Appearance is not everything. in Mark 7 Jesus is questioned why his disciples don’t perform cleansing rituals. His answer was about people obeying human traditions than about obeying God’s Word.
Mark 7 returns the reader to the theme of conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders/lawyers (cf. Mark 2:1–3:6). Unless you have sat in the Jewish world you won’t get the point that Mark is making.
The words “unclean” (7:2, 5, 15, 18, 20, 23) and “tradition” (vv. 3, 5, 8, 9, 13) bind the section together. (Grassmick)
scribes (v. 22)—Jewish legal scholars, also called lawyers; trained in the Mosaic law and its application.
tradition of the elders (v. 3)— a reference to the body of extra-biblical laws and interpretations of Scripture that had actually replaced the Scriptures as the highest religious authority in Judaism.
Corban (v. 11)—Heb term meaning, “given to God”; reference to any gift/sacrifice dedicated to God and thus reserved only for sacred purposes
Mark 7:1–5 (NLT) 1 One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. 2 They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. 3 (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions. 4 Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to—such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”
Appearance is not everything. Jesus goes below the surface in Mark 7 to the real issue of the heart…