atrocities in the world and the most horrific expressions of sin. What do we do to cover it up? We create our own rules and traditions so that by observing them we don’t have to feel bad about our true state.
We criticize and pull people down so that we can look at them and think we are better off. Let’s remind ourselves that before a Holy God these efforts are merely filthy rags (Isa 64:6).
Isn’t that the same thing that happened in the Garden of Eden? Once Adam and Eve sinned, they realized they were naked and tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. They knew they were condemned the moment they ate of the fruit. Guilt entered their hearts for the first time and they tried to cover up their sin.
When God confronted them, His intention was to bring them to confess so that he could give them a better clothing. An animal was sacrificed/killed in order to provide Adam and Eve with a better clothing to cover their shame.
And when we think about our own sin, deep rooted sin from our hearts….God doesn’t want us to cover ourselves with superficial religion. Those are filthy rags & fig leaves. Instead God is drawing us to confession so that He can give us a better clothing – the pure robe of His Son. This was purchased by Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins and rising again on the third Day.
I really hope that’s what you find encouraging today. My intention wasn’t to just talk about this sin and leave it there. I hope it’s driving us all to repentance. Authentic faith is one where all of the outer layers are peeled off and where we come to God not concealing ourselves with superficial religion but rather repenting of the real issues of our hearts.
Author / Preacher
