In our study of Mark we are in Mark 12:38-40; and the parallel passage in Matt 23; where Jesus is condemning the Jewish leadership for their failure to fulfill their duty to properly instruct the people according to God's Word.
Matt 23:23; "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe habitually, continually and fastidiously tithe in minute detail but you have omitted the more important provisions of the law.
"they had omitted the "weightier matters of the law" or the more important things) that the God's Word in the Old Testament scriptures told them to do." see NET
They omitted "justice, mercy and faith" and the Pharisees were those who sat on the Sanhedrin as "justices" in the supreme court of the land but they did not implement justice.
Every Pharisee was a ruler of the Jews in the sense that he was a justice on the Supreme Court and they should have been handling their cases with justice but they weren't.
The second thing they were omitting was "mercy"; mercy is grace in action. The Pharisees were also the theologians, so they should have been teaching grace instead of their legalistic manmade taboos.
On the Sabbath they should have been teaching that "you work six days and that working represents what God has done for you not what you have done for yourself.
Under grace God does all the work. In God's ritual plan of the Jews, on the seventh day you rested because you needed to sit down and remember that you can do nothing for your salvation, you can do nothing for your blessings; you can do nothing for approbation from God because God has provided everything for you.
You rest every Sabbath to remind yourselves that you live by grace and grace alone. That is what the Pharisees should have been teaching, but instead they had implemented all of these crazy taboos that were a burden. They should have been teaching the true purpose of the Sabbath and focus on Jesus Christ not their legalistic taboos in their manmade law.
The Sabbath was a reminder. It shows the principle that the purpose for doing nothing on the Sabbath was to remind you that you can do nothing for salvation. The Sabbath was a memorial to the grace of God.
The leadership of our nation is doing the same thing today. They are not exercising justice instead they are demanding compliance with irrational insane taboos such as global climate change tyranny, multi-culturalism tyranny and the dietary tyranny they are implementing for children in the schools.
Stupid insane taboos are being promoted rather than the truth of grace and mercy.
Our nation's leaders are committing fraud and deception just like the Jewish leaders did so they are under the same condemnation from Jesus that the Jewish Leaders were.
The third thing they should have been teaching but weren't was "faith." The only means of salvation is faith in Jesus Christ. Faith rest is the only source of peace and victory and happiness in the life; "these you should have done, and not left the other undone."
Because of their failure to do the more important things in verse 24 Jesus uses an analogy to describe them.
Matt 23:24; "You blind guides, you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel." The gnat refers to their focus compliance with the less important material things; the camel refers to their failure to implement the more important principles of God's Word.
They had failed in their responsibility as justices of the supreme court of Judea, they had failed in their responsibility to teach God's grace. They had failed to declare the gospel of faith alone in Christ, and they had failed to teach faith rest as the solution to problems in life.
Religion fails because ignores the spiritual that is very important and emphasizes the material and temporal that is less important.
One example of this today is the micromanagement of peoples lives rather than focusing on teaching the principles that enable people to be self governing and therefore autonomous.
When there are no standards that are based on principles from God's Word then tyrannical rulers attempt to control the people with rules.
Another example of this today is the social gospel and black liberation theology. Religion in Jesus' day put the emphasis in the material and the temporal instead of the spiritual in the same way that the social gospel and black liberation theology do today.
The subculture created by this false doctrine divorces its adherents from the norms and standards of the culture that the country was founded on.
This is the source of some of the chaos that is presently occurring in the USA and why the national guard is being deployed to control the lynch mob in Ferguson, MO. Hosea 4:6;
The lynch mobs in our country today are no different than the lynch mob in Jesus' day that shouted "crucify Him, crucify Him." Mark 15:12-15;
Matt 23:25; "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess."
Cups and platters are used to serve food and drink. In the analogy the Pharisees were cleaning the outside of the serving dishes but not the inside where the remains of the old food was rotting.
It's more important to clean the inside than the outside because what is inside will contaminate any additional food that is added.
The Pharisees emphasized the externals and ignored the internal condition of the individual.
The word "within" indicates that they were great on taboos and outward morality but inside were filled with horrible sins and evil. This is what happens with religion people because of their exclusively external focus.
Religion never solves the problem from the inside out with faith alone in Christ alone and Bible Doctrine it just tries to clean up the outside so that it looks presentable even thought it really isn't because what's inside is all contaminated.
The Pharisees' bad example demonstrates two lessons regarding the outside and the inside. The first lesson is that morality is not spirituality..
The second lesson that an exterior system of morality is no good without the interior support of mental attitude.
To the casual observer outside they looked righteous and good but inside they had mental attitude sins such as envy, jealousy, pride, hatred, implacability, and bitterness, they had sins that express hostility and hatred, and they had motivational sins including approbation lust, power lust, and lust for money.
The inner sins make external righteousness a hypocritical sham.
The outside of the serving dish being clean is analogous to morality, taboos, and looking good and clean while at the same time the inside of the cup or the platter where the food is filthy representing the mental attitude sins and the motivational sins.
Religious people avoid overt immorality while at the same time nursing and catering to their inner mental attitude and motivational sins.
Religion always emphasizes the exterior and ignores the mental and the motivational sins that are at the source of all overt sins.
This is exactly what the Antichrist progressive political religious leaders are doing in the USA today.