The Pharisees observed that some of Jesus’ disciples were eating without first washing their hands. Their concern was not about sanitation. They were most concerned about ritual purity. Mark explains this. He noted that when they came from the marketplace that they washed their hands and their dishes. They wanted to wash away the contamination of the unclean world that would make them unholy. This seems strange. But, what was at the core of this confrontation was the question, how is one to be holy and right before God?

Salvation came to the Jews just as it does to us, by faith. When God made his covenant with Abraham, it says in Genesis, 15:6 "Then he (Abraham) believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness." Later God gave the Law to Israel and said that this is the measure by which his people shall live. And when the Israelite thought of the Law, he thought first and foremost about the Ten Commandments and he also thought about the first five books of the Bible. Sometime about the third century BC, some of them came to the conclusion that the law was not enough and they began to develop a body of tradition. These traditions were referred to as the oral law and were taught by great teachers who established schools of theology. These teachers became the authorities by which a righteous man measured his life. Later their teachings were written down as the Mishnah. This became known as the traditions of the elders. They stepped away from Scripture and made their own rules.

The Pharisees wanted to be righteous and holy. But, they wanted to do so on their on terms. They made up the rules. It was man-made religion. Jesus wasted no time with them. He quoted Isaiah, "This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." Anytime doctrine begins with the precepts of men rather than with the Word of God it will always end in error.

As an example Jesus said that the commandment says Honor your father and mother. This commandment has broad application. It means, among other things, that we take care of our aging parents. You are not honoring your parents if they are suffering and lack what they need while you live well off. But, they had a practice according to the oral tradition. One could set aside property and dedicate it to God. This was called Corban. This means that it is intended for God’s use. Like a living Trust, they gave their property to the Temple but kept control of it while they lived to be used as they saw fit. So a person would say to his aging parents, my wealth is Corban, dedicated to God. Sorry I can’t help.

The use of Corban became a loophole to escape responsibility to honor one’s parents. Jesus said that they used the tradition of men to abrogate the Commandment of God! "You do many things such as that," He said.

The Pharisees wanted to be righteous and holy. They wanted to be the people of God. Yet, they were way off base. They perverted the word of God. They, in fact, canceled out the Word of God and added their own strange set of rules. Jesus condemned them for it.

The criticism Jesus leveled against them was not well taken. Their actions did not make them holy before God. But what Jesus said next was even more radical in their eyes. Not only did washing your hands have no effect on your relationship with God, nothing that goes into you can defile you. We don’t realize how radical this is. We don’t think about what we eat except that it is fattening or that it has a lot of cholesterol. None of us think that if I eat this particular food, I will lose my salvation. But that is exactly what they thought!

Jesus said that food goes in and it goes out and it is not the source of the problem. When Jesus said this, even the disciples stumbled over it. "What do you mean?" And Jesus was indignant with them. It should have been obvious to them. How can food defile you? It goes into your stomach and then is gone. The issue was never food, it was obedience! And obedience is a matter of the heart.

But, when our heart is sick, we can do things, even the right things for the wrong reasons. The Pharisees had avoided certain foods because they thought that it made them a saint instead of a sinner. Jesus said that we are sinners because of the condition of our heart, the condition of our inner man. It is not what goes into the body that defiles it, it is what comes from the heart! This is a powerful yet subtle idea. In keeping a Law like the dietary laws, the purpose was to please God by being obedient. But, the Pharisees perverted it into the idea that what pleased God was their physical action regardless of what was in their heart. What they did not understand, what we sometimes do not understand, is that everything we do begins as a product of the heart. If our heart is not right, then nothing we do will be right. Even when we do good we do good for all the wrong reasons!

Notice what Jesus said. All evil thoughts come from the heart. All sexual immorality, all thefts, murders, adulteries, and malice come from the heart. All deeds of coveting, all wickedness and deceit and sensuality and envy and slander and pride and foolishness, all sin begins in the heart, in our inner man!

God is the one who examines the heart. He does not see as we see, He sees the inner man. God said through the Prophet Jeremiah, 17:9-10 "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? "I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds." The diagnosis is grim. It is fatal and irreversible. No amount of heart surgery will do the trick. We can’t take supplements, there are no exercises that will help. No amount of discipline will improve things. The fact is, the only solution for a sin sick heart is a transplant! You need a new heart.

We are stunned! How can I have a new heart? It leaves you with a sense of helplessness doesn’t it? There is only one who can help, He is the great Physician. God says to us EZE 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances." Only God can give us a new heart.

Jesus said that we must be born from above. It is a work of God. He takes out the old stony heart of sin that defiles us and gives us a fresh new heart. That is what it means to be born again. God gives us a new inner man. The old one was useless and sinful and terminal. The destination of the man or woman who dies with a sinful heart is death and hell. All of our troubles come straight from the heart.

But Paul said in II Corinthians 4: 6: "For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." When we have a new, God-given heart, we can mortify sin. We can put sin to death. But this happens only after we have come to Christ in faith and are redeemed by him! Christian, you can put to death the sin that invades your heart through prayer and agreement with God’s plan for you life. But if you are without Christ, you can never please God. All that can come from your heart is darkness and sin.

A new heart is something you can’t fake. Is your heart dark and dead? You know down deep inside that you are not pleasing to God. You know that if you were die right now, God would reject you.

Are you tired of your darkness and want a new heart? There is only one solution to your problem. You need radical surgery. You need a heart transplant! You need to come to Christ by faith.