Mark 7: 1-23

February 16, 2020

   Just before today’s passage from Mark, Jesus and the disciples fed the 5,000, Jesus walked on water and the disciples have healed the sick in towns and villages and marketplaces across the region. 

   Now, some Pharisees and scribes arrive from Jerusalem to see if they can catch Jesus in a mistake and then discredit this troublemaking teacher to the people who have come to him in hope of a new life.

   The new arrivals notice that the disciples are eating bread without following the ritual handwashing practice first. 

   They were eating with defiled hands. 

   You can image your mother’s … or even the parish nurse’s … horror if you were came in from helping people who are sick and never stopped to wash up. That’s the kind of reaction the religious authorities had when they saw the disciples having a meal. 

   For the Pharisees and the scribes tradition and its rituals brought a sense of order to life … and with that order came a sense of security in a time of oppression and uncertainty.

   It was an ah-ha moment … or so they thought.

   The Pharisees … sensing that they have found a way to challenge Jesus … ask him why don’t the disciples ritually clean themselves before they eat.

   “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders?” they ask Jesus.

   Since Jesus is seen as a trainer … a mentor … for the disciples, this question is a criticism of his teachings.

   Ignoring or neglecting the tradition of cleansing before meals meant … at least to the Pharisees … that the disciples and all they did from that point on would also be defiled … and would defile others.

   One of the interesting parts of the confrontation between the religious authorities and Jesus, is that the hand-washing ritual wasn’t really a requirement of daily life for the common folk … at least not initially.

   But through their interpretation of the Torah … the Jewish holy scriptures … the rules were broadened over time to include those outside of the priesthood and their households.

   The Pharisees remind Jesus that the washing requirement wasn’t restricted to hands … cups, dishes and other utensils were also expected to be ritually cleaned. For them, this tradition meant that worship practices were extended into the home.

   The ritual became a sign of a holy life.

   This story isn’t really about having clean hands and making sure there is no crud under your nails when you eat. 

   What can get missed when you read this passage is that Jesus never condemns the practices that the religious leaders embraced … he criticizes the effect on the people and their following of God.

   He criticizes the fact that tradition and appearances have become more important than the original basis for the rituals … helping shape the structure of relationships and of community.

   Jesus affirms the importance of the traditions of the elders that the religious leaders claim to be upholding by pointing out their misinterpretation and the tradition’s misuse at their hands.

   He calls the Pharisees and the scribes to account for the priority they place on practice rather than on mission … on serving others and being faithful to God.

   Jesus reminds the religious leaders that Isaiah had prophesized about their hypocrisy and that the prophet warned that words would not match what’s in peoples’ hearts. 

   In reminding the religious authorities of Isaiah’s words, Jesus points to a disconnect between words and actions … between professing moral values, or faith and love and then not actually putting those words into practice. 

   In Mark’s time, the word “hypocrisy,” referred to acting on a stage or just pretending.

   And to pretend … especially in a religious sense … means that living an inauthentic life … that the truth is distorted and tradition or ritual become the substitute for the truth.

   Looking pious takes the place of actually being pious … because your heart isn’t in it.

   Such hypocrisy … Jesus implies … diminishes the message and damages the credibility of a faith community.

   And I think that we can see the same result in some contemporary faith communities when hypocrites are called to account.

   Amy Howe is parish associate with the Presbyterian Church in Tennessee.

   In examining this story from Mark, she wrote that we need some sense of order to feel secure in our lives. But too much emphasis on the means of having order causes problems.

   Howe said, “When we begin to worship what gives us a sense of order, or bow down to doctrine, we cease to be faithful to God.”

   In short, when we worry too much about form, the function falls away … our hearts move farther from God.

   The defilement … the impurity … that the Pharisees and the scribes feared from outside sources – like unclean hands or utensils … can be actually what we carry within our hearts.

   What we carry in our hearts can either defile or cleanse the world around us. It can serve to isolate us … or to bring us together.

   In Jesus’s time, the law … its traditions and rituals … helped set the people apart from their Gentile neighbours … the Roman oppressors … and even from less-than-strict practising Jews. It was a social boundary marker that set Jews apart from the rest of the community.

   By eating without the ritual … without the expected bowing to tradition … Jesus and the disciples do not set themselves apart from the people. The act is a sign of their unity with the people … serving the people is made a priority over serving tradition and ritual.

   That is the world we are invited into … one where status or rigid adherence to tradition don’t get between peoples or between people and God.

   … it’s a world where hearts embrace the unfamiliar rather than flee from it.

   For a church in transition … in the midst of a transformation … and I am not just speaking of this congregation, but rather of the greater church … the small-c catholic church that we affirm in the creed … the exchange between Jesus and the religious authorities seems especially relevant.

   Today’s passage should prompt us to regularly consider which of our practices … both as individuals and as a faith community … fully reflect God’s purpose. It calls us to consider the inner workings of our hearts and to reset them when the need arises.

   Are these practices … our desire to keep traditions … serving as boundary markers for the faith community? Do they keep people at arm’s length and inhibit our ability or our willingness to invite … to welcome … or to foster a sense of belonging among those who are alone?

   When rules … when our sense of what is good order … or of tradition … serves to diminish others’ sense of worth … or to push people away … by placing ourselves at the centre or to prevent us from fully living into God’s grace … then shouldn’t we work to change that dynamic?

   It certainly appears that this is what Jesus is telling the Pharisees … change the dynamic

   He tells the religious authorities that the word of God is voided by their adherence to tradition … a practice that was established in this world. Luther and his followers called such things as “adiaphora” … they added nothing to faith … and their absence would not detract from the grace we receive through that faith.

   During the coming Lenten Season, we are called to be especially reflective regarding our faith and our relationship with God.

   Perhaps, we might consider how this passage could help us live a faithful life? Perhaps, it might be as simple as being vigilant for things that get in the way … that clutter up our hearts.

   To Jesus, the heart of faith lies at the centre of life.

   Jesus stresses that what comes out of a person’s heart is more important than what goes into their bodies.

   What we hold within it … how we share it with the world … determines the content of our relationships with others and with God. 

   Basing our actions on love … on sharing the gift of grace we have received … means we are living an authentic life … living into our faith … a faith that welcomes all … that brings all people in … and stands against things that push people out.

   And that is when the promise of the gospel is fully experienced and fully realized.

AMEN