1. What are some of your favorite traditions? What traditions do you not like?

2. Read Mark 7:1-23. What were the Pharisees and teachers of the law concerned about? Why? (7:2-5)

3. What did Jesus say the Pharisees were doing wrong? (6-8)

4. How did Jesus illustrate His accusations against the Pharisees? (9-13).

5. How did the Pharisees' ideas of "unclean" differ from those of Jesus? (14-23)

6. When is it wrong to hold onto the traditions of man?

7. What did Jesus want his audience to do?

8. What are some examples of traditions in the church that might stop people from becoming interested in Christianity or from focusing on the central concerns of faith?

9. How can you guard against practicing the kind of tradition-bound, external religion that Jesus condemned?