Canterbury Gardens Community Church (CGCC)
Sep 27, 2026 · 38 min · 10 segments
Mark walks us through Mark 7:1-23 and asks us to consider a very important question. Want to know more about CGCC? Just head to our website: https://www.cgcc.org.au/
So, we've heard the story.
The Pharisees and the Jews, they don't eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders.
When they come from the marketplace, they don't eat unless they baptise their hands, wash them.
And there's many other traditions they do, says Mark, washing cups and vessels and couches.
These traditions, the traditions of the elders, it functions as a how-to guide, how to get by in life and how to stay clean.
Now we see it, how not to get unclean, how not to be defiled.
And the Pharisees say, why don't you bother with that, Jesus? Or at least why aren't you pulling up your disciples for not washing properly? They are eating with defiled hands.
What we're not talking about here, it's important to remember, especially post-COVID, we're not talking about hygiene and germs.
They're not worried then about germs.
Perhaps they should have been, but...
They weren't.
They didn't know about it.
They're talking about a ceremonial defilement, about becoming unholy, about contacting things that would make them unclean and unfit to be in God's presence.
Now, that can be physical discharges and fluids of all kinds from the body that make you unclean.
And it's also the unclean classes of people.
And this is particularly where the marketplace issue comes in.
Who knows who's been touching these things that you bring back from the marketplace? They might be unclean people, lepers or Samaritans or Gentiles.
And as we listen, remember, we're all Gentiles.
Our inclusion today depends a lot on this story.
The Pharisees' solution was to baptise their hands, to wash their hands, to wash the vessels.
So let's see Jesus' view of this tradition.
So, we've heard the story.
The Pharisees and the Jews, they don't eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders.
When they come from the marketplace, they don't eat unless they baptise their hands, wash them.
And there's many other traditions they do, says Mark, washing cups and vessels and couches.
These traditions, the traditions of the elders, it functions as a how-to guide, how to get by in life and how to stay clean.
Now we see it, how not to get unclean, how not to be defiled.
And the Pharisees say, why don't you bother with that, Jesus? Or at least why aren't you pulling up your disciples for not washing properly? They are eating with defiled hands.
What we're not talking about here, it's important to remember, especially post-COVID, we're not talking about hygiene and germs.
They're not worried then about germs.
Perhaps they should have been, but...
They weren't.
They didn't know about it.
They're talking about a ceremonial defilement, about becoming unholy, about contacting things that would make them unclean and unfit to be in God's presence.
Now, that can be physical discharges and fluids of all kinds from the body that make you unclean.
And it's also the unclean classes of people.
And this is particularly where the marketplace issue comes in.
Who knows who's been touching these things that you bring back from the marketplace? They might be unclean people, lepers or Samaritans or Gentiles.
And as we listen, remember, we're all Gentiles.
Our inclusion today depends a lot on this story.
The Pharisees' solution was to baptise their hands, to wash their hands, to wash the vessels.
So let's see Jesus' view of this tradition.
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