Day 994 - Do You Understand?

A reflection for the Men’s Bible Study at Second Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga TN,  August 27, 2015

Text: Mark 7: 1-23

Note: Some of the questions and consideration found at the end of this reflection derive from a "Serendipity Group Bible Study," entitled, Gospel of Mark - Exploring the Life of Jesus, by Richard Peace. Thanks to Richard.

Throughout the Gospel of Mark, Jesus shows rather pointed disregard for ritual laws and hardened hearts. A subtext of the Gospel of Mark is that harden hearts keep one from understanding the Gospel, just as it blinds one to the state of the abused and oppressed. Jesus has regularly taken his disciples to task for this. Here in verses 1-13 of Chapter 7, he turns his attention to the hearts of the Pharisees who have made the Law a stumbling block for God’s people. Verse 14 forms the theme for this lesson, “Do you understand?”

¹Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, ²they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. ³(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; ⁴and 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.)

This is the second delegation of Jewish leaders who have come from Jerusalem to examine this troubling man from Galilee.

This passage is one that points to the likely fact that the audience of Mark’s Gospel was not from Jewish Palestine, or possibly even Jewish at all. Mark has inserted a parenthetical explanation of the cleanliness rituals of the Hebrews for the reader.

This hand washing is strictly a ceremonial law. No one at this time knew about a “germs.” Much like Muslim Imams today, when a rabbi established a point of religious law, it was authoritative and binding on all Jews. There were perhaps thousands of religious laws that Jewish Rabbis created over the ages. These "laws" were not (originally) intended to supplant the Law but to provide a "protective layer for proper regard and practice of the Law). Hence they became the cultural tradition for practice of the law. (You may want to refer to Post Day 988 for more thoughts on the role of culture on belief.) These religious traditions, initially well intended to guide the practice of honoring the commandments, they had devolved into a set of practices that were supposed to impart religious cleanliness, or righteousness.

⁵So 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?” ⁶He 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;

⁷in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

Jesus and the Pharisees place great authority on the written law, and Jesus has made a very strong statement by invoking the prophet Isaiah, a prophet both of them regard highly. He is using the words of scripture against the Pharisees. The Greek word hypocrite meant to pretend to be something one is not. Eventually it came to mean someone who thought they were holy because the followed the rules. But Jesus is saying to them through Isaiah, it is what is written in the heart that is important. Heart to the Jew means the seat of personality. Thus Jesus is saying their very self is corrupt.

⁹Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! ¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹But 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)— ¹²then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, ¹³thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”

Jesus is giving an example of how the Pharisees and Rabbis have nullified the written law by their turned oral tradition. The priests, to ensure they had sufficient money to maintain their priestly duties (and who knows what, or if else) told the people that they are obligated to give their resources to God (via the Priests). If you say, “All good gifts come from the Lord,” then they say that you have made an oath that your gifts must first go the temple, not your parents. Therefore, you are violating the Law to “honor your father and mother” by honoring your vow to the priests. How much more severe an indictment is possible than to say you have nullified the Word of God?

Jesus never lets a teaching moment pass unused. He now turns to the basic principle of what makes a person clean.  He is not attacking the Law. This is an important point about this passage. It deals with the interpretation of the Law, not the Law itself.  Jesus is going to negate the idea that by simply practicing the Law or its tradition makes a person holy. He turns to the crowd and offers a parable of sorts:

¹⁴Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

Defile means to make ritually unclean. Jews were made unclean by touching animals like pigs or snakes, dead bodies and blood, Gentiles, lepers, certain cooking instruments, having sexual relations with their wife when she was menstruating, etc.

¹⁷When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, ¹⁹since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)  [Note the NRSV omits v 16.]

Jesus is following the teaching of Isaiah and Jeremiah. He is attacking the idea of obeying on religious purity laws being sufficient to impart holiness. Recall that he has done several insulting things that fly in the face of the tradition of the priests, scribes and Pharisees; he has eaten with beggars, not fasted when expected, and not kept the Sabbath as they expect. (See Mark 2:15-28, for example.)

The Greek is very graphic, basically saying these ritual laws, that do not go to the heart but the stomach, are excrement left in the latrine. Mark’s editorial insert has profound implications that Paul picked up in his discussion with the Corinthians over eating food for the idols.

²⁰And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. ²¹For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, ²²adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. ²³All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

This previous declaration combined with these verses spoken to a probable Gentile audience tells them that they are free from ceremonial law and other customs of the Jews and only bound by their heart's fealty to the law. This is an important point that Jesus will demonstrate this by his own personal action in the next verses (vv24-37) we will cover next week, his meeting with the Syrophenician (Gentile) woman. (We have discussed this passage and may want to consider the alternative scripture, James 2:1-17.)

Some questions to ask, or think about if you are not comfortable discussing the answers:

•          Jesus states that fulfilling human tradition can interfere with obedience to God. Have you ever felt the traditions of the Presbyterian Church, or the church of your youth, got in the way of your effort to obey God and seek to enlarge your righteousness? What did you give up, faith or tradition, or anything?
•        When are you most hypocritical in your life and how do you try to avoid it?
•         If you could change some things about your denominations rules that seem to be about traditions of men, what would they be?
•        Have you ever faced a conflict between your religious obligation and your loved ones? What happened?
•        Of all the things listed in vv 21-23 that make one unclean, which do you struggle with the most?

Comment

This text has a number of facets. Jesus is clearly focusing on the fences the Pharisees have built around the Law that were originally intended to defend it but have become stumbling blocks to God’s people.

In Mark’s Gospel, this passage ends his mission in Galilee and marks a move to Gentile territory. He has established that the traditions of Judaism itself are not a necessary gate for a person to reach righteousness.

The Gospel writers, Paul, and James, as well as our own denominations have come to different interpretations about the importance of tradition. James, in the passage we may examine next week (James 1:25 and 2:1-17), and Matthew (Chapter 5) stake out a conservative position (James - that the ethical ground of behavior is the law of liberty and Matthew - that Jesus is the sole interpreter of the law.)

Paul’s liberal approach, on the other hand completely repudiates the Law for moral or ethical justification of Christian life, see Romans 2, 1 Corinthians 8-10, Galatians 3-5 for examples. (It is ironic that our more fundamental dear friends rely so heavily on Paul.)

Christians continue to struggle with this issue of law and tradition, for example, posting the ten commandments in public places as the only ethical guide for living, only using certain hymnals or bible translations, having a “Book of Order” or “Book of Worship” that is interpreted to prescribe certain ways of worshipping, expecting a person to wear certain types of clothes to worship, establishing who can serve or partake communion, defining what decorations or accouterments are allowed in the sanctuary. The list goes on as we tie ourselves up in knots over “proper order” under the law.

Consider how we order and conduct our worship in a typical congregation, and then read the Directory of Worship in the Presbyterian Book of Order. Often we grasp this line in the preface: “It (Directory of Worship) sets standards and presents norms for the conduct of worship in the life of congregations” and overlook the caution, “A Directory for Worship is not a service book with fixed orders of worship, a collection of prayers and rituals, or a program guide… it describes the theology that underlies Reformed worship and outlines appropriate forms for that worship.” We also overlook the first chapter of that Directory that says our very act of living Christ-like lives is an act of worship.

But on the other hand, “tradition” can have a positive role that preserves the basic message of scripture. When tradition is not used as a rigid end in itself but is open to just refinement, it provide an inertia to emotional forces of change and balanced accommodation of new knowledge always faced by the Reformed church.

Amen.