Mark 7: God's Heart or Good Appearances? Clean by ☧'s Word

Rev. David Speers, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Altamont, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Mark 7.

“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites!” Once again Jesus ☧ publicly clashes with the Pharisees and the Jerusalem scribes, this time in Mark 7 over the Fourth Commandment (in Mark 3 it was over the Third). Just when His opponents think they have Him for disrespecting “the Elders,” ☧ turns it around on them for disrespecting their own mothers and fathers.

☧ does not call them “hypocrites” for being inconsistent per se, but for shifting the focus of the Scriptures: they focus on how God’s Word might enhance their own external performance rather than what the Word teaches us about the heart of God. A sinful heart, ☧ says, is what really makes a person unclean. He then proceeds to heal a Gentile of faith made clean by “the Word,” and He heals a deaf and mute man to show that, without the Word in their hearts, the Pharisees and scribes are the ones who are truly deaf and mute.