Why did Jesus say that the Pharisees were “hypocrites” (7:6)? After all, they believed in scrupulous obedience to God’s Law, and they took its every detail very seriously. They were even reverent toward the traditions of their ancestors – in fact, they sound a lot like us Presbyterians, don’t they?
But the problem was that they had allowed their reverence for the Scriptures to degenerate into legalism, the belief that they could become righteous in God’s sight simply by following a certain set of rules. In fact, they made up even more rules than God’s Word prescribed: the Law of Moses required the priests to wash themselves before engaging in certain rituals, but the Pharisees went much further, requiring everyone to wash themselves in all sorts of situations (see 7:3-4). And we can find similar examples of such exaggeration in every generation, from stringent Victorian rules of dress to modern “speech codes.”
But ironically, legalists also tend to take advantage of the details of their elaborate ethical codes to get their own way. The ancient Pharisees figured out how adult children could avoid taking responsibility for their aged parents: just declare that your property is dedicated to God! They thus used their reason and their traditions to turn the clear intention of God’s Law on its head, just as we might use clever rationalizations to allow us to continue in our pet sins: “Why shouldn’t I do what I want? God just wants me to be happy, right?”
No, the Law of Moses was never intended to be a do-it-yourself guide to salvation, any more than it was supposed to allow people to pretend to be holy while continuing to live in sin. Instead, the Law was designed to point all of us to our desperate need for a Savior, for Someone to do for us what the Law makes it plain that we cannot do for ourselves. And the reason we have been saved isn’t so that we can pull away from God and do whatever we want, but so that we can draw close to God, living in more intimate fellowship with Him.
So let us abandon any pride in our obedience, trusting only in the sacrifice of Christ to save us. But let us not take advantage of God’s grace to go on sinning. Instead, in a spirit of gratitude and love, let us seek to live in the way He wants us to, not in order to save ourselves, but because we are so thankful that He has saved us.
Mark 7:1-13 (NASB)
The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, 2 and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) 5 The Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?” 6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.
7 ‘But in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’
8 Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” 9 He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death’; 11 but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ 12 you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; 13 thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”
