Mark 7:1-23
“Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” “
As I read this passage, I’ve got to admit that the first part describing the handwashing reminds me of these past 2 years. We’ve had to learn how to wash our hands all over again. The difference is that we wash because it helps keep us healthy, the pharisees do it because of how tied they were to the law.
Very often we live by tradition, (be it how we celebrate Christmas or how we expect our Sunday to structured), which provides continuity with the past and creates a sense of community. Yet sometimes the living tradition can be replaced by fossilised traditions which end up distracting us from what is essential in our beliefs. We once served a church where the biggest ministry team was the history team.
This is what Jesus criticized in his fellow Jews: you think you are good people by observing all the traditions about external things without caring about their spirit. This deserves the harsh judgement of Isaiah, “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.”
This is shocking stuff! Jesus, no stranger to controversy, wipes aside mere adherence to the externals rituals of the law. The Pharisees’ version of religion warped human life and stunted personal growth. Jesus protested against hypocrisy that abandoned the commandments of God in order to cling to ‘human traditions.’
Jesus tells us that it’s what come from our hearts that defiles us, not what we put into our body. Keeping all of the Jewish dietary laws do not make us righteous. Our hearts, and what we say and do reflective of our relationship with Him. When we are in right relationship with God and are followers of Jesus, the world should know that through how we treat them, and how we speak to and treat others.
We need Jesus to shine his light on our hearts to that we can see the quality of our worship – personal and corporate.
Joyfully Yours 