The Jews of Jesus’ day were taught how to live by the Jewish authorities, which usually meant the scribes (rabbis) and Pharisees (John 12:34; cp. Matthew 16:21-22; 17:10). Yet, according to the Christian worldview, they taught the traditions and doctrines of men (Deuteronomy 12:32; cp. Colossians 2:22; 1Timothy 4:1-3). In other words, somewhere along the line between Moses and Aaron to Annas in the first century AD the Jewish authorities began to add to and/or take away from the word of God given them through Moses and the prophets. Indeed, folks like the Sadducees didn’t accept anything in the Old Testament scriptures that wasn’t in the five books of the Law, which was given through Moses. So, they lived on one extreme of the command in Deuteronomy 12:32, while folks like the Pharisees lived on the other.
Not only did the Pharisees accept the word of God through the Law, but they also accepted the writings of the prophets and the historical and poetical texts as scripture. Nevertheless, they didn’t stop there, but they also received what we call the Oral Law, as written down and codified in the Babylonian Talmud as authoritative. Moreover, since the Oral Law was used to give the sense of the Law and other writings, they tended to give more authority to the Oral Law than to what we receive as the actual word of God.
So, into this context we find Jesus, as God in the flesh (John 1:1, 14), returning to his people, the Jews, and, when he was questioned by the scribes and Pharisees (Mark 7:1) about the behavior of some of his disciples, as that pertained to the Oral Law, vis-à-vis the “tradition of the elders” in the text (Mark 7:2-5), Jesus rebuked the so-called doctors of the Law, calling their attention to what Isaiah said of them, “These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines and commandments of men!” (Mark 7:6-7). Jesus concluded by accusing them of laying aside the Law of God in favor of “washing pots and cups” and the like, which are nothing but the traditions of men (Mark 7:8-9). At this point he called the people together and told them that they needed to understand that the things in the Law concern heart issues, not physical purity issues. What one takes into one’s mouth cannot defile a man. Instead, it is what comes out of the mouths of men that defile him (Mark 7:14-16).
We need to pause for a moment and take Jesus’ claim in, digest it and understand what’s going on in this clash with the doctors of the Law. Later in private, Jesus explained to his disciples what he meant, saying what one eats goes into the stomach and eventually goes out the drain. Therefore, such things as food, cannot defile a man. Instead, what is in men’s hearts: evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, and the like, these things come out of the heart in a man’s speech and behavior and therein he is defiled. (Mark 7:17-23).
Later, when Jesus was teaching on the far side of the Jordan, the Pharisees confronted him about marriage and divorce (Mark 10:1-2). Jesus asked them what Moses commanded, and they replied men could put away their wives by giving her a bill of divorcement (Mark 10:3-4). Jesus countered with: it wasn’t like that in the beginning, and Moses permitted divorce, because of the hardness of your hearts, vis-à-vis you wouldn’t have obeyed to begin with. Nevertheless, in the beginning, divorce wasn’t a thing instituted by God. A marriage made a man and a woman one flesh, and what God joined together, man should never separate or divide (Mark 10:5-12).
We need to understand here that these questions weren’t simply meant to be theological discussions. They were volatile questions meant to get Jesus in trouble with his audience. Keep in mind that about two centuries earlier the Maccabean revolt had somewhat to do with the Syrian king forcing Jews to eat pork, which he had sacrificed on the altar in the Temple. These things, the washings and the dietary laws are what identified the Jews as Jews. It was political, having to do with patriotism, and being a good Jew etc. Moreover, keep in mind that the far side of the Jordan is where John the Baptizer was arrested by Herod for the very topic, over which the Pharisees interrogated Jesus. Jesus had to be very careful with how he replied to their questions. So, he stuck very closely to the scriptures in his replies, and he guided the discussion by asking what Moses said (Mark 10:3), not what Herod did.
What Jesus was doing as he taught the people was showing what a great transformation had to occur, once God had returned to his people. It wasn’t a matter of washing oneself that made one clean, nor was it a matter of the food one ate, because these things had a spiritual value, pointing to one’s thoughts and behavior, which were the real things that defiled a person, and one cannot cleans himself in thoughts and behavior with ceremonial washings. A war had occurred over what one ate, but men’s hearts weren’t changed in matters of righteousness: doing good instead of evil. When God returns to his people, the hearts of the people must be transformed. That’s what the healings were all about. Things, everything, had to be put in order. The blind could see; the deaf could hear; the lame could walk etc., so the heart must be healed and made right as well. When God returns and becomes King, it’s not simply as a general to lead his people out from under the gentile oppressor, but to transform everyone, beginning with one’s heart and bringing even one’s thoughts into subjection to our Lord and King (cp. 2Corinthians 10:5).
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