Second Series

Questions Jesus Provokes

Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders; and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?" And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

'This people honors me with their lips,but their heart is far from me;in vain do they worship me,teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'

You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men."

And he called the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him." For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man." Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (RSV)

"... and there are many other traditions which they observe ..." (v. 4b)

The most powerful questions Jesus asked were those that made the persons being addressed raise further questions. These occasions created for him opportunities to do his best teaching. The incident Mark tells us about in our text today was just another encounter between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees. They were always watching him and his disciples in order to find a cause celebre by which to cast this new movement into an unfavorable light. They were legalists and an issue was given to them ready-made when they saw the disciples partaking of a meal without washing their hands.

"So what?" we would say today. But not so in Jesus' day. The situation was as follows: there was the Jewish Law which was basic and inviolate. But through the years the scribes and other religious thinkers wanted the Law broken down into all sorts of amendments, exceptions, and appendages, until it developed into thousands of fussy and picky regulations overseeing every possible human situation. This was known as the Tradition of the Elders and, in many cases, it exercised a stranglehold upon religious life. In this case, for example, although the Law required one to eat only with washed hands, the tradition prescribed exactly how it was to be done; the detailed procedure was nothing short of appearing ridiculous. Jesus stepped into the controversy and gave his word of judgment by quoting the prophet Isaiah: "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites in these words: 'These people pay me lip-service, but their heart is far from me: their worship of me is in vain, for they teach as doctrines the commandments of men.' " (NEB).

Then came the follow-up. Jesus moved in on the particular situation. For him, eating with unwashed hands did not render any person unclean in the eyes of God. Nothing that enters anyone through the mouth will make that person unclean. It is only what comes out from the heart, i.e., from the moral and spiritual consciousness, that makes a person to be approved or disapproved of in the sight of God. Joseph Parker commented, "Before God, life is not a question of washed hands, but of a washed heart; it is not a question of how one kneels, but of how one prays."

In terms of life as we know it, what are the human faults and failures intimated here?

(a) These scribes and Pharisees were off-center in their understanding of what is true religion. Ceremony had become, for them, an end in itself; hence, meticulous observances of rules and regulations was, to them, service to God. As long as one recognized God's existence in a prescribed and courteous manner, one was religious. Mere churchgoing, for them, would be the stuff out of which religion is made. Outward observances were a be-all and end-all and, in so acting and believing, the question of the attitude of one's heart towards God did not come up.

(b) These critics of Jesus were at fault because they had become slaves of orthodoxy. Don't the road signs in front of some church buildings cause a scornful burst of laughter? "The Orthodox _____________ Church!" Such titles reek with presumption because, like the scribes and Pharisees, these twentieth-century legalists make religion the product of their mind, and not of simply listening to and accepting the voice of God. Splitting theological hairs and slavish dotting of the "i's" and crossing the "t's" of a creed can never usurp the true essence of the Christian religion.

(c) Further, these carping critics in Jesus' day had a narrow perspective on how religion was to be practiced. Everyone must be religious in one way - their way. As long as men and women carried out their worship and obedience to the Law in a supposedly correct ritual, these persons were automatically good. What does it matter if they hate others or carry envy, bitterness, or jealousy in their hearts?

These are the attitudes and forces Jesus was up against. He bore down upon blind bondage to tradition among these supposedly religious people and what he told them was revolutionary. No wonder they hated him! But he stood firmly on the side of truth: what goes into one's body cannot defile a person. Kosher went out the window! Religion incorporates principles, not constrictive rules and regulations. Many people, then and now, were and are committed to God, but they fail in how this commitment is maintained. Moreover, this art of remaining religious is determined by the basic factor Christianity affirms to be the key to the good life, namely, the renewal of the human heart. This is what Jesus said to Nicodemus:"Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) There is no other way, because it is out of the heart the issues of life come, and, therefore, the roots of sin must be torn from us. Someone said, "There is no power on earth to make a bad heart good." Or, similarily, to keep it so. Social reforms cannot do it. Education cannot achieve it. Armed conflict cannot enact it. Initially, it is the human mind that makes the decision to accept Christ; but it is the heart and will that make that decision stick and keep it firmly faithful to the end of one's life. Daily commitment to his person and prayer pleading to God for strength to do it are the ways to remain religious. The mechanics of religion are secondary. A constant pledge of personal loyalty must have priority.