We’ve been following Jesus in Mark’s gospel as he travels around, impacting people and communities both Jewish and gentile. Our next passage continues the tour theme with Jesus back amongst observant Jewish people, and demonstrates that Jesus has been identified as a potential Messiah, completed the period of observation, and is now being engaged with in order to understand his message and mission.

Rituals versus true religion

Some Pharisees and several teachers of the Law of Moses from Jerusalem came and gathered around Jesus. They noticed that some of his disciples ate without first washing their hands. The Pharisees and many others obey the teachings of their ancestors. They always wash their hands in the proper way before eating. None of them will eat anything they buy in the market until it is washed. They also follow a lot of other teachings, such as washing cups, pitchers, and bowls. The Pharisees and teachers asked Jesus, “Why don't your disciples obey what our ancestors taught us to do? Why do they eat without washing their hands?” Jesus replied: “You are nothing but show-offs! The prophet Isaiah was right when he wrote that God had said, ‘All of you praise me with your words, but you never really think about me. It is useless for you to worship me, when you teach rules made up by humans.’ You disobey God's commands in order to obey what humans have taught. You are good at rejecting God's commands so that you can follow your own teachings! Didn't Moses command you to respect your father and mother? Didn't he tell you to put to death all who curse their parents? But you let people get by without helping their parents when they should. You let them say that what they own has been offered to God. You won't let those people help their parents. And you ignore God's commands in order to follow your own teaching. You do a lot of other things just as bad.”

Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Pay attention and try to understand what I mean. The food that you put into your mouth doesn't make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean.” After Jesus and his disciples had left the crowd and gone into the house, they asked him what these sayings meant. He answered, “Don't you know what I am talking about by now? You surely know that the food you put into your mouth cannot make you unclean. It doesn't go into your heart, but into your stomach, and then out of your body.” By saying this, Jesus meant that all foods were fit to eat. Then Jesus said: “ What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean. Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God.” Mark 7:1-23

In our last study, Jesus was touched by the woman who was ill, and ritually unclean. Instead of her making him unclean, his power and holiness cleansed and healed her. Now the question of ritual uncleanness comes up again, in a different form.

This time the challenge is around food, and the issue of ritual hand cleaning prior to eating. Now, it is important to understand that this is not a matter of cleanliness, this is all about ritual process. This ritual, however, is one that has grown up over the years, rather than being a direct commandment from Scripture. Directly following the return from the Babylonian exile, great thought went into the reason for that exile. Amongst the answers that surfaced was the recognition that it was because they had been breaking God’s commands.

The solution that the religious leaders came up with was to create a set of guidelines, extra rules around the laws, that people could inadvertently break without breaking Torah – it was called a hedge. It was a bit like a yellow card in football, as opposed to a red card – a warning. It was never intended to supplant God’s word. However, over the next one or two generations, this ‘hedge’ became so venerated that it was viewed as equal to God’s word, and so another hedge was constructed, to prevent people breaking the rules of the first hedge, and then the same thing happened again. By the time Jesus came there were probably three hedges, and the beauty was that Jesus did not recognise these man-made intolerable burdens – He simply walked by God’s word.

Jesus did not recognise these man-made intolerable burdens – He simply walked by God’s word.

That Jesus views the Scripture as important is demonstrated in his quotation of Isaiah 29:13, along with the charge that the Pharisees are disregarding God’s words and worrying about what people say. This one verse, “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions”, should make each one of us stop and ask ourselves if we have, unthinkingly, allowed ourselves to get wrapped up in a similar situation.

Grace – even when we don’t understand

Jesus left and went to the region near the town of Tyre, where he stayed in someone's home. He did not want people to know he was there, but they found out anyway. A woman whose daughter had an evil spirit in her heard where Jesus was. And at once she came and knelt down at his feet. The woman was Greek and had been born in the part of Syria known as Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to force the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said, “The children must first be fed! It isn't right to take away their food and feed it to dogs.” The woman replied, “Lord, even puppies eat the crumbs that children drop from the table.” Jesus answered, “That's true! You may go now. The demon has left your daughter.” When the woman got back home, she found her child lying on the bed. The demon had gone. Mark 7:24-30

Continuing Mark’s whistlestop tour narrative, they are off again; and this time it is north to Tyre. We are not even told where Jesus is staying but, wherever it is, He cannot hide away. A woman whose daughter is possessed by an evil spirit finds Him, and once again Mark goes to some length to let us know this is a gentile woman. Like any parent would, faced with the suffering of her child, she begs Jesus to exorcise the demon. And here we come to one of the most troubling passages in all of scripture: Jesus explains to the lady that the children’s food should not be given to dogs.

Now ‘dog’ sounds pretty disparaging. Some scholars claim that it was quite common for Jews to call gentiles ‘dogs’ but it is impossible to find evidence to support that claim. However, the word ‘kynariois’/’κυναρίοις’ is arguably better rendered ‘little dog’ or puppy – perhaps not much better, but with more playful overtones to it. What, however, is more remarkable is that Jesus, the master of the impactful reply, gets it straight back from this lady as she replies, in effect, ‘Well, from what I hear, the puppies are already getting the crumbs from the children’s table’. Jesus’ fame had already spread far and wide, news of the exorcism of the Gerasene man, on the other side of the lake, will have reached her. Jesus is impressed with this chutzpah and replies “With this Word (‘Kyrie’) go, your daughter’s demon has gone.” What was the word? Was it calling Jesus ‘Lord’? Was it her chutzpah? We don’t know; but what we do know is that Jesus’ grace has healed another young girl – he has made her clean.

Opening ears

Jesus left the region around Tyre and went by way of Sidon toward Lake Galilee. He went through the land near the ten cities known as Decapolis. Some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. They begged Jesus just to touch him. After Jesus had taken him aside from the crowd, he stuck his fingers in the man’s ears. Then he spat and put it on the man’s tongue. Jesus looked up toward heaven, and with a groan he said, “Ephphatha!” which means ‘Open up!’ At once the man could hear, and he had no more trouble talking clearly. Jesus told the people not to say anything about what he had done. But the more he told them, the more they talked about it. They were completely amazed and said, “Everything he does is good! He even heals people who cannot hear or talk.” Mark 7:31-37

Immediately we are transported to Sidon, and then on something of a long trip, of around 50 miles with no recognised or established path between the two, so very much cross country. This serves as an indication of the importance Jesus placed on being on the road with His message. (This may also help explain some of the Gospel variances in stories – He would use the same teaching illustration in more than one place and so, naturally, the structure and vocabulary varies in the telling.)

The gospel of Mark makes it clear that people are recognising a Messianic agenda, anointing and ministry in what Jesus is doing.

Once in the region of the Decapolis, people are again bringing the sick and ill to Him. One man brought to him is described as deaf and scarcely able to talk. I think it speaks volumes to the compassion of Jesus that He takes the man aside. In this case, he doesn’t do the healing ‘on show’, with everyone watching, but with just an element of privacy and dignity.

Then Jesus does something most unusual in that He sticks His fingers in the man’s ears and spits. In the text we have above it seems to suggest Jesus puts His spit on the man’s tongue, but the Greek text seems to indicate the spitting is part of putting His fingers in the man’s ears. Almost as if He is spitting out a blockage. Then Jesus touches the man’s tongue, looks up to heaven and sighs deeply before speaking “Ephphatha” – ‘Be Opened’. Immediately the man is healed. Again, Jesus issues the instruction not to tell anyone – but that was about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

The text goes on to tell us that the people were astonished, saying, “Everything He does is good, He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak”. This is a direct quotation from Isaiah 35, recognised as a Messianic chapter. Jesus may not have made any formal claims to be the Messiah at this stage, but the gospel of Mark makes it clear that people are recognising a Messianic agenda, anointing and ministry in what Jesus is doing.