Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23; James 1:17-27
Jesus is in Galilee, and some Pharisees and teachers of the law have made the trip down from Jerusalem. Their visit is not a friendly one; it is not because they want to learn or because they are interested in becoming followers of Jesus; they have come to check on Him; they have already decided that Jesus is a dangerous man. That is what Mark tells us in chapter 3 verse 6. There was already a conspiracy to kill him. Therefore, they came from Jerusalem to obtain evidence they can use to prove their case against this new Galilean teacher. Now, to be fair we have to say that as lawyers or teachers of the law, these men had the responsibility of protecting Israel from potential false prophets or false messiahs. But on the other hand, they also had the responsibility to point the people to the real Messiah, when he come.
Now those who came from Jerusalen found what they came looking for. Jesus’ disciples were eating food with hands defiled or unwashed and complained to Jesus. What they criticized was not a huge moral or spiritual failing. What these disciples omitted to observe was a human origin custom, a pious custom not a law. They noticed some disciples of Jesus were eating with unwashed hands, and this scandalized them.
The hand washing in question was not a hygienic measure as we do now. It was a practice meant to wash away “spiritual contamination.” The Law of Moses in Exodus 30:17-21 mandates hand washing, but only for priests attending to their duties within the area set aside as sacred. The Pharisees, however, extended the practice to other circumstances, these practices became traditions that later used as a weapon of judgment. Therefore, these teachers of the law with the Pharisees gathered around Jesus and asked him why his disciples fail to keep the tradition of the elders.
Jesus calls together the people around him, the crowd, so they can hear the warning he feels compelled to offer them. “Look out! Purity is not a matter of keeping external rules; nobody gains impurity by eating with dirty hands, purity or impurity comes from inside, from our hearts.” This interpretation was new. Dr. Barclay calls this the most important principle of the New Testament. What Jesus means by heart, is not the muscle in our chest that pumps blood. Jesus understands heart in the Hebrew sense: as the center or core of all our emotions, the inner self of a person.
The problem -Jesus said- lies in our hearts. According to Hebrew theology, our hearts are full. Full of emotions, feelings and desires. And very often, these feelings and desires are poisons that kill our spirits and the spirits of people around us. Jesus lists these poisons. He names such evil intentions: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander and pride. When we express all these feelings with our mouth and our words become actions that hurt others. All these actions defiled our hearts.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law’ hearts were full of man-made traditions; with these traditions they had changed the order established by God. For them men traditions where first and God’s word was second. “Isaiah was right -said Jesus- when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And Jesus continued,“You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observeyour own traditions!
Isaiah said, “Your hearts are far from me.” Jesus said, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come.” Therefore, I can say without any doubt that the problem Jesus addressed 2000 years ago still is the same problem today, we, humans have a heart problem. Again, heart as Jesus understood, heart as the center of all our emotions, feelings and passions. This is not the first time Jesus speaks about our hearts. In Luke 6:45 he said, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
In this reading from Mark is implicit –I believe- an invitation to check what is in our hearts.
It is not a secret our world needs to empty and detoxify its hearts from the poisons flooding forth from it. What we see in the world today is a heart problem. Wars, false accusations, murders, racism are the result of poisoned hearts. Jesus reminds us of the cause of this problems: “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” James in chapter 4 of his letter, verse 1 asks, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this: that your passions are at war within you?” In other words, within your hearts, where according to the Hebrew theology our passions are.
The problems we see in our world today, my brothers and sisters are not external, as sometimes we make believe, we always blame other, the problems are inside of us. What we need is for God to create in us a new heart. The Bible tells us how this can happen. Isaiah says that the problem is that we have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions. Psalm 119:9 asks a question, “How can a young man keep his way pure? And the answer the Psalm gives is, by guarding it according to your word.” The solution is to guard, practice the word of God. We must remove those traditions created by humans and presented as God’s and placing the word of God in the center of our lives.
Jeremiah 31:33, says that God has placed His word is our hearts, “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” Proverb 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
What is in our hearts will define who we are, that is why it is important to invite God to search our hearts as David did in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Nowadays it is so easy to fall in the same trap as the Pharisees and teachers of la law did, and allow man-made commandments, man-made customs to fill and lead our hearts; nowadays it is so easy to fill our hearts with hate, especially with all the hates messages we hear and see in TV.
What is in your heart? Jesus is asking us today… “come and search and see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”, should be our answer…Let us prepare for communion.