Counterfeit Religion
COUNTERFEIT RELIGION
MARK 7:1-13
A sincere holding onto human traditions is not enough.
With this chapter we return to the theme of conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus, and the two types of religion for which they stood are clearly drawn and contrasted. Two related themes run through the chapter; the question of religious purity and defilement, and the authority of religious rules and traditions.
Writing for Gentile readers Mark explains the ceremonial ablutions of the Jews. Although these rules may have had a useful hygienic result, the Pharisees were not concerned with dirt but defilement, which they regarded as something that could be spread by touch. Jesus did not follow the party line, and he was called to account for the conduct of his disciples.
He dealt first with the origin and authority of the custom (7:6-13) and only later with the true nature of defilement—sin (7:14-23). He began enigmatically by quoting Isaiah 29:13 and applying it to his questioners. They were hypocrites (the Hebrew word means “godless”) because although they made an outward fuss about worshiping God they did not give him true heart worship; scrupulosity in the things that he had not commanded was accompanied by subtle evasions of what he did command. Such worship could only be in vain.
Indeed, they were not above breaking God’s law in the interests of their own human rules. For example, the Old Testament law quite clearly laid down the obligation to honor one’s parents (Exodus 20:12; 21:17; cf. Deuteronomy 5:16). Such honor would include practical care for their needs (this is what “honor” means in 1 Timothy 5:3,17). Through their “tradition” it was possible for a man to declare his possessions to be “corban” (a Hebrew word meaning “dedicated” or “an offering”) and give them to the temple, so absolving himself from the fifth commandment. Jesus strongly condemned this attitude which encouraged religious donations at the cost of religious duty to parents. This was to set human tradition above divine command.
The matter may have been even more disgraceful. The practice of corban is surrounded by much obscurity, but one view is that a man might make such a vow without taking proper thought for the future and then wish to retract it; this the Pharisees would not let him do. According to another view, the whole thing was a legal fiction, and the money dedicated to the temple was actually kept by the man, and he continued to enjoy the use of it.
What were the “many other such things” which the Pharisees practiced? Their restrictive Sabbath legislation was certainly one. More important, does the church today fall into the same trap? 1 Timothy 5:8 should not be forgotten by those consumed with zeal to dedicate their possessions to God.