St Mark 7, 1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Song of Solomon, 2, 8-13
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
So, turning to our Gospel reading, it begins “Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus …” (Mark 7.1). We know that a debate is coming if the Pharisees and Scribes are there. They had become increasingly concerned about Jesus, his activities and his following. In the chapters before our reading begins, we hear he had been healing people, whoever came to him, making miracles happen, like the feeding of the 5,000, freeing people from the unclean spirits which possessed them, and teaching astonishing things. The Scribes who were there had probably come specially from Jerusalem to join the local Pharisees in keeping a watch on Jesus, and as they probably hoped, in finding a way to be rid of him. The word “Jerusalem” reminds us that it is the seat of the opposition to Jesus, and the place where he will be killed.
The Pharisees and the Scribes immediately see something with which they can take issue. Jesus is apparently allowing some of his followers to eat bread without first washing their hands. We might think that handwashing is a sensible and hygienic thing to do, but it was not until the discoveries of Louis Pasteur in the19th century that we found out about germs. For the Israelites it was a ritual of purification, using very little water, of making pure in the spiritual sense. The Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, set out in detail the rules of ritual cleanliness particularly for priests and perform the sacred sacrifice in the Temple -a sacred place. But the ritual washing of hands before eating by ordinary people went beyond the requirements of Torah Law. They were extra rules which were aimed more at enforcing human interpretations of the traditional laws handed down by the rabbis. However, in defence of the Pharisees and the Scribes, it was part of their role to safeguard the people, keep them from sin and incurring God’s anger. For much of their history the Israelites had frequently disobeyed or rejected their faithful God. And he had punished them, especially in their wanderings in the desert. Now they were settled they did not want to anger God again. So they hedged their lives about with a mass of man made rules which gradually took in the status of divine commands. And this was also an important means of the Israelites marking out their identity as different from the rest of the pagan world. By the time Mark’s gospel was written in around 65-70 AD, Christians had begun to free themselves from the observance of Jewish law. It was a difficult and divisive issue in the growing Church for many years.
The Pharisees’ question about the handwashing also contained criticism of Jesus. If Jesus was a proper teacher, why didn’t he insist that all his disciples followed the tradition of handwashing? Jesus goes to the Old Testament for his response, accusing them of hypocrisy, and quotes Isaiah (29.13), saying the Pharisees are teaching as doctrine the tradition of men. By calling them hypocrites, Jesus means that their criticism is not genuine, their devotion to God is false, their religiosity is a pretence. Their intention is not to honour God, but to bring Jesus down. They are in fact not elders protecting God’s laws, but only men, enforcing human opinions. Jesus is not condemning all tradition, but only the elevation of human tradition to sacred status. In other words, making humans equal to God.
The people were clearly listening with close attention. They were not intimidated by the Pharisees. They wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. He says “there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile him” (make him unclean), and he is speaking about food. He develops the line of thinking and says “But the things that come out of us are what defile.” And he doesn’t mean anything physical like bodily waste. He is referring to the thoughts and feelings of our hearts. And the products of an evil, unclean, heart are, he says, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness – there’s more – envy, slander, pride and folly. Many of these things are sins against the Ten Commandments. And Jesus is turning the attention firmly to scriptural, rather than human authority. The heart here is understood to be the centre of human will and rationality, in addition to desire. It is the place where all our intentions arise, both good and bad. Jesus is reminding his disciples, and us, that we need to focus on preparing our hearts for the kingdom of God where only God’s law stands.
Looking more closely at the sins Mark lists, it is clear that most are sins of consumption. Adultery, theft, avarice, envy, pride spring from a desire to take, to grasp, to own, to devour. The uncleanness of the human heart comes from desire, ultimately from the desire for self-satisfaction. But if we can use practices and observances and ways of thought which turn our hearts to purity, we will begin to desire what God desires and love what God loves. And this is where we come to a vital point. All God’s commandments to us stem from his love for us, his own creation. His love seeks our good. At this point I couldn’t help but remember that wonderful verse in St John’s gospel (14,15) “. If you love me” says Jesus “you will keep my commandments”. And that gives us hope that we will finally find our way to God’s kingdom. And isn’t there also a vision of hope in this morning’s reading from the Song of Songs? After difficulties and separation between the lovers, the man says ”Arise my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is passed, the rain is over and gone”. (Song of Songs 2:10-11).
Amen.
[Sermon delivered by LLM Miss Susan Rawlings]