Devotion • July 21
Today's Scripture
Mark 7:1–23
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 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;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God) — then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (NRSV)
Reflection
It has been said that tradition, rightly practiced, is the living faith of the dead rather than the dead faith of the living. But a living faith is a powerful, if not threatening, force. In the face of God’s disruptive and transformative power, our traditions can be the very things we hide behind in order to protect ourselves.
Jesus’ entangling with the Pharisees and scribes was a lesson in drawing out that hidden motive. As contentious as their arguing can be, we should recall that these two groups of religious leaders were not so much antagonists to Jesus as they were co-laborers in the work of religious discernment. To use the language of many a workplace, they “pushed back” on each other often. But they did so in service to a Torah and a God they both loved.
But love doesn’t stop us from deceiving ourselves, even with the best of intentions. At first glance, the complaint lodged against Jesus is not without some merit. The venerable customs of meal sharing, with their roots in the Torah, required washing hands in order to cleanse oneself from contact with persons regarded as ritually impure. But upon further reflection, the impure, in this case, were often the poor, disabled, and widowed. To guard against the impure but show little curiosity for how these persons were driven into their lot is to miss the forest for the trees. And as Jesus pointed out with regard to financial support for parents, his co-laborers were capable of bending tradition when properly motivated.
Jesus’ subtle defense of the vulnerable persons he went into marketplaces and homes to heal and cure reminds us that we too often mold our practices, policies, and traditions into a shield that protects us. But, as Jesus might say, let’s not miss the grandest tradition of all, the one that calls us into God’s mission to redeem and heal all God’s beloved people.
Prayer
Holy God, your ways are above and beyond our own. Teach me not to hide from you or the mission to which you call me, but to seek you always, trusting that your grace will provide all we need. Amen.
Written by Joseph L. Morrow, Associate Pastor for Evangelism and Community Engagement
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
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