Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

There are moments I forget while living life in our religious churchy world, that people can far too easily get wrapped up in proper religious observance and miss the heart and intent that lies beneath. During my years as a youth pastor, I was honored when my new youth group gave me a nickname. It was quite innocent but meant to convey the fact that I was their pastor. Rather than call me Pastor John as they have been instructed by the church leadership (this was back in the 90’s when some formality was still expected) they decided I was PJ. I understood at once this was beautiful, right, and good. Some adults however thought it was disrespectful and brought to my attention the teens should respect my “title.” As I was new, I lacked the relational capitol to speak as authoritatively as I would have liked and simply asked that they not correct the youth because it was indeed a demonstration of respect and more importantly one of love. By calling me PJ they were saying, “now you really are our pastor.”

In chapter 7 of Mark’s gospel, it feels like we are walking in on a clash of cultures that could just as easily be happening in the board room or hallway in any of our own churches today. We have not had an encounter in Mark’s gospel between Jesus and he Pharisees since chapter 3 and now it was time for a dust up. Informing Jesus that some of his disciples have failed to follow the Jewish rituals, is now the problem of the day to be addressed. Mark’s gospel goes into a lengthy description of the importance of hand washing for hygiene as well as the ceremonial cleanliness needed for proper observance. This is followed by a question in verse 5 aimed at the heart of their own misunderstanding of the deeper demands of faith. “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?”

This is an issue of halakah, a combination of written and oral laws meant to guide the daily lives and practice of observant Jews. Halakah means “to go” or “walk” or even “to behave.” Different from the Law, the halakah was a preservation of oral tradition serving as a means to insure holiness of action through proper observance. The question was a challenge to Jesus’ halakah. “What are you requiring your disciples to do if they do not follow the teaching of the elders?” “How do you ensure the holiness of your followers Jesus?”

Although the question asked of Jesus does have some legitimacy, Jesus responds quickly and somewhat harshly. “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites…” Quoting the prophet from Isaiah 29:13, Jesus brings the complaint God had against those of Isaiah’s day whose worship followed the right pattern but lacked whole-hearted devotion into the present. Calling them hypocrites serves as a juxtaposition of their interpretation of the law against Jesus own.

Yet what we see truly being brought into light is the contrast of observance as a means to salvation and devotion to God who is our salvation. Although it is true we need order, ways to organize our beliefs and practice to ensure our worship is undiluted. But adherence to the practice of worship apart from the God the practices draw us toward leads only to idolatry. Jesus' opponents were overly concerned with ritual cleanliness, purity, and defilement. Each of these concerns were in keeping with proper tradition and their intent was not only life saving but participatory in the holy otherness of the community God called his people into. But rather than serving as an invitational space of encounter with God, these were instead used as a means of judgement and condemnation against others.

Jesus takes the opportunity saying that nothing entering the body defiles the body. It is the content of the heart that defiles. What is forming you, shaping you, and filling you that can defile you, not the food you eat or places you walk in and out. The patterns of ritual purity are foreign to us but perhaps we need to put into context the ways we too participate in ritual purity without measured thought. The people we choose never to associate with out of misguided contempt. The sins of others we easily condemn without taking into the account the human cost of such rejection. Pushing aside the outward appearance of impropriety (don’t drink, smoke, chew, etc…) but holding anger, bitterness, and even hate in the heart for those who oppose our views. Hiding behind religious practices while allowing untransformed hearts to dwell within misses the mark of God’s holy intention for us in Christ Jesus.

The pericope leads us to challenge the intention behind our practices. Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm says that preacher needs to ask two questions from this text. “What is at the heart of our religious faith and traditions? What are the religious practices we pursue, and why do we purse them?”[1] It is the second question that I find compelling for this week. Maybe this can lead to a discussion of ways we pursue practices that lead us into idolatrous worship attending more to the measure of the practice than the God the practice points to. What are the pitfalls of our religious observance when true worship is neglected? If we are not being transformed more into the character of Jesus, then perhaps the prophet Isaiah’s words still ring true today in our own churches. May God meet us in our sanctuaries this week offering the challenge of Jesus’ words as a source of renewal, softening our attitudes toward others, and drawing us more deeply into the love of God.

[1] Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm. Feasting on the Word Year B Proper 17.