Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and 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.) So, 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?’ He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written:
“This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.”You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’ Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’
Mark 7: 1-8,14-15,21-23
Jewish food practices – like some of the traditions that we follow – helped build community and reminded people of their commitment to live according to God’s values. In that sense, hand-washing was a way of making mealtime sacred. But this isn’t really about hand washing. On one level it’s more about a distinction between commandments, which should always be followed, and traditions, which are more flexible – and even more about not using traditions as a stick to beat other people over the head with. If any of us have come across people arguing about church furniture, or candles, or which liturgy is best, we know what that looks like.
On another level this is about the difference between outward actions and what’s going on in someone’s heart. The things that really cause problems are attitudes and behaviours, the things we feel or do. And it’s less about whether we stick to certain traditions and more about the mindset with which we approach the world and all that’s in it. What’s actually going on in our hearts is shown by how we act, towards others and towards ourselves: our outward behaviour exposes the quality of our inner lives – what we’re like when there’s no-one else around.
The Pharisees cared about holiness, on living life in a way that honours God. That’s where the purity laws and all the other regulations came in, and that’s what all spiritual practices are about. The entire apparatus of Christian spirituality: praying the Lord’s Prayer, the Prayer Book, different types of music, icons and incense, sacraments and sermons – all of this is there to connect what we are on the inside with the God in whom we live and move and have our being. Outward acts relate to inward motivation: to the heart, the core of the human person.
Jesus is offering a cure for the problems of the human heart, a change away from the inner life that results in all those wrong actions we find ourselves doing, even when we don’t want to. He’s offering a way of life which honours the God who spoke through scripture, the God behind all the original purity laws and the other ways in which human beings try to live a holy life. What Jesus is offering is nothing less than the kingdom of God.
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