Mark 7:1-23, CEB - The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 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.)
So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus,
“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.”
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.’
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.”
Again Jesus 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, Jesus 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.”
Questions: Do you
have rules and/or traditions that you follow without question that you have no
knowledge of the purpose or origin of said rules/traditions? Are you aware of established laws and/or
customs that once served an important purpose, but now actually fulfill a
purpose contrary to the original purpose?
We start with the
questions today because it lies at the heart of this conflict between Jesus and
the pharisees. The pharisees notice that
Jesus’s disciples are eating without properly washing their hands. This is a violation of dietary laws and is considered
to make someone physically and spiritually unclean. The pharisees are calling out Jesus for
allowing his disciples to commit this violation. Jesus’s answer and explanation points out that
the pharisees are not technically wrong, but they are wrong nonetheless.
The laws that the
disciples are breaking were laws originally put in place for public health
reasons. Handwashing is a good idea
before you eat even today. However, the
Pharisees had spiritualized these practices.
Instead of pointing out a potentially harmful health hazard, the pharisees
were seeking to discredit Jesus morally and spiritually for this
violation. Jesus not only calls them out
for calling Him out, He moves toward discrediting them morally and spiritually.
The laws given to
the Hebrews in the Old Testament had been tweaked and changed over the years to
serve not God’s purposes, but the purposes of the pharisees. They had established loopholes in the
God-given laws that allow people to ignore the original laws in favor of the
man-created loopholes. The example Jesus
uses concerns one of the ten commandments, which is to “honor your father and
mother.” The pharisees had commissioned
a technicality that would allow people to give resources to the Temple that
would normally be set aside for taking care of their parents. As managers of the Temple funds, this pharisees
benefitted. In this way they effectually
legitimized the breaking of one of the core Ten Commandments. Jesus says this is just one example of the
corruption for which the pharisees are responsible. Unlike Jesus disciples, the pharisees ARE
morally and spiritually compromised.
Then, Jesus uses the
occasion to give what would have been a revolutionary teaching. People are not spiritually/morally
compromised by what goes into their bodies; they are compromised by the deeds
that flow out of their corrupted hearts.
Handwashing might be a good idea, but failing to do it doesn’t make you
a bad person. Seeking to discredit a ministry
so as to prop up your own does corrupt the people who do such things. Jesus, without saying it explicitly, is subjugating
the dietary laws (and other laws that govern human habits) to the law of
love. All the sins Jesus list at the end
of the passage above are all ways that we destroy human relationships. They are ways in which we betray love. When we betray love, we betray the very heart
of God for God is Love.
The
manipulation of laws and norms by those in power to benefit themselves to the detriment
of others is still a moral and spiritual blight that should be called out for
what it is – corruption of God’s intended order. Institutional systems that create advantages
for some and oppression for others still exist and Jesus is still calling them
out. God’s people called the church are not any
more immune to this corruption than the pharisees of Jesus’s day. It is the call of those who seek to live out
this teaching of Jesus to find ways to level the playing field for all and encourage
all to live by the law of love in all relationships.
Prayer: Lord,
illumine the ways in which we propagate laws and traditions that cause harm and
betray Your law of love. Teach us the
heart of your kingdom. Amen.
Prayer Focus: If you
don’t do this regularly already, spend some time asking God for forgiveness for
the specific wrongs in which you have participated.
Song: Turn My Heart –
Lynn De Shazo
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