Sabbath School Lesson for August 3-9, 2024
Overview of Lesson 6, Inside Out
Memory Text: ” ‘There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.’ ” Mark 7:15 NKJV
The first half of Mark’s Gospel centers on establishing who Jesus was. We are brought to the conclusion, through His parables and miracles, that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah the Jews had longed and prayed for. But then, another puzzling question to be answered is how does this knowledge translate into religious practice. We long to know the kind of faith we must have to be His devout followers.
Looking deep into the situations Mark lays out for us in chapter seven, we find accusations from religious leaders that Jesus answered squarely and unapologetically. We are told by Jesus in different ways that man’s traditions should never take the place of God’s commandments. And, our spiritual defilement comes from within, not without our bodies, as the Jews had long been teaching.
In addition. we will see that the only person in the Gospels to win an argument with Jesus was a woman. The story of a Syro-Phoenician, Greek woman caused quite a stir when she begged for crumbs from the Master’s table, so to speak. Jesus immediately granted her faith-filled request to heal her demon-possessed daughter.
The stories in Mark 7 we examine this week include…
- Sunday: Human Traditions Versus God’s Commands–spiritual defilement comes from within (Mark 7:1-13)
- Monday: Clean Hands or Clean Heart?–what comes out of a man is what defiles him (Mark 7:14-23)
- Tuesday: Crumbs for the Dogs–a Gentile shows her faith (Mark 7:24-30)
- Wednesday: Tongue-tied–Jesus heals a deaf-mute (Mark 7:31-37)
- Thursday: Watch Out for Bad Bread–the Pharisees seek a sign (Mark 8:11-21)
Sunday: Human Traditions Versus God’s Commands (Mark 7:1-13)
The disciples must have observed that Jesus didn’t bother with the ceremonial washing of hands and eating utensils; and they, too, had become less conscientious about the practice. The scribes and Pharisees, of course, questioned Jesus about their negligence. But, Jesus dismissed their accusations by quoting Isaiah 29:13, which said: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me, and in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
The Pharisees had taken ritual practices that were intended for the spiritual purity of priests in the Old Testament and extended it to include the common people. Jesus demonstrated this concept further by reminding them how they had taken the commandment to honor their parents, and devised another way to obey the law, thus nullifying it and sometimes leaving parents neglected and uncared for.
Bible Verses to Explore:
Mark 7:1-13 and Isaiah 29:13
- What kind of obedience does God desire, and how does the observance of tradition often take away from that experience?
Monday: Clean Hands or Clean Heart? (Mark 7:14-23)
Jesus made it obvious to the scribes and Pharisees that God was far more interested in the condition of their inner hearts than He was about the outward filthiness they may contact by touching something unclean. In other words, their outward traditions were not capable of cleansing what was on the inside, where our characters are formed.
As a matter of fact, their centuries of demanding rituals with no basis in Scripture were actually making it harder for people to be saved. By focusing on the filthiness of things and people around them, they were much less likely to see the harsh, prideful attitudes that motivated their prescribed, religious practices.
Jesus’ words in Mark 7:15 that “There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him” were not condoning the eating of unclean animals as some have asserted. That health requirement does have Scriptural basis in Leviticus 11, and should be observed. But the many layers of ritual traditions that rabbis had added to the law of Moses were not bringing them closer to God. Instead, they were bringing them farther away.
Bible Verses to Explore:
Mark 7:14-23
- What did Jesus mean by the riddle in verse 15? What is it that actually contaminates a person, making him unclean?
Tuesday: Crumbs for the Dogs (Mark 7:24-30)
Many have puzzled over Jesus’ harsh-sounding response to the unnamed, Gentile woman (Mark 7:27), but the account in Matthew 15:21-28 does shed more light on the event. First of all, we note that Mark says the woman fell at Jesus’ feet, a posture of worship. But Matthew adds that the disciples urged Jesus to send her away, which may reveal the prejudice they held against this foreign woman.
Jesus’ reply to her pleas for help probably sounded appropriate to the disciples with their preconceived ideas about what Jesus’ duty was. Even after being called a little dog, however, the woman humbly revealed that she still had faith that Jesus could heal her daughter with just the crumbs at the table of His blessing.
Her answered prayer for the healing of her demon-possessed daughter revealed that she was no longer “an outcast from Israel, but a child in God’s household.” ~ The Desire of Ages, p. 401
Bible Verses to Explore:
Mark 7:24-30 and Matthew 15:23
- How can we overcome our tendency to be prejudiced against people of other races and nationalities?
Wednesday: Tongue-tied (Mark 7:31-37)
Mark 7 amazes us with the complexity of activities and confrontations Jesus had here on earth. Bible scholars have pondered over various details in Mark’s record. Such as the reason why Jesus, who often just spoke the word or touched someone, chose to heal the deaf-mute in such an unusual way–by putting His fingers in his ears and spitting on his tongue.
Several, plausible reasons have been put forth to answer this question. Perhaps Jesus didn’t want the attention to be how someone was healed, so He changed His method to keep the focus on the One doing the healing. Maybe, too, Jesus was recognizing that people have different ways of understanding Him in their life, or that there are several ways we can address our health needs. And, no doubt, Jesus wanted to show us that He is willing and able to get His hands dirty, as He goes about doing His Father’s work.
As we will see later in chapter 8, Jesus also healed a blind man by spitting on His eyes. This makes us wonder whether Jesus occasionally used these symbolic gestures to show their need to see and listen to His message with open eyes and ears. The tired sigh (Mark 7:34) that came with His command to “Be opened” does seem to indicate Jesus’ weariness in so many people not seeing and hearing the gospel He preached.
Bible Verses to Explore:
Mark 7:31-33
- What may be some of the reasons Jesus healed the deaf/mute in such an unusual way?
Mark 7:14, 16, 34-37
- Why is it important to hear AND understand the words of Jesus?
- How does our understanding impact our telling of the gospel?
Thursday: Watch Out for the Bad Bread (Mark 8:1-21)
Mark helps us understand the sigh Jesus had when He healed the deaf-mute (Mark 7:34). Once again in Mark 8:12, we notice that Jesus sighed “deeply in His spirit”. Jesus had just fed another multitude of 4,000 people, this time with seven loaves left over, and the Pharisees continued to test Jesus, asking Him for a sign to show them His identity.
After hopelessly not being able to get through to the religious leaders, the disciples went with Jesus in a boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, but they were dismayed that they only had one loaf of bread among them when they arrived. Jesus interrupted their discussion about the bread with the caution that they should “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees” (Mark 8:15). They naturally thought Jesus was talking about their actual lack of enough bread to eat.
But, Jesus went on to explain that their worry about bread was unfounded. Had they already forgotten about the two miraculous feedings they had witnessed? Matthew 16:12 further revealed that Jesus was talking about the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who refused to believe Him to be the Son of God.
Bible Verses to Explore:
Mark 8:1-13 and Matthew 16:1-4
- Why was Jesus disappointed with the Pharisees?
Mark 8:14-21 and Matthew 16:4-12
- How did Jesus also show His disappointment with the disciples, and why?
- What was the “leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” Jesus was talking about?
- How could this warning apply to our generation in the last days?
Friday: Final Thoughts
Ellen White, a Christian author, gives a clear definition of the leaven of the Pharisees. It does involve something on the inside that can be seen on the outside, and something we must constantly avoid having in our hearts.
“How often our service to Christ, our communion with one another, is marred by the secret desire to exalt self! How ready the thought of self-gratulation, and the longing for human approval! It is the love of self, the desire for an easier way than God has appointed that leads to the substitution of human theories and traditions for the divine precepts. To His own disciples the warning words of Christ are spoken, ‘Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.’
“…When the faith we accept destroys selfishness and pretense, when it leads us to seek God’s glory and not our own, we may know that is is of the right order.” ~The Desire of Ages, p. 409
This is the kind of faith and witness God desires from His followers. Satan’s sin of pride, which resulted in his downfall, seems to be the hardest one to conquer. Jesus warns us all to constantly guard against it.
Next Week: Teaching Disciples, Part 1
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