Saturday, March 29, 2014

Saturday, March 29, 2014

MARK 7: 1-23 a Reflection… 

"Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?"

What a nasty, judgmental question!  The Pharisees and Scribes have come north from Jerusalem, to challenge and hopefully discredit Jesus with anything that can take the edge off his growing popularity.

Unintimidated by these ‘guilt-mongers’ from his Church, Jesus calls them out as hypocrites in front of the very crowd they hoped would shame him.  But, instead of citing the traditions of men (ritual washing to remove the ‘stain’ of being ‘defiled’ by contact with the outer world), Jesus cites Isaiah who blasts such hollow behaviour…

“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'
8 You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men."

And, Jesus does not leave it there.  He accuses them of teaching men to withhold resources that could help their parents, conveniently declaring such gifts as dedicated to the temple.  So, the Pharisees teach rules of men that override the Commandment to honour one’s father and mother.  Jesus gathers the people closer and makes a breathtaking statement:

15 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.

Many point to this statement as Jesus declaration that all food is acceptable, but that is beside the point.  In Jesus’ time, Jews identified themselves with dietary restrictions and ritual washing when ‘defiled’ by any impure influences – ie. contact with other people.  The Pharisees did a thriving business in keeping everyone in line with over 600 rules.  It is the attitude of “We are special and you others are not” which Jesus challenges.  He challenges the concept that if you merely follow forms, you are religious.  It’s not enough to just do the actions and say the words created by men.  As he quotes Isaiah, in their hearts, they are ‘far from God’.  He leaves the humiliated Pharisees in the street and goes into a house.

To his disciples, he explains: food cannot defile a person.  But what comes out of the heart can.  And to make his point clear, he lists defiling things that arise from the heart – thus expanding on the 10 Commandments…

21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts,
fornication, theft, murder, adultery,
22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness,
envy, slander, pride, foolishness

Jesus is clear – an attitude of heart causes a person to be defiled.  In Jesus’ mind, envy, coveting and foolishness are the same as adultery and murder.  An unclean heart and a defiled soul produce them all.  A small stain is the same as a big one.  For Jesus – defiled is defiled.  A bad heart produces bad thoughts and bad deeds.

For me, this story is a parable for the Church.  The Pharisees look for DIFFERENCES – to identify who is NOT LIKE US.  They need to put up walls of JUDGEMENT, and wash away the defilement of touching the world.  They live in a WE and THEM world, where WE are the Pure of God and everyone else is unclean.  They remind me of too many in our world – fragmented as it is into denominations, sects and separate religions.  It’s an easy attitude to fall into – too easy.  Let a street person walk in on our church service and you’ll see this attitude in full bloom!  

Jesus stands in stark contrast to the Church in his time (and perhaps any time).  He seeks to tear down walls – to see the common humanity in us all.  He does not compartmentalize life as the Pharisees do (now we are worshiping, now we are judging others), but sees it all as one – flowing together inside the Love of God. As Jesus describes it later, the Kingdom of God is an Attitude of Heart, not a place.  

Jesus makes two compelling points in this story:  

One: all the rituals and customs of your Church are useless if your heart is not close to God.  

Two: what comes out of you – your thoughts and actions tell God if you are pure of heart.

So, it occurs to me that separating out times of worship from everyday life are man-made inventions – part of that compartmentalizing thinking.  The whole of life is a worship service – every moment of it.  If I try to keep my heart “right” with God, then I need to have a pure heart every day, at work, at play, at home – all the time, because all of it is worship.  And I need to be responsible for my own thoughts and actions, because it will be God who judges me. Yet I know I can’t keep it up every day, all day without a blunder.  But thanks be to God, it will be Jesus who saves me from my fallible self when my heart loses its way.  

- Peter Mansell   Lent, 2014