Year 5, Day 154: Mark 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval, Authority

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.
• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

I think in many ways the concepts of approval and authority go hand in hand.  After all, if God is truly in our up position, then we will seek God’s approval.  If we are genuinely living with God in our Up position and seeking His approval, then we will also be living with His authority governing our lives and actions.

As proof of this, look at the last two stories in this chapter.  With the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus is clearly living out the authority of God.  He doesn’t even need to be present with the sick girl to cast out the demon from her presence!  With the deaf man, Jesus pulls him aside and is able to cure whatever was wrong with him as well.  Notice that Jesus doesn’t do this act for the praise of men.  In fact, He actual forbids them to make a big deal about it.  Jesus is doing the will of God.  Getting His approval and authority from the Father is enough for Him.

However, what about the people in the region of the Decapolis.  Jesus tells them to keep quiet about the action and they do not.  They were disobedient.  We don’t know why, only that they were zealous in their disobedience.  My guess is that the people were chasing after the approval of others around them.  They wanted to share the gossip about Jesus.  They wanted to be seen as someone who saw the miracle happen.  They wanted to be the center of their community’s attention and get their fifteen seconds of fame.

Now let’s return to the first set of stories in this chapter.  Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for paying more attention to the traditions of mankind rather than the commandments of God.  He does this in two contexts: food laws and honoring ones parents.

The fundamental issue is why the Pharisees would from God’s perspective pay more attention to human traditions than God’s own Law.  The answer is simple, I believe.  The Pharisees were looking from approval from one another.  They could justify each other’s eating habits.  They could justify each other’s giving to sustain the religious institution instead of caring for one’s parents.  In seeking the approval of the religious leaders around them, they were also seeking to increase the authority through which they lived, too.  The Pharisees cared more about the traditions of mankind because their approval and authority were rooted in the human hierarchy around them.

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