Bible Text: Mark 7:1-23 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
Many years ago Margaret Visser, who calls herself an anthropologist of everyday life, wrote a book entitled “The Way We Are” in which she wrote short essays on certain Western Hemisphere eccentricities. One essay, is on how and why we greet one another. She explains that kissing someone upon meeting them was viewed as unacceptable in Great Britain since about the early Victorian era because kissing someone in public was viewed as a “continental” extravagance. She also explains that in the medieval period, men were expected to kneel on two knees to God and on one knee to a superior. Women were expected to always kneel on both knees for God and others. This kind of kneeling was called a “curtsy” which comes from the word courtesy which originally meant behaviour refined enough to be practised by courtiers. It explains why we still are expected to curtsy when royalty walk in the room. When kissing was no longer acceptable and a curtsy was reserved for royalty, hand-shaking became the predominant way to greet one another. Hand-shaking had always been a symbol of forming a contract and shaking with the right-hand was a symbol of peace, as tying up your right hand with another meant you could not draw your sword. Of course there was a time when we gave up even hand-shaking for that elbow nudge during the H1N1 situation but it seems that most of us predominantly greet one another with a handshake and I like that it means both peace and a contract. Greeting one another, regardless of how, is a human tradition that is appropriate as it displays hospitality and warmth. But there are often other traditions that are strange or at least certainly have strange roots. In fact, most of the time we don’t know where our traditions come from.
Jesus speaks to tradition and the difference between laws and traditions in our passage, and appropriately enough, he speaks predominantly to the Pharisees and scribes followed by the always present crowd, and his disciples. The word Pharisee in Hebrew means, “set apart” or “to be separated” and they viewed themselves as not only scholars but set apart to be the primary interpreters of the Torah and authority on Mosaic law. A very important distinction of the Pharisees is that they believed that along with the written Torah there was also an oral tradition consisting of subsequent laws and traditions. In modern Judaism many of those extra laws can be found in the Talmud. In case your wondering, Sadducees believed only in the written Torah and followed the priestly tradition found within that text. That’s the predominant difference between those two groups. This distinction about the Pharisees is important to our text because Mark says that the Pharisees ask, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders?” meaning the oral tradition not the laws and statutes found within the written Torah, our Old Testament.
The conflict Jesus has with these Pharisees starts with a comment about ritual purity. It appears that some of the disciples have chosen to eat without washing their hands. While, culturally this is actually kind of gross, according to the oral tradition of Mosaic law it is also forbidden. The Pharisees are attempting to accuse Jesus of not abiding by very important laws, not just appropriate social behaviours. They are accusing Jesus with the charge that Jesus is not only not following the law but is acting above the law.
Jesus is pretty clever because he responds using words from Isaiah, a prophet whom the Pharisees honour. He then accuses them of being hypocrites because here they are stating that they are followers of the law given to Moses by God when in fact they have rejected God’s law in order to keep their own traditions. While they accused Jesus of not abiding by these very important laws Jesus accuses them of distorting the laws to fit their own human desires. This is not just a critique on empty worship traditions but a pretty big accusation and rebuke. Jesus then follows it up with a concrete example. Korban was initially the act of offering a kosher animal as a burnt offering at the Temple. In Hebrew the word means “to be close to someone” and it implies that to offer a burnt offering brings one closer to God. However, the Pharisees are allowing family’s to bring the assets of their elderly parents to the Temple as a form of Korban instead of honouring their father and mother. Basically they are taking away the support needed for ageing parents. This act is not going to do anyone any favours and certainly not bring anyone closer to God.
Jesus then turns to the crowd and his disciples and states that the issue is not ritual purity but the purity of the heart. He shifts the conversation from traditions to heartfelt actions. All these laws and traditions, while they help us in our expression and worship of God and give us discipline to follow God’s will, they are not by themselves what prepares us for God’s kingdom, rather it is what we feel and do in our heart. Within the Hebrew tradition the heart was not the emotional centre- emotions where believed to be felt in the gut. The heart was where our thoughts came from, for example when Mary ponders all those things in her heart, it means she is thinking very hard about what is happening. The heart was the centre of human will and rational thought. It was the place where intent arises. Jesus is stating that the intent of the heart is full of evil and this evil comes not from external things but from within ourselves.
Jesus is making it clear that the importance is not in the outward condition but the inward condition of a believer. This is a challenge for us because human traditions are deeply rooted within the human spirit and most of the time we don’t even realized that they are traditions of human constructs. This is also a difficult passage because human law is outside but divine law is within and divine law expresses itself in the life of the believer. While things like theft, murder and adultery, might be pretty easy for some of us to avoid. Avarice, wickedness, deceit and licentiousness are a little more difficult and to be honest not a day goes by when envy, slander, certainly pride and definitely folly creep into my thoughts, words, and even actions. So, what do we do?
We seek relief in some of those laws that have a foundation in Jesus Christ. Because what this story tells us is that God has a concern for our relationship with God. This is an invitation by Jesus to open ourselves to God and to each other in new ways- which can only lead us to new ways of being a church- with strength, compassion, hope and joy. Jesus’ words, while intimidating and concerning actually provide for a transformation. Jesus does not say that the heart is totally a lost cause, while evil intentions may come from the heart, so do good ones. And if that traditional Sunday School song taught me anything it is that I’ve got Joy, peace that passes understanding, and I’m so happy, so very happy, because I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart. Amen