It's What Comes Out

Hand Washing Rituals

I find it fitting that the scripture today involves some complaining about hand washing rituals. Since covid 19 washing your hands has become very important. Some of us may have stepped up the number of times a day we wash our hands or even the length. Some of us like the Pharisees may have found ourselves to suddenly be the hand washing police or hand washing instructors. Apparently singing the chorus to Holiness unto the Lord is the proper length of time to wash your hands.

My hand washing routine has changed by an uptick in how much and how many times a day I use hand sanitizer. I can’t seem to walk by a pump bottle without instinctively using it.

Today, Jesus favorite group of people the scribes and pharisees are asking Jesus why his disciples don’t follow the age old tradition of ritualisticly washing their hands before they eat. To them this was one part of holiness unto the LORD. To the scribes and Pharisees this was how they stayed pure before a holy God.

Jesus response was it is not what goes in that defiles, or makes someone holy before God, but what comes out. It isn’t through the ritual washing of hands, cups, pots or kettles, but through a change of heart. A heart changed by God through the indwelling Holy Spirit, that shows love for God and others.

It’s not what goes in.

The religious elite of Jesus day today the scribes and pharisees believed the way to holiness was through a myriad of cleansing rituals. Whether it was hand washing before a meal, or the ritualistic doing of the dishes before the meal. Many Jewish homes had micvahs in them so they could ritually wash their hole bodies. Why? Because they believed you were defiled before God and made unholy by what went in, and who you came in contact with. This belief brings us to the question they ask Jesus.

Why don’t your disciples ritualisticlly wash before they eat? Having seen Jesus interacting with people they deem unclean. Having heard of him in some instances even being touched by a woman with an issue of blood. Jesus himself was deemed unclean and also needed to wash, otherwise all the uncleaness that him and his disciples came in contact with would enter them and defile them.

Matthew 23:27–28 NRSV

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. 28 So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Isaiah 29:13 NRSV

13 The Lord said: Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote;

Jesus reply was harsh for a couple reasons. One the importance and truth of what he said needed to be grasped with urgency. Two this group had conspired with the Herodians in Mark 3:6 on a plot to kill Jesus.

The rituals and traditions of the scribes and pharisees replaced the God’s law. They continually sidestepped God’s law to cling to their own traditions. A couple of examples is how they interpreted keeping the sabbath. They continually confronted Jesus about healing on the Sabbath, they interpreted that law of rest to the point they encouraged turning a blind eye to their neighbor in need.

To use Jesus example here things dedicated to God, as a means to neglect your mother and father.

The bottom line here is that the scribes and pharisees have interpreted God’s law in such a way that it fails to love God because it justifies neglecting your neighbor, or in the case of corban dishonoring your father and mother.

If our interpretation of scripture and the laws of God fail to love our neighbor, we have mis-interpreted God’s law.

In doing this the Pharisees were canceling the word of God by replacing it with their own traditions.

Jesus then tells a very plain parable to the crowd that was assembled. Jesus again emphasizes the importance of grasping what he has to say by telling the crowd to listen and understand. It is not what goes in that defiles you, but what comes out.

As understandable as the message in the parable was still the disciples failed to understand. Jesus tells them what you eat cannot defile you because it doesn’t enter your heart. It is what comes out from the heart that defiles you.

Jesus was shocked that they didn’t understand. They had seen Jesus come in close proximity of a man possessed by many demons. They had seen Jesus touched by a woman with an issue of blood, and touched by many sick people at the end of chapter 6. In each of those cases not one of those situations made Jesus unclean before God. Instead the holiness of God transformed each and every one of those situations. Jesus holiness was contagious because his heart was solely focused on living God’s law in action to love God with everything he has and to love his neighbor.

To live this way no ritual or tradition won’t work but only a heart changed by grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel 36:25–27 NRSV

25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.

Mark: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition 2. Inward and Outward Cleanliness (7:14–23)

It simply does not enter into the heart, the center of emotion and understanding. It is hearts that are hardened, not stomachs. So defilement does not come from food.

It’s what comes out.

The enemy of holiness people at all times and in all places is legalism. Legalism tells us that our traditions and rituals are more important than a heart changed by God. In fact we like the pharisees can become judgmental of people who do not follow them. As God’s holy people we cannot be like the scribes and pharisees, there is no ammount of tradition or ritual that will change your heart. The true mark of Holiness is a life lived that loves God and at the same time loves others.

As God’s holy people we can only achieve this through the Spirit of God working and living in and through us. The Holy Spirit makes all the difference in the world.

The holiness Jesus displayed was contagious. As Christ went about carrying out his Father’s will we see his holiness spread to unholy people and places. To love God and love others as Christ displayed is a contagious holiness. May the Spirit of the Living God breath fall fresh on us today that the contagious holiness of Christ may be seen in how we live.

Mark: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition From the Text

The true identity of the holy people of God cannot be determined by culturally conditioned micro-ethical standards. Cherished traditions should never be elevated so as to possess the authority of the Scripture.

Mark: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition From the Text

the heart set on God produces a life that is consistent with God’s goodness and mercy toward others rather than merely external conformity. But the source of evil, according to Mark, is the heart turned away from God, rather than defilement that comes from casual contact with the unclean in the marketplace.