Our missionary friends in Uganda wrote about their recent SAMS retreat in Rwanda. Richard Ranger writes that the “genocide of 1994 remains a stain on humanity, a horror perpetuated by Rwandans against Rwandans. The genocide resonates with exploitation of ethnic differences into curdled resentments by the colonial powers who ruled Rwandan and neighboring Burundi for decades.” Ranger’s reminder of that genocide that slaughtered 800,000, in just over one month’s time—reminds me of Solzhenitsyn’s words: “the line between good and evil does not separate cultures. Rather, it runs through every human heart.”
In today’s lesson Jesus uses a seemingly minor situation in comparison to the tragedy in Rwanda to teach his listeners that it matters when insignificant rules replace what is authentic. Human ideas, human traditions can rob us of the authentic way to live.
False teachings cannot be trusted because they lead us astray and because they deviate from God’s word, undermine the faith we’ve been given through Jesus’ life and teachings. In the end, what is false holds power which leads to tragedy and deep sorrow.
In Mark, Jesus confronts the Jewish elders who were so concerned about disciples washing their hands before eating.
In those days, the Israelite community was set apart, unique. As a community they needed to separate themselves from other nations by abiding in different practices in order to preserve faith in the one true God. Otherwise, the gods of more powerful nations that conquered Israel would seem to be the appropriate objects of worship (The New Interpreters Bible, vol viii. Mark. p. 608).
Washing hands before meals was an act that showed one belonged to the covenant community—God’s chosen people under God’s influence uncontaminated by pagans, by gentiles. Ceremonial washing was to be followed in order to adhere to tradition.
However, the problem was the elders holding on to the tradition of clean hands as if the rule was divinely inspired. They were willing to let go of their trust in God’s law given to Moses for a tradition that was not essential to godliness.
By following man-made rules over God’s commands, elders were creating a new piety. Their hearts were not right before God whom they claimed as Sovereign. Jesus was offended by their rule. He quoted the prophet Isaiah: “People honor the Lord with their lips but their hearts are far from me. Therefore, their worship is in vain.” False teachings, rules taught by man, that do not show love and honor others, do not please the Lord.
Jesus made it known that defilement, what is unclean, what is wrong with us originates in the heart, in thoughts, feelings, and motives—not in foods eaten with unwashed hands. We know we can get sick from bad food, but physical health is not the emphasis here.
Spiritual health is.
Jesus wanted the elders and disciples to take a hard look at themselves beginning with what lies inside. Our thoughts- planning theft, strong lust-filled emotions, feelings that could lead to murder, desires for inappropriate sexual activity, on and on, are at the root of what ails us. They are not only detrimental and degrading in our relationships with one another, they degrade ourselves and hinder our relationship to Jesus.
Focusing on minor things like hand washing before meals keep us distracted from what is essential. The challenge is to keep in mind the essence of our faith in God who values matters worthy of our inner being, feelings and thoughts which give rise to our actions. Jesus is getting at his priority: To keep our lives centered on the core of our faith to love God first and our neighbor as oneself.
We must get close to Jesus, watch what he does in the gospel story and take it to heart. When Jesus touched the leper, instead of the leper infecting Jesus, the leper was healed. We’re talking Holy Presence here, not defilement from what appears to us to be unclean. Jesus did not separate himself from what Jewish tradition said was unclean.
Jesus loved the leper and made him clean. And, then the leper was told to fulfill the law—to wash and present himself to the authorities before entering society.
Jesus wasn’t against the law. He fulfilled the law by showing the law in a new light: he brought healing, saving grace for everyone.
Jesus was against using rules that were of no benefit to people, used to separate religious authorities from associating with those deemed unfit, unclean. His way was to serve with compassion—to help us see that faith in him, meant an ordering of our lives through understanding the authentic gospel message.
When I worked with a homeless population in Birmingham we held midweek worship services, informal and contemporary. Many came regularly. We also met for bible study led by a wonderful lay minister. Theres was one such regular who lived under the city bridge. She loved Jesus and had many friends. We loved her.
One week she didn’t come, and her friends said the police reported she died of an overdose. No one believed it. They believed she had been murdered.
But because she was homeless, a nobody in the eyes of some, there was no investigation. There was nothing we could do except to honor her life with worship, testimonies, praise and prayer. The Lord knew the truth, what was real. She may have been poor, deemed unclean by some, but she was an authentic pilgrim redeemed and loved by Christ.
Jesus points out in our gospel today that before we act, we feel and think.
Thinking things of God rather thinking things that people create is priority.
Sin and defilement begin in our hearts. Jesus knows us fully. While we are created in God’s image to have relationships with God through Jesus, we all fail, again and again. For this very real reason we are in constant need of Christ’s saving grace- so that we can begin anew again and again.
What is the essence then of faith that matters to you and me, to all redeemed sinners? What matters to Jesus is for us to recognize that all of our hearts are in need of transformation. God has inaugurated a new order for us with his authority and power. We may feel secure as saved sinners, and we should be secure and confident in the gift of new life we have in Jesus. Can you imagine what it would be like if God showed us our true hearts and how far we might be from his holiness? Yet. God’s grace continues to call us as his own.
Through the power of God’s Word and the counsel of the Holy Spirit we ask God to search our hearts, our thinking, our individual blindness. If we seek what is authentic in the eyes of Jesus, what is real in his workings to bring saving grace to others, he will be our guide. God will be pleased.
To be fully known and completely loved is everyone’s desire. The gospel is most authentic when we recognize that God is holy, we are perpetual sinners who need and want to be in the arms of Jesus Christ because we were made for eternity.
The question today is our challenge: Are we willing to be courageous to want to have such faith in God’s salvation that we can relinquish, surrender our life to Christ?
God bless you friends. Amen
