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Yeshua is the Most Important Man Who Ever Lived. The Most Important Man brought the world the Most Important Message, a message that must be believed for human beings, who are alienated from God and headed to Hell, to be reconciled to their Creator and live forever. And being reconciled to our Creator is our greatest need. Everything Messiah did, everything He said, every interaction with others that has been recorded for us in the divinely inspired book of Mark, is extremely important. We want to understand as much as we can about the Most Important Man and His Most Important Message. We want to line up our lives and thoughts with the Most Important Man and His Most Important Message. We want to tell as many people as we can, starting with the Jewish people first, about the Most Important Man and His Most Important Message.

The theme that unites this section of Mark is clean and unclean. First, Mark directs us to a confrontation between Yeshua and some religious leaders over the issue of eating with washed or unwashed hands. The Pharisees and some of the Torah teachers who had come from Jerusalem (these are some of the spiritual leaders of the Chosen People) gathered around Yeshua and saw some of His disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. Mark gives some background information to help his readers understand the issues involved with this confrontation between Yeshua and these religious leaders.

The Pharisees and all the Jewish people do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. This is a conflict between the tradition of the elders, man-made rules, and God-ordained commandments, the Word of God. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles. Mark makes it clear that the addition of rabbinic rules was part of the Judaism of the Pharisees, which became the Orthodox Judaism of today.

So the Pharisees and Torah teachers asked Yeshua, “Why don’t Your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; 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.” Yeshua calls these religious leaders hypocrites – people who say one thing and do another. He compares them to the generation of Isaiah’s day who were outwardly religious but inwardly were far from God. The people of Isaiah’s day also added man-made traditions to the religion of Israel – like Baal worship. So, Yeshua is telling the leaders of His generation that they were the same as Isaiah’s generation – hypocrites who were far from God whose religion was full of human rules that crowded out the commands of God.

I’m sure this correction was received by these religious leaders as a shocking insult. I’m sure these spiritual elites thought they were superior to Isaiah’s generation, that they had learned from the mistakes of that and other generations; that they were much more serious about God and Torah than those earlier generations.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who loves us enough to confront us when we are wrong. It’s not pleasant to be confronted, corrected, rebuked, but we want to receive His correction, which is always right and always beneficial. We are able to receive Messiah’s correction through the still small voice of God speaking to us, making us uncomfortable, convincing us that we are doing or thinking something wrong. We open ourselves to His correction through exposure to the Word of God; and through circumstances that may work against us; and through other the counsel of people.

It’s a very bad thing to add human rules to God’s rules. God’s rules are necessary and beneficial. Human rules are unnecessary and may be harmful; and to make things worse, human rules may crowd out God’s rules; and adding man-made rules to God’s rules insults the Creator because it treats Him and His commands the same as human beings and what they command – and the Creator and His commands are so much higher than the creatures and the creatures’ commands.

The tradition of Netilat Yadayeem – washing hands before eating was not the only tradition that had been added to the Word of God. Yeshua gave these leaders another example. 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.’ And honoring mother and father means helping them when they are old and need financial support. 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 like that.”

Here’s what was happening: The religious leaders allowed people to make a declaration that an asset would be given to the Temple in the future (and I admit I am speculating, but maybe before the asset was actually given to the Temple, for a fee, that asset could be given back to the person who made the declaration), with the result that in the present that asset could still be used by the person; and since the Temple, which represents God, is greater than people, then the asset didn’t have to be used to help people, like parents who needed financial help. (“Sorry mom and dad, I can’t help you because I am very religious and gave my assets as a sacrifice to the Temple. They belong to God now. They aren’t mine to share with you, as much as I wish I could share them with you”.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who wanted the Chosen People to follow the laws of God. Someone who doesn’t want us to nullify the Word of God because of our man-made rules and traditions.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who expects us to know the difference between human rules and God’s rules. Catholics don’t. Orthodox and Conservative Jewish people don’t. Many Protestants don’t. Do you? To know the difference between human rules and God’s rules, you really need to know the Word of God on your own. If you don’t, and if you leave things to your spiritual leaders, and they tell you that everything they teach you is fine, how do you know whether or not they are substituting human rules for God’s rules?

Someone who wants us to honor our parents – which includes taking care of them when they are in need.

Yeshua corrected the Torah Teachers and the Pharisees, letting them know that the tradition to wash hands before eating was a man-made rule and was not necessary to follow. Therefore His disciples had done nothing wrong. In fact, it was the Torah Teachers and the Pharisees who had done something very wrong – by adding human rules to the Word of God.

Eating with unclean hands doesn’t make a person unclean. Messiah then used His correction of the leaders as a teachable moment, instructing the crowd that real defilement is moral and spiritual defilement that comes from within, not ceremonial and ritual defilement that comes from without. Again Yeshua called the crowd to Him and said, “Listen to Me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” After He had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples asked Him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” He asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Yeshua declared all foods clean.) He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Under the Sinai Covenant, the Holy People needed a holy diet to worship a holy God at His Holy House. Eating non-kosher food made us unclean and unfit to worship at the Temple. Messiah is not dismissing that here. In this parable, and Mark tells us this is a parable, Messiah is teaching the Chosen People that there is a worse kind of defilement – a defilement that comes from the moral and spiritual realm, not the ritual and ceremonial realm; defilement that originates from within, not from without.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who wants human beings to be pure in heart, so that there is no place at the core of who we are for sexual immorality and lewdness – crossing God’s boundaries of proper sexual expression; theft – taking what doesn’t belong to us; murder – killing a human being without just cause;

adultery – taking a married man or woman who is not ours to take; envy- wanting things that are not ours to take; greed – the desire for more and more things; malice – hatred of people combined with the desire to see them harmed; deceit and slander – lying to people and defrauding people and saying false or unnecessary things about people; arrogance – thinking about ourselves more highly than we should; thinking that others are lesser than they are; the creature not recognizing its place before the Creator; and folly – foolishness – ignoring God and God’s wise laws and principles.

Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and foolishness – these are the real dangers to us; these are the things that will defile us and ruin us.

Yeshua is Someone who wants us to take an honest look within, to take a moral and spiritual inventory of what is really going on at the center of who we are, and eliminate any moral and spiritual filth that we find there.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who made it clear that eating with unwashed hands does not defile us. Someone who is more concerned about the inside than the outside; more concerned with inner purity than external purity; more concerned with moral and spiritual purity than ritual and ceremonial purity.

Yeshua is Someone who declared all foods clean. That doesn’t mean that He annulled the kosher laws for the Jewish people living under the Sinai Covenant. He never encouraged the Jewish people to abandon any part of the Torah. He is dealing with the issue if it was necessary to wash hands before eating. I think what Messiah is declaring is that all foods that were fit for Jewish people to eat under the Sinai Covenant, whether they were eaten with washed or unwashed hands, were clean. Under Messiah’s New Covenant, all foods are clean in another sense. The peoples of the nations can eat whatever they want and they remain spiritually clean. Eating non-kosher food does not defile them in any way. Nevertheless, I still encourage Messianic Jews to keep the biblical kosher laws (not the many man-made kosher laws that have been added) as part of our Jewish identity and as part of our witness to our people – especially our witness to the more religious of our people.

Mark, still on the theme of clean and unclean, directs us to an incident that took place outside of the land of Israel, teaching us that a day will come when those who were considered unclean, will be clean. Yeshua left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre (north of Israel, in modern day Lebanon). He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet He could not keep His presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about Him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at His feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. So, we have an woman from an impure people with a daughter who had an impure spirit.

She begged Yeshua to drive the demon out of her daughter. Yeshua’s reputation preceded Him, even outside of Israel. The woman must have heard that the miracle-working Rabbi had who freed so many of His people from the control of the demons was in her area. Surely He would help her and her demon possessed daughter.

For those who don’t understand that God has a priority when it comes to evangelism – and that priority is to the Jewish people first; and that priority was to be followed in the ministry of the Messiah; His mission at His first coming was to be exclusively directed to the lost sheep of the house of Israel – proclaiming the Good News and teaching and healing and delivering the lost sheep of the house of Israel from the influence of the demonic – for those who don’t understand this God-ordained “to the Jewish people first” priority – Yeshua’s answer to this Greek woman will come as a shock: “First let the children eat all they want,” He told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” You need to understand that until Messiah arrived, lived a perfect life, died to atone for our sins, rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven, the Jewish people alone were like God’s beloved children; and the other nations were excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God. They were far from God; far from salvation; far from proper moral and spiritual living. They were more like dirty dogs than beloved children. And Yeshua knew that His ministry at His first appearing had to be directed to the children, not to the dogs.

But this Greek woman had a mother’s love and she had faith and she had perseverance. Her daughter needed help. And she knew the Rabbi from Israel could provide that help. And she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then He told her, “For such a reply (not of anger or resentment but a reply of wisdom, grace and humility), you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who had a plan to turn dogs into children; Someone who, after He finished His mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, had a plan to send His Jewish representatives to the nations to transform the peoples of the nations from dogs to children; to bring them to God, to salvation, to eternal life; to remove their moral and spiritual impurity and transform them into the holy sons and daughters of God.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who is sympathetic to a parent who has a child who is under the influence of impure spirits; Someone who is willing to set that child freed from demonic control.

Who Is Yeshua? Someone who can remove demons from a distance. And that’s great, because humanity is like this girl – possessed by the demonic; and even though Yeshua is not physically present with us on Earth, He is still able to set human beings free from the destructive control of the dark kingdom.

Yeshua is Someone who, when He seems to insult us by telling us the truth (it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs), does not want us to respond in anger or resentment but instead, humble ourselves and remain faithful to Him.

Yeshua is Someone who does not wants us to always take no for an answer – even from Him. He is Someone who wants us to persevere in our prayers.

He is Someone who responds to our wisdom, humility, grace, faith and perseverance with a blessing.

Then Yeshua left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis (now they are close to home, on the eastern side of the Kinneret). There some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Yeshua to place His hand on him. After He took him aside, away from the crowd, Yeshua put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue. Yeshua’s fingers placed in the man’s ears and then spitting and touching the man’s tongue were designed to strengthen the man’s faith. He looked up to Heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. That’s amazing. That’s fantastic. That’s praiseworthy. But Yeshua wanted this miracle to remain between Him and this individual. Yeshua commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more He did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. The people were not just a little amazed, but overwhelmed with amazement by the miracle-working Rabbi from Nazareth and what God was enabling Him to do – His wisdom; His courage; His great teaching; His many exorcisms; His abundant and varied miracles. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak” – great miracles of healing that are not easy to do.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who did not do miracles to impress the crowds, to cater to their desire to be entertained by miracles, but to benefit the individual and serve God. Beware of those who perform to impress the crowd – especially if it is followed by an offering.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who can make a man who is unable to hear and unable to speak, hear and speak. And that is so good, so helpful, so hopeful because humanity is like this deaf and mute man. Our spiritual senses have been damaged. We can’t hear the voice of God speaking to us. We are unable to communicate to God the way we need to. We are incapable of speaking the truth the way we need to. However, Yeshua is able to open our spiritual ears so that we can clearly hear God speaking to us. And He is able to loosen our spiritual tongues so we can communicate clearly with our Creator – now and forever.

Who is Yeshua? Someone who can be disobeyed by those who are impressed with Him, who think they know better than He does. Make sure you are not one of those.

Who is Yeshua?

Yeshua is the Most Important Man Who Ever Lived. The Most Important Man brought the world the Most Important Message, a message that must be believed for human beings, who are alienated from God and headed to Hell, to be reconciled to their Creator and live forever.

Yeshua is Someone who loves us enough to confront us when we are wrong.

Yeshua is Someone who wanted the Chosen People to really follow the great laws and principles of the Word of God.

Yeshua is Someone who doesn’t want us to nullify the Word of God because of our man-made rules and traditions.

Yeshua is Someone who expects us to know the difference between human rules and God’s rules.

Yeshua is Someone who wants us to honor our parents – which includes taking care of them when they are older and in need.

Yeshua is Someone who wants to be pure in heart, so that there is no place at the core of who we are for evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and foolishness.

Yeshua is Someone who made it clear that eating with unwashed hands does not defile us. He is Someone who is more concerned about the inside than the outside; more concerned with inner purity than external purity; more concerned with moral and spiritual purity than ritual and ceremonial purity.

Yeshua is Someone who declared all foods clean.

Yeshua is Someone who had a plan to turn dogs into children, by sending His Jewish representatives to the peoples of the nations.

Yeshua is Someone who is sympathetic to a parent who has a child who is under the influence of the demonic.

Yeshua is Someone who is willing and able to set that child freed from demonic control.

Yeshua is Someone who can remove demons from a distance, who, even though is not physically present with us, can set human beings free from the destructive control of the dark kingdom.

Yeshua is Someone who, when He seems to insult us by telling us the truth, does not want us to respond in anger but humble ourselves and remain faithful.

Yeshua is Someone who does not wants us to always take no for an answer – even from Him. He is Someone who wants us to persevere in our prayers.

Yeshua is Someone who responds to our wisdom, humility, grace, faith and perseverance with a blessing.

Yeshua is Someone who can make a man who is unable to hear and unable to speak, hear and speak; Someone who is able to open our spiritual ears so that we can clearly hear God speaking to us. And He is Someone who can enable us to communicate with our Creator – now and forever.

Yeshua is Someone who did not do miracles to impress the crowds, to cater to their desire to be entertained by miracles, but to benefit the individual and serve God.

Yeshua is Someone who can be disobeyed by those who are impressed with Him, who think they know better than He does.

May God enable Yeshua be all these things to us and may we respond faithfully to all that He is and become all that we should be. Amayn? Amayn!