READ SCRIPTURE (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jewish people, 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 Jesus, “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.”
Then Jesus called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
REFLECT ON THE READING
Of course, we will wash our hands, wash food that comes from the market, wash our cups and plates. But we fool ourselves if we think that such washing makes us pure before God. Jesus is right to teach that evil comes from within ourselves. And religions focused on purity practices frequently intend to exclude others and exalt ourselves, thinking the others to be polluted and ourselves to be clean. That is the real stain on the religious world. But the one who teaches about the origin of evil in Mark 7 is also the one who generously gives away bread to the hungry and gives himself away at the cross. Risen among us, he is the one who may dwell in the tabernacle of God. By the power of the Spirit, giving us new birth in the word, Jesus brings us also to dwell with him before God. Religion that flows from that implanted word will be about caring for those who most obviously cannot care for themselves and about avoiding the stain of religious practices that exclude. Such will be the law that we teach our children and our children’s children.
PRAY
O God our strength, without you we are weak and wayward creatures. Protect us from all dangers that attack us from the outside, and cleanse us from all evil that arises from within ourselves, that we may be preserved through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
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