Mark 7:1-5, Deceitful and Desperately Wicked (1)

Jer. 17:9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?  Hebrew for “deceitful” means sly and insidious.  Hebrew for “desperately” means incurably.  You cannot “trust YOUR heart.”  AI, the know-it-all who only knows what “it” has been told, says, “Trusting your heart means following your intuition and feelings, even when reason or logic might suggest otherwise. It's about believing in your inner wisdom and making choices that feel right to you.”  That’s a good definition.  We have come to this passage which tells us that you are a fool if you “trust your heart” because fundamentally, your heart is deceitful, sly, insidious, and desperately and incurably wicked.

Jesus taught on this subject using a “current event” (7:1-4).  Pharisees had come from Jerusalem.  Jesus’ rise to fame in the Galilee would have been known by them, so it is no surprise they sent men to investigate the situation.  Jesus and His disciples did not necessarily try to arouse attention; likely, they were just going about life in a way consistent with Jesus’ teaching.  Whatever the case, the attention of the Pharisees was certainly aroused.  As Jesus Himself pointed out, they had special ways for the washing of hands, along with the washing of everything they touched throughout a normal day.  So, they called Jesus on this.

The Law of Moses had instructions for Priests concerning washings (Ex. 30:19; 40:12).  But these Pharisees were not priests, and they were not doing priestly work.  The rules of the Pharisees came from the “oral law,” laws not recorded in Scripture but supposedly passed down from Moses.  In addition, various rabbis had concocted rules that were intended to help the average Jew keep the Mosaic Law.  These additions, “the traditions of the elders,” came to have the weight of Scripture.

David Guzik, in his Blue Letter Bible commentary on this passage, suggests a “logical” approach of a wicked heart that would result in such rules being seen as on a par with the word of the LORD.  Here is how he put it:

·       Doesn’t God want us to honor Him in everything?

·       Didn’t God command priests to wash their hands before serving Him?

·       Shouldn’t every faithful follow of God have the same devotion as a priest?

·       Isn’t every meal sacred to God?

·       Shouldn’t we take every opportunity to make ourselves pure before the LORD?

·       Remember Ps. 24:3-4: Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? … He who has clean hands and a pure heart!

Do you see the deceitful heart?  As Christians we may define our Christianity by rules of dress or food or drink or other things, rules not found in the Bible.  How do we come to these rules?  It comes when we seek to define the righteous life in such a way that we can measure it and use it to lord ourselves over others.  We delude ourselves into thinking we are “biblical” when in fact we are deceived.