A text – Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 20-22
7 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands,[a] thus observing the tradition of the elders, 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash,[b] and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.[c]) 5 So the Pharisees and scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
8 “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”[e]
20 And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
A reflection:
This week our texts speak about the Law and religious traditions that the Hebrew people observed as Law. The religious leaders were looking for ways to entrap Jesus, to get him to say something for which they could convict him, to get his influence off the streets. Jesus was causing quite a stir and drawing the unwanted attention of the Roman overlords. This was dangerous to church leaders of his day. And then, actually Jesus himself was trying to catch the religious leaders as much as they were trying to catch him. Jesus wanted to show all of humanity that God is not interested in obedience to the letter of the law, since no one can be perfect. Jesus wanted to show all of us that our relationship to God is what counts, and from that grows our better relationships to other people, especially the vulnerable. He wanted to teach this to everyone – both leaders and common people.
In this story it all starts with handwashing, for which there were plenty of rules among the Hebrews. Jesus uses the objection the leaders have to the disciples eating without washing to point out that nothing that goes into the body – a slightly dirty fruit peel, a bit of dirt on your hands, or even a particular kind of meat or seafood placed off limits by religious rules – can defile a person. All of God’s creation is good and a gift to all the creatures God has made and continues to love. What defiles is what comes from inside a person and shows itself out in the world – greed, lust, folly – all the things that mess up our relationships with one another and God. Jesus is teaching that God gives us all good things. It is when our hearts are out of touch with God and one another that defiling things come about.
What does this mean for us? Probably that God isn’t counting sins or errors against us on some kind of scoreboard, as those Hebrew church leaders believed and as many folks believe today. Instead God is looking to be close to us, reconciling us to God’s very self day after day. In this story Jesus is saying that nothing God provides is bad, and that we are to use God’s gifts however we can, giving thanks and being generous to our neighbors. That is the way to a righteous life. Not how we wash our hands, but how we receive and share goodness from God with others.
A prayer:
Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us all good things. Make us mindful that they come from you: a good sleep, a good meal, a secure house, a talent for making a living, our beloved families. From the joy that we get from these things, help us share in the world with our neighbors, so that we, too, are a source of goodness for them. Amen.
Short Dwellings in the Word by Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison 