Arguing with
Christ
(based on Mark
7:1-8,14-15,21-23)
In Jesus' day, Jews observed special rituals
at mealtime. One of those rituals had to do with ritual hand
washing. Ritual hand washing had nothing to do with hygiene. It
involved sprinkling just a small amount of water over your hands, not enough to
get your hands clean, but getting your hands clean wasn't its purpose.
The intent was for spiritual cleansing, washing away spiritual
contamination. In many ways it was a lot like saying grace before a meal,
an acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty over our lives and that we need
spiritual cleansing. It was a way of
getting right with God, at least three times a day.
But the ritual of hand washing wasn't something
that was required. At least, God didn't require it of ordinary
people. However, God had required priests to cleanse their hands before
performing any sacred duties. It was extremely necessary for them to get
right with God before they performed any sacred duty.
Then, a long time ago the Pharisees decided
that, if it was good for priests, it must be good for everyone. So, they
made a new rule. Everyone should go through ritual hand washing before
eating. There was really nothing wrong with doing this, in fact, it was
probably a good idea, but they forgot one crucial element down through the
years, that this was a human idea, not God’s idea. Over time, they had assigned this task to
something that God had required of them.
At one of the first church’s I
served, we had a Ham dinner for the congregational members. I was in the kitchen helping and I observed
one of the women of the church, cut the Ham into two pieces, place one of the
halves on a tray and put it into the oven.
The other half she set aside.
Figuring that we needed the entire ham to feed our members, I was
curious as to why she was only cooking half the ham. I started asking questions in my head…like
when was she going to cook the other half?
Maybe it’s faster to cook two
halves rather than one whole. But also
wondering, if this was true, why not put both halves in the oven at the same
time, there was plenty of room on the tray she had just put in the oven.
I’ve always been interested in cooking and
watching how different people do different things, so out of curiosity I asked
why she cut the ham in half and only put one of them in the oven. I expected to hear something like, “it cuts
the heating time down” or “at such and such a temperature it doesn’t heat all
the way through if left whole.”
Expecting such an answer, I was already formulating a second round of
questions about putting both halves in the oven at the same time, and also
trying to calculate in my head at what poundage you needed to cut the ham in
half.
While I was doing the mental math, she looked
at me curiously and simply said, “I have no idea. I’ve just always cut the ham in half. Actually, Mom always cut the ham in half, so
I cut the ham in half.” Then she turned
to her eighty year old mother and asked, “Mom, why did you cut the ham in half?” And her mother said, “Because our oven at
home was a lot smaller and a whole ham never fit in our oven.”
That's a rather simplistic example of how
rituals get started, while the underlying reason is completely forgotten, but
often it's nothing more profound than that. Traditions get started, and people endure
traditions for a long time. Sometimes
making the ritual more important than the original doctrine it stood for.
When the Pharisees saw Jesus' disciples
eating without going through their hand washing ritual, they decided to use
that to discredit Jesus. So, they confronted Jesus with this
question: "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition
of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" It was a clever
question. They weren't challenging Jesus directly. They were asking
why Jesus, an up-and-coming religious leader, couldn't even get his disciples
to do the right thing.
And Jesus didn't even bother to answer them,
at least not directly, either. Instead, he quoted a scripture verse from
Isaiah. He said:
"This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human
precepts as doctrines."
Jesus went on to say, "You abandon the
commandment of God and hold to human tradition." Then Jesus turned
to the crowd and said:
"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.
It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come:
fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit,
wastefulness, envy, slander, pride, folly.
All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
Jesus was telling us that what really counts
is what we do, that our actions defile us because these things reveal what is
truly in our hearts.
And it is here, that I have an argument with
Christ. I’ve looked at this passage a
hundred times, I’ve read commentaries on it, and have tried to see it from
Christ’s perspective – that it is only what comes out of a person that defiles
them. But I have to disagree.
Jesus’ intention for telling this story is
for us to realize that our rituals mean nothing if it is only a show. Our rituals don’t matter, if the heart is poisoned. But, I think he misses the mark here. It’s not just our rituals, the show, the
end-result that matter and reveal what is truly in the heart. I think the entire process of what defiles
us, what makes the heart poisoned, begins at a much earlier stage.
I believe that what defiles us or its
opposite, what lifts us up, is strongly influenced by what goes in. For example, if you’re making a birthday cake
for someone, you can’t substitute salt for the sugar and expect to get anything
edible out of the oven. It wasn’t just
what came out that was bad, it began with the ingredients of what went in to
it, in the first place.
We need to be a people who are more
spiritually “heart-healthy”, people who take seriously what goes into our lives
and into our hearts, with whom and what we surround ourselves. We need to be careful what we plant in our
hearts or what we feed our hearts. That’s why we need to avoid things
designed to fill our hearts with lust, hatred or greed. And instead fill them with those things that
are designed to promote joy, peace, patience, love, and hope.
If I watch television shows and movies that
are filled with violence or hatred, surround myself with people who treat one
another poorly, use foul language, are influenced by drugs and alcohol, commit
deeds that are against the law, what kind of person do you think I’m going to
be?
It’s what went in and shaped me that defiled.
If I watch inspirational shows that are
filled with people who love one another and care for each, shows that lift each
other up, surround myself with people who treat one another well, use
encouraging language, are influenced by giving and serving others, commit
themselves to making the world a safer and better place to live, what kind of
person do you think I’m going to be?
It’s what goes in and shapes us that makes us
who we are.
Therefore, we also have a responsibility to
do what we can to make our community a spiritually heart-healthy place.
We need to care about what society teaches our children. We need to insure
that kids and young people have access to good clean fun. We need to feed
our children good values. But not just
our kids, we need to do the same thing for ourselves. We need to surround ourselves with people
that lift us up, not put us down. People
who care for one another, not people who destroy each other and speak harmfully
about others. And most importantly, we
need to hold our public role models to higher standards. We are influenced by what goes in, not just
what comes out.
Jesus did say, "It is from within, from
the human heart, that evil intentions come." Evil comes from a heart
that has been filled with poison, violence, hatred, and greed. But, it began with what went in.
Good things come from a heart that has been
fed on a spiritually heart healthy diet; because what goes in, shapes the heart
as to what comes out.
Thanks be to God. AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment