Righteousness or ritual

Studies in Mark

30 August 2009

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Tonight, here in the Wesley Theatre, I turn to Mark 7, a chapter which reveals the growing opposition to Jesus, which is fuelled by religious authorities and becoming more intense. Mark 7 helps to crystallise some of the main issues – and, as he almost certainly had a gentile audience, Mark pauses to explain issues with which most Jews would be very familiar, eg v.v. 3-4 and v.11.

A writer posed the question: ‘Which would you prefer for a next-door neighbour: a person of excellent habits or a person with a good heart?’ The same author pushed the case further by asking, ‘Which would you prefer for a child: a child with excellent habits, or a child with a good heart?’ Now, it’s wonderful to have a neighbour who conscientiously cares for his property while respecting yours and it’s wonderful to have a son or daughter who shows respect and uses good manners. Discussing good behaviour is a conversation about the quality of a person’s self-control; discussing a good heart, is to talk about the quality of a person.

This is the hub of our theme. Pharisees and teachers had made the journey from Jerusalem to gather around Jesus and the disciples. Some commentators depict the Pharisees as petty legalists. One commentator suggests they were out to ‘feather their own caps and arrogant enough to think they can earn their way to God.’ This can be a heavily jaundiced view and allows us to dispensed with the Pharisees too easily.

In Mark 7:5, the Pharisees asked: ‘Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?’ It was a sincere question in the light of v.v. 3-4.

Ritual purity was a key plank in Pharisaic life. It preserved the Jewish way of life in a world where they feared losing their identity. Having said all that, I think English is right to suggest: ‘One senses that the case against Jesus from the Jewish leadership is now being prepared in detail.’ In Mark’s gospel, Jerusalem is depicted as the focal point of opposition to Jesus and the whole incident points to what might lie ahead.

The accusation is that the disciples do not wash their hands ceremoniously – a tradition established by the elders. The Lord responds that it is not what enters a person from the outside that makes them unclean, but what emanates from the heart … that is from the inside.

Jesus seems to place less credence in the so-called ‘oral laws’ which later were incorporated into the Jewish Talmud. The emphasis of Jesus was spiritual transformation and the change of the heart through the power of God.

It is a clean heart which leads to clean hands, not the other way around. Jesus brought about a new way, which challenges the kind of legalism that strangles true religion.

We talk about the ‘obsessive compulsive’ personality. Rule-keeping and ritual feeds such a person in religious living. Just as it destroys an individual in day-to-day life, so it diverts attention away from growth in Jesus Christ.

Our examination of Mark 7 could lead us to think that it is fragmented. In point of fact, we have a typically Markan approach, where the narrative appeals to different audiences. Fred B Craddock explains: ‘the Pharisees and scribes are addressed in verses 1-8; the crowd in verses 14-15; the disciples in verses 21-23.’

So the question asked of all of us is ‘Are we firstly concerned about righteousness or ritual?’ Asked another way – ‘Do we prefer to major on the minors?’ Outward religious ritual assumed a place of paramount importance. When the Pharisees saw Jesus’ disciples were not washing their hands in a particular ritualistic way before they ate, they were consumed with anger. This is not about dinner etiquette, but religious purity.

We need to have clarity on a number of levels:-

Is it our hands or our hearts that are defiled? - v.7

It is so tempting to sweat about the small stuff. The Pharisees got caught in this trap and they spent their whole lives catching others out. There were many good Pharisees, but this concentration on the ritual of what our hands do prevented them from reaching out for something far richer … the purity of the heart.

Shakespeare asked, ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.’ The truth is that an object is what it is – not what somebody calls it. Names are assigned to people, based upon outward circumstances, but they may be wholly inaccurate, eg ‘Sinner, Failure, Stupid and Unclean’. What matters is what you really are on the inside – not other people’s judgement. How many lives have been ruined by such an ascription?

Outward religion must never take the place of holy living

The Jewish Law was basic and inviolate. But over time religious people wanted the law to be broken into all sorts of amendments, exceptions and appendages, until it became a huge number of fussy and picky regulations which oversaw every conceivable human situation. This became known as the Tradition of the Elders and it had a stranglehold upon religious life.

It is possible for all of us to make this error – ritual or tradition can become an end in itself. Outward observance becomes all-in-all and the splitting of hairs takes away the real essence of the message of Jesus. Emphasising the hand-washing practices of the disciples holds back the real possibility of grace.

It should not surprise us that one steeped in these ways slipped away to visit Jesus at night. Nicodemus learnt of a spiritual birth which would change everything.

Good people often break the rules

If you are locked into a legalistic pattern of life, you struggle whenever a good person is guilty of breaking the rules:

A Bishop is caught speeding … an impossible thought!
A Judge tells lies … this is serious, as it underpins so much!
A Financial Advisor runs away with the money!

The irony is that the only person who ever kept all the necessary rules was Jesus Christ – and, in what seems to be the second official investigation of him (the first reported in 3:22), a picture of conflict is beginning to emerge.

The nub of the problem is that the heart needs cleansing. Near to my birthplace, Lever Brothers originated and in the millennium year they came up with an advertising slogan: ‘Lever 2000 cleans all your 2000 parts!’ Well, there’s one place that the best soap can’t reach – it can’t clean the heart.

Bad people often keep the rules

Reading the New Testament for the first time leaves a person with a clear conclusion that the real enemy of faith is not unbelief, but legalism – or at least a combination of the two. It is strange that in the subsequent history of the church, we have replicated the very iniquity from which Christendom came to bring release.

A lady wrote to Reader’s Digest to tell about something that happened at her dog training club. This club tested canine obedience by having their pets sit in a row while the judges placed a sausage in front of each. The dogs were supposed to resist temptation until the owners gave them a signal, permitting them to eat the treats.

According to this lady’s report, one animal came up with a novel approach to this situation. He ran down the line devouring the sausages in front of all the other dogs until he came to the one that was at his own place. Then he obediently sat in front of it, waiting for his owner’s command. Legally, I suppose, he won. But he certainly defeated the purpose of the contest.

A bad person is capable of appearing to keep the rules, but in reality something very different is lying beneath the veneer of their respectability.

Clarence Jordan tells an interesting story. As a boy, Jordan lived in a small Georgia town within one hundred yards of the Talbot County jail. One hot summer night during a revival meeting, Jordan noted how carried away the warden of the jail’s chain gang became whilst singing ‘Love Lifted Me’. He was inspired by this.

Later that same night, Jordan was awakened by agonising groans coming from the direction of the chain gang camp. He knew what was happening; he had heard these sounds before. Someone had been placed into the ‘stretcher’ and was being tortured. He also knew only one person could be responsible for inflicting such torture – the same man who had been singing ‘Love Lifted Me’ with great conviction only hours before. The realisation tore at Jordan’s heart. He identified with the man who was in agony and, as a result, became angry at the church.

Anthropology must never become theology – v.7

The religious leaders who confronted Jesus about the lack of ritual on the part of his disciples are allowing the question ‘What is a human being?’ to be answered in relation to rules.

For Jesus, what constituted a human being could only satisfactorily be answered by reference to God. In the same way that forms of life without relation to God are bound to cause frustration and lack of fulfilment, so life driven by religious rules is no more likely to satisfy.

Oral tradition became revealed theology

As we have already seen, the Tradition of the Elders was so important to many at the time of Jesus. It kept people in their place.

Jaroslav Pelikan was a foremost scholar in medieval intellectual history, who said, ‘Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.’ There is a sense in which we can keep God in abeyance through the use of tradition. We can keep other people at a distance as well. When we get comfortable with our rituals and procedures and schemes of doing things, we’re no longer open to God’s moving and liberating Spirit. God then remains on our lips, but not in our hearts.

Helpful guidelines got locked into rigorous rule-keeping

A farmer attended his local church, but didn’t really want to grow as a Christian. People tried to help him, but there was no attempt to seek to change. His response was always the same: ‘I’m not making much progress, but I’m well-established.’

One day his minister was driving past that man’s farm, and he saw that the farmer’s tractor was stuck in the mud. No matter what the man did, mud flew, and the tractor stayed put. After the farmer gave it one more try and was no better off than he had been before, he started using foul language. At that point, the minister rolled down his window and shouted to the man, ‘Well, you’re not making much progress, but you certainly are well-established.’

That was the problem of the Pharisees’ approach … ‘well-established’ but not vital, living faith.

Their precepts turn into maxims and rules for everyone

King Duncan tells the endearing story of a father who opened the door to greet his daughter’s new boyfriend. There stood a young man, cap on backwards, jeans that sag practically to his knees, a diamond stud in his lower lip, and wearing a set of earphones. The young man grunted ‘Hello’ and walked in.

The father was more than a little taken aback. He went upstairs where his daughter was putting the finishing touches to her make-up. ‘I don’t think you should go out with this boy,’ said Dad. ‘He doesn’t look like a nice person.’ The daughter was shocked. ‘Daddy,’ she replied, ‘If he wasn’t such a nice person why would he be doing 500 hours of Community Service?’

There is a serious point here! – that we must be very careful not to become judgemental in religion. We at Wesley Mission are constantly surprised by the way we learn so much from witnessing the most unexpected examples of grace.

Flexibility is needed to live life to the full. Jesus was far more flexible than those who criticised him – and, for that matter, than those who have followed him since!

I like the story of a man hired to paint the lines in the middle of the highway. His employer didn’t have great resources, so he had to do his painting on foot. After the first day at work, his supervisor was very impressed when he learned that this new employee had painted three miles’ worth of lines.

Unfortunately, the next day his results were not quite as impressive. He was only able to extend the lines for two miles. The third day, he only painted less than one mile.

The supervisor went from being impressed to being concerned. The new employee’s performance was now not acceptable. He was called into the office and told, ‘I’m going to have to let you go.’ The employee dropped his head and got up to leave. As he was going out of the door, he turned and said, ‘It’s not my fault. I’ve never worked so hard in all my life. It’s just that the paint pot keeps getting further and further away.’

Rules alone make it impossible to achieve our best in life. The paint pot just seems further and further away!

The source of uncleanness is from within - not outward rule-keeping – v.v.13 and 20

In verse 11, there is a conversation in Mark’s gospel about Corban. This is an Aramaic word which transliterates a Hebrew equivalent, frequently used in Leviticus, Numbers and Ezekiel – and it means ‘an offering to God’. The root of the word has to do with ‘bringing near’ and implies that the gift, brought near to God, is holy and not available for any other purpose. So, if something was designated ‘Corban’, it was not available for ordinary use.

Jesus talks about the source of our uncleanness as originated inside and Mark has a comment which is bracketed in most Bible translations as a declaration, therefore, of all food being clean (v.19). It may lead one to ask – ‘Does this mean Jesus abrogates the heart of the Mosaic law?’ That would be to take the case too far, especially in the light of 7:10 and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17-20).

We make people prisoners in themselves by rules

In so much of our work with the homeless, young people in care and so-called dysfunctional contexts, one of the most debilitating factors is the low esteem in which people hold themselves. Such people and communities can never be helped or set free by a legalistic religion.

We trap people into the idea life must be lived ‘my way’

The Pharisees were asking others to live life as they did – and, consequently, denied:-

The power of individuality.
The promise of hope.
The purpose of God’s creativity.

Joseph Parker was preaching one Sunday in the City Temple near the Barbican in London. After the service, one of the listeners came up and said, ‘Dr Parker, you made a grammatical error in your sermon.’ He then proceeded to point out the error to the preacher. Dr Parker looked at the man and said, ‘And what else did you get out of the message?’

There are many modern equivalents of the Pharisees, where fact-finding is replaced by fault-finding.

God has offered a living alternative in Jesus Christ

The way of Jesus is not about inward piety replacing external behaviour, but it is our life in God being paramount in the way we live.

One writer put it this way: ‘The disagreement with the Pharisees is more than just a quibble about a legalistic interpretation, more than an attack on a corrupt religious sect. Jesus’ words are aimed at the very structure of Pharisaic religion, how holiness and sin are defined, and how the word of God regulates the life of the people of God.’

Every generation draws its own lines concerning what is right and wrong – or, worse still, clean and unclean.

Years ago, following the regular Sunday service at a small Presbyterian church, a woman lingered near the back of the building. Obviously, she needed to talk. She confessed that her 18-year-old daughter had given birth to a child out of wedlock, with no father around. She added reluctantly, ‘Well, it should be baptised, shouldn’t it?’

The pastor said that he would discuss the matter with the board. After a lengthy debate, the board voted to approve the baptism. The baptism was set to take place on the fourth Sunday in Advent. The church was full. This congregation had the custom of asking a question as part of the baptismal service: ‘Who will stand with this child?’ At this point, friends, sponsors, and the family would stand up.

The pastor and elders were worried that no-one but the young woman’s mother would stand up with her. When the question was asked, it looked as if their worst fears were being realised. Then one man stood up. It was one of the elders, a man not known for his compassion or sentimentality. Then some of the other elders stood, followed by a young couple who had recently joined the church. Soon, a number of people were standing with the young mother. Tears of joy ran down her face.

These folk in this small church understood that the gospel is not about drawing lines, but about helping people find God. Legalism comes in many forms. According to Jesus, none of it matters to God. What God cares about is people.

Make your choice … Righteousness or Ritual?

Christian Life