The Heart God Seeks

Mark 7:1-30
Introduction

            Quite a few years ago I was the photographer at a wedding in an Orthodox church and was amazed at the rituals involved in the ceremony. They did things, which I had never seen before. The priest had a censor filled with smoke which he waved around. He led the couple around the altar three times. Because it involved rituals I had never seen before, it was quite fascinating. Growing up in this church, I believed that we just follow the Bible and we don't have rituals. One day a minister from another denomination pointed out to me that we actually also have rituals and as I thought about it, I realized he was right. There was a time when we were very insistent on baptism by immersion. A friend of mine who is a pastor told me of an experience he had had in which that insistence on baptism by immersion had caused him a great deal of hurt. When I heard that story, I realized that not only do we have rituals, but we have sometimes even hurt Christian relationships because of those rituals. I am glad that we do not insist on immersion baptism for membership any more, but I do wonder if there are not other ways in which we are bound by rituals? Thinking about these things invites us to consider, "What is it that God wants?"

            This morning, I would like to direct our attention to Mark 7:1-30. In this passage there are two stories. In the first story, Jesus encounters a group of people who are very religious, but who don’t really follow God faithfully. In the second story, Jesus crosses a boundary which would have caused the religious leaders to question his faithfulness. There he meets a woman of deep faith. In these stories, we get some good insights into the kind of heart God seeks. As we think about these things, I trust that we will be reminded and encouraged about the kind of heart God seeks.

I.                A Heart that is Near to God

The story begins when a group of religious leaders from the center of religious observance, Jerusalem, come not to discover who Jesus is or what He is up to, but in order to criticize Jesus. We read in verse 2 that they noticed that “some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands.” One suspects that they watched just long enough so that they could find some ground for accusation. We are not surprised at this action because Jewish religious leaders had already accused Jesus on other occasions, for example, of blasphemy in Mark 2:7, keeping bad company in 2:16, breaking Sabbath on several occasions and working in Satan’s power in 3:22.

The practice of hand washing was one which arose out of the requirement for priests to ceremonially wash their hands before serving in the temple, as outlined in Exodus 30:19. But over time this requirement began to be expected not only of priests entering the temple, but also of all Jews all the time.

In our day when we have hand sanitizers in every corner and have grown up hearing our mother say, “dinners ready, go wash your hands” it is a little hard for us to grasp why Jesus’ disciples didn’t wash their hands, until we remember that physical cleanliness was not what the Pharisees were concerned about. Their ritual of hand washing had little to do with getting their hands physically clean. They were concerned about religious defilement. They were afraid that when they had been out in public, they might have touched someone who was not religiously clean. Perhaps they had touched someone who had worked on Sabbath, or someone who had been in contact with a Gentile. Their hand washing was a religious ceremony designed to remove the moral filth they had encountered in the public setting. It isn’t hard to see that such practices were a terrible burden for anyone who wanted to make sure that they did not get morally polluted by contact with the world. So the washing was a ritual required to clean the contamination not of germs, but of association with unclean things.

Jesus was fully aware that the intent of their question was really an accusation against Him. He saw into their hearts and He accused them of being hypocrites. In Mark 7:8 He said to them, “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” Then he proceeded to explain how they ignored God’s truth and held tightly to traditions that did not come from God.

The law of God was very clear about a person’s relationship to their parents. You must honor your father and your mother. But there was another law, which was the law of “Corban” which means dedicated to God. The idea of something dedicated to God was familiar in the Old Testament. When Joshua and the Israelites destroyed Jericho, God decreed that Jericho was dedicated to Him and all of it should be destroyed. But their idea of Corban, although similar was not a Biblical law, but a tradition. A person could declare his property dedicated to God. This seems noble and good, but the problem was that this dedication did not mean that the person would give his property to God immediately nor that he could not use his property for himself, it just meant that it was not available to other people. So if his parents needed help and his property was “Corban,” he could not use it to help them. It was a clear illustration of a tradition of men directly violating a Word from God and the religious leaders defended this tradition.

Unfortunately this is not the only time this has ever happened. McKenna says, “Christian history is tragically replete with examples of a spiritual truth being represented by a meaningful symbol, elevated to a required ritual, substituted for the original truth, and finally perverted to justify an evil act.” That is what had happened in this case. The ritual may have arisen out of noble intentions, but by this time it had simply become a human ritual and was even working against the intentions of God.

Jesus gets to the core of their problem by quoting Isaiah 29:13 saying, in Mark 7:6, 7, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines." This is a pretty serious accusation. What was the problem of the Jewish religious leaders? They had a reputation of being the people of God. They did all the right stuff to demonstrate to the world that they belonged to God. But, they didn’t know God. All of their religious practice was just so much talk. In these verses, Jesus’ accusations got stronger and stronger. In verse 8 he said they abandon God’s commands. In verse 9 the statement was stronger indicating that they reject the commands of God. In verse 13 we read an even stronger statement when Jesus accused them that they make void the Word of God. So it is evident that they engaged in rituals directed at worship, but the worship was lip worship and not heart worship.

As we hear this story and the quote from Jesus we realize that what God is looking for is not people who engage carefully in all the right rituals, but rather God is looking for people whose heart belongs to Him.

One of the most frightening verses in the Bible is Matthew 7:21-23 which says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ ²³ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers!’" These verses invite us to ask ourselves, “Am I just going through the motions or does my heart belong to God?”

We may have attended Sunday School since we were 2 years old and we may still consider Sunday School as the most important place to be on Sunday morning, but if the things we have learned in Sunday School are all in our head and if we are left with a heart that is cold towards God, then we are not where God wants us to be. Our heart does not belong to God.

We may have gone forward at a gospel meeting, camp or youth event in order to declare a commitment to God, but, if we are now living in disobedience towards God, that is not what God wants. What God is looking for is a person whose heart is near to Him.

We may have been baptized upon confession of faith and we may practice all the rituals of obedience that we have been taught in church. We may be careful to do certain things and not do other things, but if our heart is not near to God, on that final day we may well hear the frightening words, “I never knew you.”

How do we know if our heart is near to God? A heart near to God is a heart which desires to know God more. It is a heart which loves God and has a growing love for all of God’s creatures. It is a heart which wants to obey God, not because of fear of punishment, but because of love and respect for God. It is a heart which is looking forward to the day when we will see Him face to face.

When Jesus accuses the Jewish religious leaders that they are a “people who honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” He is not only accusing them, but also inviting us to examine whether our heart is near to God.

II.             A Heart that is Cleansed by God

The Jewish leaders had come to accuse Jesus, but Jesus didn't respond directly to their accusation, instead he responded to their hypocritical motives. But he still had the accusation in mind and rather than address his answer to the Pharisees, he addressed it to the crowd.

All of those listening would have understood the importance of ritual hand washing and many of them would have seen it as normal. The problem with hand washing was that, although in the beginning it may have had some purpose to illustrate moral cleansing, at this point, it had lost that effect. So Jesus said to the crowd in Mark 7:15, "…there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” In saying this, we need to remember that Jesus was not commenting about healthy eating, but rather about the relationship of food to morality. So Jesus pointed out that it isn’t what enters a person that defiles him, but rather, what comes out of a person. What goes into a person goes through the stomach and goes into the toilet. It has no effect on the moral standing of a person. It is those things which arise out of the heart of a person which truly defile. He was saying that evil arises within a person and comes out in their evil words and actions.

When the meeting broke up and Jesus was alone with his disciples it seems they were in the same position as the Pharisees. They too were so steeped in their traditions that they did not have the capacity to discern the way in which Jesus was breaking the barriers of legalism and ritualism and inviting them to a life of faith. After repeating what He had already said to the crowd, Jesus revealed to the disciples the kinds of things in the heart which defile a person.

I wonder if we also often experience the same confusion which the disciples had about what truly defiles? Sometimes as Christians we have thought that if we insulate ourselves from the outside world by not participating in life with those who are in the world, we will be safe from sin. We have believed that if we don't do certain things, it will help us avoid disobedience. Yet it is clearly evident that religious systems do not prevent people from being defiled in any number of these ways. Sexual abuse by religious leaders, church conflicts caused by abuse of power and greed by people who are generous in tithing are some examples. In spite of great effort to prevent the evil of the world from influencing us, sin still happens. That is because the source of evil actions is not from without, but from within. Although it is true that evil society can influence and bad friends can have a negative impact, it is still true that evil comes from within.

What is really frightening about this is that when we read this list of evil that arises out of the human heart, if we are humble and honest, we have to say that we have all done at least some of these things. Just look at the list in Mark 7:21-22, "For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, ²² adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.” Who of us can honestly say that none of these evils have ever arisen within our hearts or come out in our words and deeds?

It is clear that God does not want a heart filled with these kinds of evil. The kind of heart that God wants is a heart that is pure. How do we get such a heart? It is only possible through the work of God in our hearts. It is only possible when we receive God's forgiveness, ask God to cleanse our hearts and allow His Spirit to make us into new creatures. That is the good news of the gospel. II Corinthians 5:17 promises, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"

III.           A Gracious Giving Heart

After this conversation, Jesus left to go to Tyre which is on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. His intention was to hide. After the press of people who had been constantly seeking him for healing and the unrelenting pressure of ministry, he and his disciples needed time away and they went into Gentile territory to find it. But even there he was not free from the demands of people. People from Tyre had come to him in Galilee, as we see from Mark 3:8 and so they knew about Him. When he arrived, a woman from Tyre learned that he was there and came to him for help because her daughter was possessed by an evil spirit.

She broke into his world, as a woman and as a Greek. The text makes a big deal of identifying her as non-Jewish. Any faithful Jew would have quickly rejected her approach because it was not appropriate for a faithful Jew to have a conversation with a Gentile.

She was desperate for help and fell at Jesus’ feet and begged for the help she needed and He engaged her in conversation. We need to note that He was not bound by traditions which rejected people.

Although He didn’t dismiss her immediately, His reply to her seems somewhat harsh. Even though He doesn’t use the word for dog, but rather the word for puppy, we still find it somewhat disturbing that Jesus would refuse her request.

Among the many explanations for this refusal, I believe that the best answer still is that there was an order to the revelation of the gospel to the Gentiles. Jesus had come primarily to proclaim the gospel to the Jews, to prepare His disciples to make the gospel known and to die and rise in order to bring the good news of sins forgiven and eternal life. After his departure, the gospel would go to the Gentiles. This was always God’s intention, but it was not yet time. This was the intent which God announced to Abraham when he told him that all nations would be blessed through him. God revealed this intent again in Isaiah 60:3, where we read the prophecy, "Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn." This intention was fulfilled following the resurrection. Jesus commissioned his followers to go into all nations in Matthew 28:19, 20 and Acts 1:8. But the movement of the gospel to the Gentiles did not come automatically. The first step was when God sent Peter to Cornelius, but that wasn’t easy. First God had to break through Peter’s hard heart so that he would be ready to go to Cornelius to preach the gospel to him. Paul’s missionary journeys were a further ministry to Gentiles and so the gospel began to go to all nations as God had promised. As a result of this breakthrough, many in Jerusalem were disturbed by the implications and so the church gathered at the council in Jerusalem, mentioned in Acts 15, to deal with the conflict. Many had not perceived what Jesus already demonstrated in his life and ministry and that was that the gospel was meant for the Gentiles as well.

The woman was drawn to Jesus and Jesus desired to help her, but the time was not right. His reason for refusal was different than the refusal of the Jewish religious leaders would have been. They would have dismissed her outright. However, we see something else in Jesus which teaches us another aspect of the heart God seeks. Even though the time may not have been right, in the end, Jesus did heal the girl. Jesus stepped outside of custom and even his own plan and extended grace to this needy woman.

What is the heart that God wants? We learn from the example of Jesus that God wants a heart that is filled with grace. Geddert puts it nicely when he says, “Jesus works at breaking down great barriers – barriers of ceremony and legalism that kept the pious walled off from the ordinary Jew, and barriers of ritual and tradition that prevented Gentiles from joining the people of God.” The heart God wants is the heart that is like that of Jesus. It is a heart that does not create walls and barriers. It is a heart that is gracious in extending kindness and blessing to all.

IV.           A Humble Trusting Heart

There is one more example that is worth noting and reveals another aspect of the heart God seeks. The conversation which Jesus had with the woman is quite interesting. She begged Jesus to help her and, as we have seen, at first Jesus refused to help her, indicating that it was not appropriate yet.

Her response to Jesus was both clever and persuasive enough that Jesus did respond. She acknowledged his argument, but countered that even the puppies eat the crumbs off the floor. I totally understand this illustration. We have grandchildren and our daughter has a little dog. I have seen this scene played out every time they are at our place. When we eat, the grandchildren drop food on the floor and the dog cleans the food off the floor.

Jesus answered that her response was significant. He said, "For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” What did he mean by “for saying that?” What was it in her reply that he saw that persuaded him to heal her daughter?

The answer to that question reveals another answer to the question “What kind of a heart is God looking for?” What he saw in her reply was a humble, trusting heart. She knew that she was unable to help her daughter and she was humble enough to realize that Jesus was able to help her. She called him Lord and not only recognized His ability, but was willing to submit to whatever He gave. In recognizing His grace and ability, she manifested a confident, hopeful trust in Jesus. I like the way Geddert puts it when he says, “This needy Gentile woman moved the heart of Jesus by her open heart, her empty hands, and her daring confidence that whatever Jesus would give would be enough.” That is the heart God seeks.

Conclusion

What a wonderful text leading us deeply into the will of God. It invites us to dismiss legalism, but not righteousness. It invites us to open our hearts and exemplifies the way to follow God.

What is the heart that God seeks? It is a heart that belongs to Him! It is a heart that is cleansed by Him! It is a heart that is gracious and it is a heart that has a humble trust in Him.

Does that describe your heart?

George Mueller was born in Prussia in September 1805, but moved to England and became a minister of a church in England. He was pastor of the same church for 66 years. He died in 1898 at the age of 92. Besides being pastor of the church, he founded the Scripture Knowledge Institute and built five orphan houses in which he cared for over 10,000 orphans. To support these orphanages, he raised a great deal of money without ever asking anyone for money. At the age of 76 he wrote, “I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.”

That is the heart that God seeks. May we give our heart to Him and allow Him to put such a heart within us.