Corona Chronicles - Crown of Thorns

Good morning. Welcome to another week of Corona Chronicles. We are picking up the story in Mark chapter 7. And we're gonna be thinking all about hypocrisy and true faith in these next few videos. And just to kinda summarize where we are in chat 7 before we start reading, the pharisees who are who are obsessed with outward, religion, and detail and the kind of externals of following God have come to Jesus.

And they're asking, why doesn't Jesus' signs follow all their different traditions, and they're little outward rules. Why don't they comply with those traditions? And here's what Jesus says to them in verse 6. Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you Hippocrups. As it is written, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain. Their teachings are merely human rules. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions. And he continued, you have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions. For Moses said, honor your father and mother and anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.

But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is corban, that is devoted to God, then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus, you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and you do many things that are like that. It's tell us what you really think, do you think? Yeah. I mean, you wouldn't necessarily start with those words with you.

Right? As I was right when you prophesy prophesy about you It just goes straight for the juggling, isn't it? It does. He cuts through all of the, you know, nonsense and goes straight to the heart of a matter, which is, you know, which is the problem. That is the problem.

It's their hearts. Their, you know, their lips are speaking honor, but the hearts are far from far from releases. And, you know, I I mean, I just don't I don't know anyone like this, you know. Or if I do, those people have a very sort of black and white kind of a pinging of them, you know. Like, there's there's not there's not much nice Jesus here, is there?

No. You know? And and and he's speaking to very, very well respected -- Yeah. -- good people. You know, the the top of the class, the teacher's pet, the sort of, you know, the the the most respected men in the community.

Yeah. Incredible. It is. And and as you say, you know, he doesn't entertain that question really. No.

I mean, they're asking you know, why why aren't your disciples washing and eating properly? He's not gonna get into a long discussion about that with them. He goes, as you say, straight for the jugular, Yeah. And it's all the more impactful because he actually quotes both from Isaiah and Moses. Who are some key characters in bible history, and the pharisees would have claimed a hundred percent allegiance to those to those people.

And yet, Jesus is using them to say that you are actually law breakers -- Mhmm. -- that your own traditions which you obsess about -- Yeah. Are violating the very law -- Yeah. Yeah. -- would have got.

I mean, first say, you have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to to human traditions. It reminds you that that, you know, it's used a lot isn't that picture of the dog with a bone and he sees another bone in the water. And he let's go 1 to grab the other -- Yeah. -- and listen back but Yeah. You know, it it's it you just think what was the reaction of these men, you know?

You you've let go of the commands of God. Yeah. You know, you don't you don't believe the word. In verse 13, you nullify the word of God by your traditions. You know, you know, he's he's absolutely sort of just going for the the the I mean, I just I just can't imagine these guys, what what they must have been thinking.

Because they're they're they are thinking that they are honoring God. That all these little rules they've got are to protect people from becoming unclean. You know? They've got all these little rules lined up. And you know, and he just comes and smashes them all down.

He does. And and that's the thing we've got to be so careful of that, haven't we? Because it is very easy to just impose our own whole lot of small people, isn't it? And, yeah, what what starts off as a good idea or a good principle and we can quickly become a law, can't it if you don't walk this way or speak like this or wear this or be quiet at this time -- Yeah. -- then you'll disobey in God.

It's your reverie. Who says? That's you you made up that 1. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And It's so easy for us to to have these laws which look good, but actually, in the end Yeah. And and the example of that he uses here is this only your father and mother stuff. So Jesus is not just calling them Hippocrits. He's actually gonna prove that they are Hippocrits.

In the way they they treat their parents. So, you know, 1 of the laws that Israel had had, you know, for all their life was to honor the father and mother to take care of paging and sickly parents and to respect them. But there seems to be this new law that had come in, where it was possible to take your money or your inheritance or your estate and say, well, I'm gonna devote that to the God to God. I'm gonna devote that to the temple. I'm setting that aside for God's work.

Yeah. And therefore, I can't use any of it to honor and help my parents who might be in need. Yeah. So on the surface, that would have looked very religious because you can walk around the temple and you could boast about all your callbacks. Yeah.

Oh, did you not hear? It's just set He's so sacrificial. Yeah. He's just set to somebody's own estate. Yeah?

But mom and dad, and be lying at home, you know, perishing, aging. Yeah. When that money could have been used to help them. And that is exactly what Jesus is saying there. You know, these people, a lot of me with their lips, they're all about the show, but their hearts are far from me.

They they are violating my laws with their selfish traditions. Yeah. Yeah. It's quite a challenge for us, isn't it? You know, those words in particular.

Because we all know, like, when we come when we come into public, we, you know, we all know deep down what we're like, you know. And and we and in all in all kinds of settings, you can. It's so easy to put on that show, isn't it? You know, to pretend, you know. And so sometimes you know, you don't you don't necessarily wanna be sort of telling all your all of your deepest darkest sort of secrets and sins, you know?

No. No. No. But but but at the same time, you know between you and God, you know where you stand, and you know when you're when you're speaking, when you're supposed to be a representing God, when you're trying it. When you're trying to live before people, you know you know the state of your own heart.

And and I think this is this is a massive challenge. These people honor me with their lips. But their hearts are far from me. You know? And and it's a challenge for us.

It's a challenge. We challenge you. You know, where is your heart? You know? Your lips might be saying all the right things, but where is your heart?

When when you when you lie in bed at night, and you're just you're just thinking through the all that you've done in the previous day. That's the time, I think, when when our hearts really speak to us. And when all of the all of the kind of all of our actions, all of our all of our failings, they come back to us, don't they? You know? All the ways we've all the ways we've let god down, you know.

And that's the time that we we shouldn't just ignore them. No. We should we should admit them and go to God and and and say sorry for that, you know. Otherwise, Otherwise, we're just like the pharisees, you know. And we don't wanna we don't wanna be like that.

No. So yeah. Which channel is finish on?