Delivered from Do-Do

INTRO

Good morning Fellowship Church it so good to be with you this morning!

I was a little nervous when I submitted my sermon title, Delivered from Do-Do, to Pastor Layne. I’m so glad that he saw the light and approved it.

The Anxiety of Rules

Since we don’t have the projector this morning, I want you to visualize an image of a sign that says please keep off the grass and behind the sign is a nice patch of grass with two barefoot feet walking in it.

How are you all sitting with that image?

Some of you are feeling a little uncomfortable, right?

What about this picture makes us feel anxiety?

One of the biggest problems with rules is that once established they require a whole lot of work and energy.

Someone has to

define the terms involved

determine who the rule applies to

identify any exceptions

establish the penalty for violation

decide on any grace periods or second chances

explain what happens to repeat offenders

define criteria for determining whether someone actually broke the rule

empowering someone or an entity to enforce the rule

and so on.

Any rule out there has this baggage attached to it.

(Story of Joel and Luke walking Viva - don’t cross this line, Joel jumped across and back)

Now, I am not implying that rules are not important or necessary for life. We have to be careful to avoid two extremes when it comes to rules.

On the one hand, a world without any rules devolves into chaos,

but on the other a world consumed with rules and rule-keeping stifles human flourishing.

What are laws and rules for? Who are they for?

Pronouncement Stories

As you may know, Pastor Layne is leading us through a series of pronouncement stories.

As a reminder these are brief stories, situated around conflict or controversy over a topic that divides Jesus and his opponents. They come to a climax in which Jesus makes a pronouncement, hence pronouncement stories.

I will also remind you that the Gospels are a form of an ancient biography. Pronouncement stories are a tool used in ancient biographies to summarize and epitomize both the actions and teachings of an important individual.

Our passage today contains one of the most challenging and misunderstood pronouncement stories in all the Gospels, leading many to conclude that Jesus somehow overturns the laws related to ritual purity and food prohibitions outlined mainly in Leviticus.

Because ritual purity was a key part of my doctoral studies and dissertation, I perhaps foolishly asked Pastor Layne if he would allow me to preach this text today.

So let’s dive in and see just how Jesus delivers us from do-do and what he is teaching and not teaching about Jewish practices.

SETTING THE SCENE

Our passage opens with Jesus somewhere in Galilee eating with his disciples, with a crowd in the vicinity, and both Pharisees and experts in the Law gathered around him.

On the screen is a map of the area around Galilee.

Mark is already pointing to controversy with Jesus surrounded by opponents and notice what they are doing?

Watching, overseeing A key behavior for making sure the rules are being followed.

When our kids are causing trouble and we issue an order, we are then committed to observation.

And the observation enforcement even spreads from parent to children. Anything out of line is happily reported so the other brother might be grounded.

In our text, the precise issue at hand (did you get that?) is eating with unwashed hands—we’re not talking about hygienically washed hands, but ritually pure hands—and Mark goes on to provide additional customs related to eating.

The question the Pharisees ask is:

“Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?” (Mark 7:5 NET)

Jesus is, of course, implicated, because disciples do what their rabbis teach.

You can see in this question, we have the

rule standard — tradition of the elders

violation — eating without washing first

enforcers — Pharisees and experts in the Law

For a moment, I want you to ponder what is left unstated behind this question.

But before we come back to that, we need to lay some groundwork to understand what is going on in this passage.

The Purity Context

Besides washing hands, Mark explains for his readers that anyone following Pharisaic practices baptizes before eating if returning from the marketplace. This is bodily immersion, not simply a hand washing.

Our Bibles consistently translate the Greek here instead of transliterating it “baptize.”

We need to understand why they are washing and what this business is about the marketplace, kettles, and some manuscripts include dining couches.

I’m just going to give you the intro class or 101, but what I’m going to share is critical to understand this text.

In the Hebrew Bible, or what we often call the OT, there are two kinds of purity, one is ritual and the other is moral.

Sometimes, the same terminology is used for both types, similar to how we use the same words to describe hygienic purity and moral purity.

For example, I can say, I have clean hands… that can either mean, I’m morally innocent or that I washed with soap. If I say I have a clean heart, well, we all know I’m referring to moral purity. Context determines the meaning.

Some contemporary cultures still practice ritual purity, but Westerners do not even have a category for it, so it’s difficult for us to grasp.

Ritual and moral purities are clearly distinguished in the HB in the following ways:

RITUAL MORAL

SOURCE being human doing wrong/not doing good

SIN? no yes

TYPE physical airborne

DURATION short long-term

RESOLUTION ritual purification atonement, punishment, exile

TERMINOLOGY water washing sacrificial

So, to be ritually unclean is to be human, it is not sinful, and one only had to cleanse oneself.

Here’s a pop quiz on your knowledge of Leviticus… what are the main causes of ritual impurity?

sexual relations (Lev 15)

childbirth & menstruation (Lev 12)

skin/house disease (Lev 13-14)

human & animal corpses (Lev 11; Num 19)

Here’s how this impacted daily life:

“When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. . . .

‘Any bed the man with a discharge lies on will be unclean,

and any furniture he sits on will be unclean.

Anyone who touches his bed must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

The one who sits on the furniture the man with a discharge sits on must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

The one who touches the body of the man with a discharge must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

If the man with a discharge spits on a person who is ceremonially clean, that person must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

Any means of riding (e.g., a saddle) the man with a discharge rides on will be unclean.

Anyone who touches anything that was under him will be unclean until evening, and the one who carries those items must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

Anyone whom the man with the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands in water must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

A clay vessel which the man with the discharge touches must be broken, and any wooden utensil must be rinsed in water.” (Leviticus 15:2–12 NET)

So, circling back to Mark real quick, why would the Pharisees immerse upon returning from the Marketplace?

Who knows who you might have bumped into and whether they were unclean?!?

Most people, most of the time, regularly became unclean for obvious reasons. Even “holy” Priests were married and had children.

The solution to all of these kinds of impurities was simply to ritually cleanse in some way, usually immersion of the body, clothing, items that were made unclean, etc, and to wait a certain amount of time.

None of this took place at or was dependent upon the temple.

The Bible never explains why these particular things cause ritual impurity, but it is clear that these laws set Israel apart as a people, see Lev 15:31; (cf. Lev 10:10; 11:47; 20:25; Ezek 22:26; 44:23)

These laws were also critical because God himself was dwelling in their midst.

To disregard or ignore these commands would generate moral impurity because they are breaking God’s Law.

This is why the Pharisees were so interested in Jesus’s behavior.

I’ve given you a hint to the question, I asked earlier,

What is left unstated behind the Pharisees’ question?

How do we feel about the person walking on the grass?

Mull over Motives (Mark 7:6-8)

This brings us to the first point in the outline on your bulletin, that Jesus invites us to mull over our motives related to rule making and enforcement. (Mark 7:6-8)

I hope you can appreciate my awesome attempt at alliteration that Pastor Layne does so amazing at!

Jesus knows that the Pharisees are not interested in honestly debating whether Jewish law requires hand washing before eating, they are making a public accusation that he and his followers are sinful and want to flex their influencer muscle.

Here’s a funny story to illustrate this:

one Saturday our doorbell rings, and there is a strange couple at the door holding an empty cardboard box with a shipping label with our address on it. That’s of course how they found us.

They then asked why our cardboard box was found in their dumpster.

We were speechless for a moment because of the strange couple at our doorstep, but also as to how that box got there.

Then we realized that Amy’s dad had ordered something for their condo and had it shipped to us because no one was at their condo to receive the package.

Once we explained everything, all is well, but it still amazes me that someone felt the need to dig in a dumpster, driver across town, and disturb our day because of some felt injustice that a portion of their dumpster was occupied by a box with our address on it. As if we were taking advantage of dumpster space. The second violation was that the box was not broken down.

The implication was we were bad people that needed to be corrected. I don’t have time to tell the stories, but we’ve had other bizarre issues with the HOA in that community.

Because Jesus is being called out publicly, his seemingly disconnected response to their question, is well designed to reveal that He knows the hidden accusation and is his attempt to invite them to examine themselves.

In Jesus’s view, the tradition of the elders, leads the Pharisees to outwardly show their devotion to God despite being far from Him.

He does not have a problem with the Law of Moses, which nowhere requires the washing of hands before eating, he has a problem with the extra oral laws and rules added to the written word.

Which brings us to the second point on the outline in your bulletin.

Order our Obedience (Mark 7:9-13)

Jesus invites us to order our obedience (Mark 7:9-13).

In Mark 7:9-13, he demonstrates how the tradition of the elders, which was supposed to help them keep the Law, ironically leads them break it.

Jesus notes that their rule-making

places human tradition, in front of divine authority

and this unwittingly leads to behavior that God abhors, the dishonor and insult of one’s parents

Like all influencers, the Pharisees had self-interest in their rule-making, it was

about them

their performance

their expertise

and not ultimately about others or their well-being.

We know the Pharisees had great influence over the general population from the account of Josephus, an ancient Jewish historian. He said about them:

“The Pharisees had passed on to the people certain regulations handed down by former generations and not recorded in the Law of Moses, for which reason they are rejected by the Sadducaean group, who hold that only those regulations should be considered valid which were written down (in Scripture), and that those which had been handed down by former generations need not be observed. And considering these matters the two parties came to have controversies and serious differences, the Sadducees having the confidence of the wealthy alone but no following among the populace, while the Pharisees have the support of the masses.” — Josephus, Antiquities 13.10.6 §§ 197-98

It is important to note here that the Sadducees would have heartily agreed with Jesus were they included in the debate.

The worst part of it all is that the Pharisees are leading others to sin, as Mark 7:11-13 indicates.

“But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is ‘corban’ (that is, a gift for God), then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.”

Corban is a Hebrew term that means “offering, or gift.” Anything declared “Corban” suddenly became holy, or set apart, and would ultimately be delivered to or become the property of the Temple.

In a brave show of religiosity, one could devote one’s property, wealth, or whatever to God, thus preventing them from using that resource to care for one’s parents.

Two laws come into conflict with one another, the command to honor one’s father and mother, and to devote to God what one has promised.

It’s sort of like violating the speed limit because one needs to get to the hospital urgently.

Jesus doesn’t pull any punches here either, and calls for their death penalty.

That Jesus doesn’t have any problem with the Law of Moses is proven by the fact that he appeals to the Law to make his point by citing Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16 and Exod 21:17; Lev 20:9.

And he consistently distinguishes between “the command of God” and “human tradition.”

As a side note, I found it interesting that the Babylonian Talmud mentions this about parents:

“Our rabbis taught: What is ‘reverence’ [for parents] and what is honor? Reverence [refers to one who] does not sit in his parent’s place and does not stand in his [parent’s] place, he does not contradict his [parent’s] opinions, and does not judge [his parent’s disputes]. ‘Honor’ [refers to one who] feeds [his father or mother] and gives him (or her) drink; he clothes him (or her) and covers him (or her), and helps him (or her) to enter and exit.” — b. Qidd. 31b

Amy and I both work in health insurance, primarily Medicare, and this is talking about Long Term Care here.

Where Jesus might call us out to rightly order our obedience?

What non-biblical teachings and practices do we associate with being a “good Christian” that unwittingly put us at odds with God’s word?

Humble our Hearts (Mark 7:17-23)

These questions bring us to the last point of the outline in the bulletin. Jesus invites us to humble our hearts (Mark 7:17-23).

Jesus calls the crowd back to publicly answer the charge raised against him. His response is perfectly in line with the Law and the logic of Leviticus regarding ritual impurity.

In other words, he finally offers the Pharisees his legal ruling on the issue and invites them to change their perspective.

He rejects their innovation of hand uncleanness and the need for ritual handwashing, which is not taught or required by the Mosaic Law, and maintains that ingesting food with unclean hands cannot make the body unclean.

As Yair Furstenburg put it,

“The biblical law (which Jesus favours) posits the person as a source of contamination of foods and vessels, whereas the Pharisees are concerned with the contamination of the person.” — Furstenberg, Defilement Penetrating the Body, 197

Jesus drives home the point, when he privately explains human digestion to the duh-sciples as my prof Ben Witherington would say… food enters the body, get’s processed, and then becomes do-do.

Whatever was ingested unclean is purged by the body and “purified.”

Jesus is not announcing to Jews that they can now eat pork or that ritual purification is irrelevant because neither of those are under discussion.

More important to Jesus than the legal ruling on whether handwashing is required, is the the heart of his audience.

In this private lesson, he clarifies that

The heart is the source of moral impurity, whereas food goes to the stomach and into the latrine, cleansing all food.

not handwashing cannot be a sin because it is not taught in the Law of Moses.

Moral impurity comes out of the heart and causes moral impurity, just like ritual impurity comes out of the body and causes ritual impurity.

Conclusion

As we conclude, I want to clarify a couple of things regarding the Pharisees.

They are often the pulpit punching bag, which is great because it let’s us get off the hook, but also not great, because it is completely unfair and we ultimately avoid conviction, confession, repentance, and so on.

In reality, we are often like them, and most of Jesus’s followers often didn’t get it either.

The other thing is, they were sincerely trying to honor and serve God, but were blind to the ways that their spirituality had the opposite effect.

What are ways that we do the same?

Where and how do we uphold our understanding of God’s law in ways that are actually contrary to it?

We must be cautious that we don’t make ourselves godlike in our rule-making and enforcement. This is precisely where our hearts are tested and deceived.

In my own journey, when I’m more focused on rules and rule following, I become

more self-righteous

more critical of others

less empathetic

unconcerned with the well-being of those around me

and self-focused

I for one and grateful the Jesus delivers me from both kinds of do-do!

How about you?