Mark 7:1-8

Posted by DJL on Jun 21, 2012 in Daily Bread | 0 comments

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘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.’ You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

All this fuss over washing hands before dinner? Feels like my house! 🙂

Quite truthfully, I think we’ve had this argument more than once in our household. Well, it’s not exactly the same, but we have gotten pretty annoyed at our kids when they’ve forgotten yet one more time to wash their hands before eating. “You just came in from outside!” or “How many times do we have to tell you?” or “Weren’t you just petting the dog??”

You know how it goes. Sometimes, kids just don’t seem to get it. Oh, don’t get me wrong, they don’t go out of their way to eat with dirty hands, it’s just that they haven’t gotten to the point where they’ve internalized the rules we have. And so we get annoyed or frustrated, because we’ve got lots of good reasons for these rules.

All of which makes me more than a little sympathetic for the Pharisees. It’s easy for us, I think, to see them as unduly rigid stick-in-the-muds, always insisting on the letter of the law and missing the spirit. But I’m not sure that’s fair. I think the Pharisees were more like caring parents, with lots of good reasons to obey the rules.

Which I suppose makes the disciples more like children. And maybe this isn’t a bad comparison. Because in the presence of Jesus they are free, unencumbered, living in the realm where all things are possible, pre-occupied with the wonder and grandeur of God’s good world.

There is a time, of course, for both. For order and for wonder, for adult disciple and child-like abandon. And maybe that’s where the Pharisees go awry. In the midst of being responsible, and making sure things get done, and towing the line, and living lives of duty, and honoring the tradition and all the rest, they’ve somehow missed the spontaneous and unpredictable activity of the wild God of their ancestors. Or maybe they’ve even slipped into the alluring but errant illusion that religion is a way not simply of honoring God’s “beyond-ness” but of drawing God near, containing, even domesticating the God of mystery.

It can’t be done, of course. God refuses to be tamed and mercy – if it’s really mercy – can never be contained. But oh my goodness, it sure is tempting to try.

Lord have mercy on those Pharisees…and on me!

Prayer: Dear God, surprise us yet one more time with your unpredictable and unyielding love for all creation, including us, and embolden us to share that love in word and deed with all whom we meet.