"Hypocrisy that Separates" - Thoughts on Mark 7:1-23

(1) The Charge of Defilement against Jesus’ Disciples

With all the remarkable and wonderful things Jesus had been doing for people, we have here the contrast of the negative and backward thinking of the Pharisees. There is always likely to be the knockers and the ‘party-poopers’! Even the greatest of all happenings, the coming of the Son of God into the world, had its detractors; in fact, so much so, that they caused Jesus’ death.

Of course we shouldn’t be too surprised about the behaviour of the Pharisees, as they had been seeking a way to be rid of Jesus since chapter three. Here, in chapter seven, we see that these Pharisees were well and truly stuck in the grip of their own traditions that well and truly veiled their eyes against the things that were of real importance.

So here, we might say ‘Aha’, because we have just realised there are things in our lives that tend to veil our eyes to those things of greater importance! We can get so focussed on small things, and miss what’s happening in the big picture. We could also sense that it is a lot easier to do basic things, or keep simple rules, rather than embrace greater challenges. Put another way, we can focus on the easy, thus ignoring the difficult … but ultimately significant.

The truth of the matter is revealed in Jesus’ reply to all this (verses 6-13). Jesus applied Isaiah’s words from earlier days, to expose people who say what seem to be religious words, but whose hearts are far from God. They would claim through their pious acts to be worshipping God, yet they are really only piling up arduous rules over their fellow citizens. Such rules are a mere diversion from the real movement of the Spirit of God.

Some people would actually prefer a comfortable status quo, albeit empty and unsatisfying, to a really dynamic and challenging spiritual life. Some people, like these Pharisees, seek to cover the emptiness or darkness of their own internal life, by attacking comparatively minor problems in other people.

It’s not even as if these traditions explained God’s commandments in a helpful way. These rigorous traditions actually obscured the intent behind the well-thought out commandments of God. As verse 8 points out, these traditions were purely human inventions, devoid of any spiritual insight. The Pharisees had ‘fenced-in’ God’s worthy commandments with ritualistic traditions. The laws of God were designed to be life-giving, not life-denying. Jesus then gives an example of this.

One of God’s ancient commandments was the care of (along with the upmost respect for) one’s aged father and mother by the adult members of the community … the fifth commandment … “Honour your father and your mother”. Simple enough to accept responsibility for your aging parents you would think, but the Pharisees had come up with a pious ‘escape clause’, that if you promise the funds to the temple that you would have otherwise spent in support of parents, then you would be freed of your responsibility to parents. Just imagine the results brought about by that! It maybe sounds like what some misguided church leader might do as a fund-raising measure, but of course this completely undermined God’s intentions.

Washing hands, food and dishes would no doubt be a good idea much of the time, but this here served as an example of how out of proportion had some religious leaders got in prescribing practices that began to completely obscure God’s major intentions.

Of course the element of Jesus’ ministry that the Pharisees were most worried about, was the beginning of the disciples’ venture into sharing the good news of Jesus with Gentile peoples. Jewish people should not be defiling themselves through making contact with Gentiles like this! So any attack that might divert this enterprise was worth a try!! This of course stood directly in the face of God’s love and concern for all peoples (not just one race). This will be absolutely confirmed in the passage that follows (from verse 24).

These Pharisees had more concern for dinky little traditions like ritual hand-washing (and food laws and Sabbath observance) than the healing ministry of Jesus. Such hypocrisy separates in various ways:
· It separates such Pharisees from God, because they are so missing the point
· It separates people from each other, due to setting up this overburdening judgement of people’s behaviour (which doesn’t even assess their heart anyway)
· It separates others from God, because too many barriers are being put in the way of spiritual liberation and renewal. In fact this passage seeks the breaking down of any barriers that would separate fellowship and community building between any Jew and Gentile persons; and thus by implication, seeks the breaking down of any barrier that divides any people in any place at any time … whether they be ethnic barriers or economic barriers or cultural barriers.

To be able to share Jesus with people from different backgrounds, far from finding an ‘escape clause’, we actually have to be able to say from our hearts, that we love muslims and we love buddhists and we love atheists (in the same way that God loves them).

(2) Yet, It’s What Comes Out of a Person that Counts

We see from verse 14, that where a person is at, is determined, not by their input, but by their output; not by what comes in to a person, but by what comes out. Of course we know that what we eat and read and think about has a dramatic effect on our life. But what this is about is testing where our life is at, and that is seen in what comes out of us. All that comes out of the Pharisees is antagonistic and God-negating activity. For all their faults, Jesus’ disciples, on the other hand, have left behind the distractions of everything else to follow Jesus into exciting challenges! While the Gospel of Mark paints the disciples in a very realistic way, it still clearly states that they were the ones who were on God’s side (as they sought to follow Jesus).

The context here of course is food being taken into the body through ritually unclean hands. Yet this is really a minor matter, for such food can’t really affect the spiritual heart which determines ethical and interpersonal behaviour. Food, that may or may not have been defiled, slips past the heart without touching it, on the way to its destination in the stomach. It is the human heart though, not the digestive system, that determines one’s standing with God.

What clearly counts most in God’s Kingdom, on the testimony of this text, is the way in which human beings relate to one another (through words and actions and exposed attitudes). The rubber of our lives hits the road in the appropriateness of our interpersonal behaviour. And if the output of our lives is not what it should be here, this is where ‘defilement’ really occurs.

So, what would it mean to be ‘defiled’? To ‘defile’ is to make dirty, pollute, corrupt, desecrate. This is a spoiling of what would otherwise be pure and perfect. Of course, relationships are spoilt, undermined and ultimately undone through incidences of violence, abuse and manipulation. But they can also be badly affected by misplaced criticisms, outbursts and jealousies.

Sometimes we are too hard on ourselves, forgetting about God’s love and acceptance of us. But perhaps here we might see that sometimes we are actually too easy on ourselves. Sometimes we think we are a certain type of person … we think favourably about ourselves … but are we thinking more about the way we want to be (our ideal selves), rather than who we actually are – the reality! We are given a very ugly sounding list in verses 21 & 22 of those things that should not be the output of the Jesus follower’s life.

Yet it is not Jesus’ disciples being judged in this text, but rather those who are attacking their credibility. I think by implication Jesus is defending the integrity of his disciples’ lives against those who are bringing petty charges against them. It is actually the Pharisees who are intent on murder, deceit, envy, slander and pride. Still, all those who read this text can examine themselves properly; not against human agendas and priorities, but rather against what God deems really important.

We might not be the most successful person, we may not be the most popular person, we may not be the most talented person, we may not be the richest person; but in each of our everyday relationships we are God’s person … and thus we should be an honest and helpful person, a caring and self-giving person, and a positive and creative person.

And if our conduct proves that we are not where we should be, then thank God we have the solution at hand. First there is more of God’s grace to receive, bringing us forgiveness … and the ability also to forgive ourselves. Second there is the example of Jesus to follow, who was so thoroughly honest, giving and creative in his earthly life. Third we have the Holy Spirit’s availability to change us into the image that God had in mind when we were created.

How can this happen? How can our heart be set right??
· By constantly remembering what Jesus has done for us
· By guarding our heart from those things that tend to cut us down
· By not watching or reading or participating in what we shouldn’t
· By making open spaces that God can move into to
. By actively changing the way we think about other people.