Follow: Uncommon (Mark 7) June 16, 2013 – Sunday Morning Message

Last summer a father in Memphis was forgotten by his family.[1]  News Channel 5 carried the story.  The father’s family was traveling from Texas when they stopped at a Memphis gas station.  They were going fill up with gas and switch drivers.  The father had been driving while another driver was sleeping in the back of the van. The plan was for the father to now sleep in the back while the other adult drove.  The father went into the gas station to pay the bill for the cash.  When he came out, his van and his family were gone.  The family thought the dad was already in the back asleep.  So they loaded up and took off.  The distraught dad called his cell phone, which was in the van, but no one answered.  He called the cell numbers for each of the other family members—all six of them—but no one answered.  He finally used a computer at a hotel next to the gas station to use Facebook to contact a friend who then was able to make contact with the family in the van.  The family had driven 100 miles from Memphis before they got word that Dad was not in the back.  The father told reports that he’s sure that the whole was just an accident.

 

Most of us who are dads would like to think that would never happen to us—at least not on purpose.  We’d like to think that we’ve made a big enough difference in our family that they wouldn’t forget us at a gas station on vacation.  But, for some of us, that may not be the case!  Our family might drive away—on purpose!

 

The story reminds us that most of us want to be unforgettable.  We want to be the kind of people who are remembered fondly by others.  We want to be unforgettable, not forgettable.  We want to live lives that make a difference.  We want to leave a legacy.  We want to be unforgettable, not forgettable.

 

Our text in Mark this morning touches on this issue.  Jesus’ message focuses on the word “defile.”  In Mark 7:1-5, 14-23 he’s going to use the word “defile” 7 times.  The word defile simply means “common.”  It is the opposite of the biblical word “consecrated.”^[2] Common or defiled means a thing or a person that is used for ordinary or common purposes.  Consecrated or uncommon means a thing or a person that is used for special divine purposes.  Consecrated or uncommon refers to someone or something set apart for God’s use in the world.  Common or defiled refers to someone or something set apart for nothing particularly special at all.

 

It’s the difference between a life that’s forgettable and a life’s that’s unforgettable.  A defiled or common life is a life that is so routine and so mundane and so disconnected from what God’s up to in the world that it’s forgettable.  A consecrated or uncommon life is a life that is so connected to what God’s up to and so devoted to God’s use in the world that it’s unforgettable.

 

I was recently at the visitation for a woman named Tricia Lillard.  The visitation was held in a local church building.  Every parking space at the building was filled and cars were parked on overflow spaces on the grass.  There were so many people present that the organizers divided Tricia’s family into multiple groups and formed multiple receiving lines.  People from all over the Mid-South were present.  This was a woman who seemed to have lived an uncommon life; a consecrated life; an unforgettable life.  Her life had been used for special and divine purposes.

 

And my guess is that if given the choice, most of us would choose an uncommon life over a common life.  Most of us would choose an undefiled life over a defiled life.  Most of us would choose a life that makes an eternal impact.  Most of us would choose to be set apart for something special and sacred.  That’s what’s at stake in this text.

 

But how do you get that kind of life?  Here’s how the religious leaders answer that question:

7 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, holding to the tradition of the elders, ⁴ and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 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?” (Mk. 7:1-5 ESV)

 

The religious leaders argue that an uncommon life comes through external religious customs.  The religious leaders raise an issue about hands.  The disciples of Jesus are not washing their hands.  Now, this isn’t the same thing as Mom getting on your case because you didn’t wash your hands before sitting down at the dinner table.  It’s not the same issue raised by the signs in restaurants which say “Employees must wash hands before returning to work.”  This is not about hygiene.  It’s about holiness.  It’s not about cleanliness.  It’s about consecration.  It’s not about sanitizing.  It’s about sanctifying.  The washing of hands was a way of setting a person apart for divine purposes.

 

This is a practice that goes all the way back to the earliest days of the Jews.  There was a biblical mandate for priests to wash their hands and feet prior to entering the Tabernacle—that structure where God dwelled (Ex. 30:19; 40:13).[3] The washing was part of the way the priests consecrated themselves.  It was a way of setting themselves apart for God’s use.

 

Now, of course, priests were set apart for God’s use like no one else in the Old Testament.  But some Jews saw this practice of washing hands as a way for them to also set themselves apart for God’s use in the world.  So, as early as the second century before Jesus, some Jews who were not priests began to wash their hands in the way that priests washed their hands.  They, too, wanted to live an uncommon life.  They too wanted to be set apart for a life that would make an eternal impact.

 

But by the time of Jesus, this voluntary and honorable gesture of washing hands became a legalistic custom.  Groups like the Pharisees demanded that people wash their hands.   And because Jesus’ followers did not engage in this custom, they were accused of being defiled.  They were accused of not living a life devoted to Godly purposes.

 

The religious leaders believe the key question is this: “How are your hands?”  How are you doing on the list of external religious customs?  As long as the hands are engaged in those external religious customs, you’re good.   But as we all know, one can easily engage in external acts, and still fail miserably, both as a human being and as a follower of Jesus.

 

Erwin Lutzer tells of a Christian living in Hitler’s Germany:[4]

I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust…A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews …Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us.  We knew the time the train was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.

These Christians performed an external religious custom.  They gathered for worship in a church building and they sang hymns.  But at the very moment they were singing hymns, they also were ignoring the screams of the Jewish prisoners in the trains just outside the church building.  When the only question we’re asking is, “How are your hands?” that’s the kind of thing that can happen.

 

What Jesus argues here is that it is possible to score an A on external religious customs while scoring an F on things like the right treatment of others.  It’s possible to be filled with evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness while still completing the right list of external religious customs.  And that’s why that kind of life will never be an undefiled life.  That kind of life will never be an unforgettable life.  That kind of life will never connect you fully to God’s purposes in the world.

 

Jesus offers an alternate perspective:

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.” 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?” (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.” (Mark 7:14-23 ESV)

 

The religious leaders want to talk about hands.  Jesus wants to talk about heart.  They want to talk about what’s outside a person.  Jesus wants to talk about what’s inside a person.  They define the uncommon life as one where someone does the external religious customs.  Jesus argues that an uncommon life comes through internal righteous character.

 

In his book It Came from Within Andy Stanley writes that, as children, we are taught to focus on external behavior.  Good behavior is rewarded.  Bad behavior is punished.  This, however, can lead to an overemphasis on externals.  We grow up and we feel that,

“as long as you say the right thing and do the right thing, you’re tempted to believe that all is well…But when your public performance becomes too far removed from who you are in your heart, you’ve been set up for trouble. Eventually your heart…will outpace your attempts to monitor and modify everything you say and do.  The unresolved issues stirring around undetected in your heart will eventually work their way to the surface.  Specifically, they will seep into your actions, your character, and your relationships.  If your heart continues to go unmonitored, whatever “thing” is growing in there will worsen to the point that you are no longer able to contain it with carefully managed words and actions.”[5]

Even if you get the external religious customs right, you can still be defiled.  You can still end up living  a common life.  Why?  Because what’s within ultimately makes its way out.

 

Jesus says, 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.” What leads to a common life, rather than an uncommon life, is not the neglecting of external religious customs.  What leads to a common life is the neglecting of internal righteous character.

 

The Pharisees believe the key question is this: “How are your hands?”  Jesus believes the key question is this: “How is your heart?”

 

As a father, the right question is not simply “Am I doing the right things for my kids?” but “Am I becoming the right person for my kids?”  The right goal of parenting is not “Are my kids behaving?” but “Are my kids becoming?”  The right question is not just “Are my children forming the right conduct?” but “Are my children forming the right character?”  How is my heart? is the question every father should ask himself every day.  How is their heart? is the question every father should ask of his children every day.

 

This is not to say that external religious customs are unimportant.  They still matter greatly to God.  But what Jesus is trying to avoid is someone who does the right external religious customs, but never really deals with what’s in his/her heart.  What Jesus is after is someone who is right, inside and out.  And Jesus knows that when the only question we ever ask of ourselves is How are my hands? we will ultimately fall short of his goal.  It’s only when we begin to ask and answer How is my heart? that we begin to journey into the kind of life Jesus invites us to live.

 

There is a popular TV series called “The Walking Dead.”  It tells the story of a band of survivors trying to make it through a world filled with zombies.  It takes place in the South near Atlanta.  In one episode, the group is searching through the woods for one of their own who got lost while escaping a zombie.  They stumble upon a church building in a rural meadow.  Walking into the church building they see rows of old wooden pews.  At the front of the sanctuary is a large cross with a figure of Jesus upon it.  Seated in the pews are zombies—all staring at the crucified Jesus.  It’s an interesting image.  Even the undead are able to go through the motions of something like a worship service.  Even zombies can approximate some external religious customs.  Later, however, after the group rids the church building of the zombies, the leader of the group, Rick Grimes, prays. He kneels before the image of the crucified Jesus and says, “I don’t know if you’re looking at me with what? Sadness? Scorn? Pity? Love? Maybe just indifference. I guess you already know I’m not much of a believer. I guess I just chose to put my faith elsewhere. My family mostly… I could use a little something to help keep us going. Some kind of acknowledgment, some kind of indication I’m doing the right thing. You don’t know how hard that is to know. Well maybe you do.  I think the writers  of this show were trying to portray something similar to what we see in our text this morning.  What Jesus is after is not someone who can just go through the motions.  Even the undead can do that.  What Jesus is after is something more in the line with what Rick Grimes modeled.  Something from the heart.  Something from within.

 

How would you answer this question this morning: “My heart is filled with ______” Is it filled with joy, love, peace, happiness?  Is it filled with lust, envy, hatred, worry, anxiety, despair?  How’s your heart today.  Take just a moment to pray silently to God about your answer to that question…