We wouldn’t be happy about people eating with unwashed hands, either, but Jesus was right: it’s what comes from within that causes the most problems in the world.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the seventh chapter of Mark’s gospel (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23), one of Jesus’ disputes with some Pharisees.
The Pharisees began with a perfectly reasonable question: “Jesus, why don’t your disciples wash their hands before they eat?” We today would ask somebody who came to the table with dirty hands why they hadn’t washed before they ate. In the first century, this was also a question of ritual relationship with God. Washing was a way to remind people not just of their relationship, but of their obligations, before God. The Pharisees’ question was perfectly sensible.
The question, or quite possibly the questioners, seem to have irritated Jesus quite a bit. He raised an issue — which our lectionary editors have omitted — of a practice among some wealthy and powerful Pharisees. They would tell their parents that a portion of their wealth had been designated as sacred to God, and that therefore it could not be used to support them. “This people honors me with their lips,” Jesus said, “but they are far from me in their heart.”
How widespread that practice was I do not know, but it is clearly not just a circumvention of obligation, it is, in fact, flying in the face of one of the Ten Commandments. No wonder Jesus was irritated. He told his disciples that it is the things that come from within that defile, things like anger and malice and jealousy and greed.
I’m not going to tell you not to wash your hands, particularly since we’ve had abundant demonstration over our lifetimes that reducing the spread of disease is an awfully good thing. What I am going to tell you is to focus on those things that come from within. When those impulses towards violence or malice or jealousy, when those impulses towards greed and selfishness, when that self-righteousness rears its ugly head, then it is time to remember that we are to keep our souls and our actions as pure as we can. Don’t swallow the anger: manage it. Don’t exercise the greed. Don’t bring the bad things that are on the inside to the outside.
Instead, let the grace of God fill your heart and bring your face and your fingers into accordance with the guidance and the example of Jesus.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
