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." Then he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.' But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban' (that is, an offering to God ) then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this." Then he 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." When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, "Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, "It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 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."
The fact that the disciples were “eating with defiled hands” stands out to me. My grandmother would have a fit! She always insisted on us washing our hands prior to eating anything! (Maybe she was a Pharisee?) Anyhow, Jesus uses this situation and the ridicule by the Pharisees to teach them.
The Pharisees and scribes have joined the crowds that continue to gather around Jesus. Mark uncharacteristically provides much detail in the interaction between the Pharisees and Jesus, giving us a chance to feel the tension between them. The Pharisees ask why the disciples don’t wash before they eat as the elders did.
Jesus calls them hypocrites for teaching human precepts as doctrine. The Pharisees were strict about keeping the letter of the law, careful not to do anything outside of Torah. However, they get mixed up sometimes in their pious practices and confound the law with human traditions. Jesus uses the example of Corban. Jesus shows how the Pharisees sidestep one of the Ten Commandments -- "Honor your father and your mother" (from Exod. 20:12). This particular commandment required financial support and care to aging parents. Corban is a form of deferred giving. A person could declare something Corban (dedicated or sacrificed to God) and then tell his or her parents that their old-age support has been given to God. In truth, the property has only been promised to God, but that promise gives the child an excuse to dodge his or her obligation to parents.
Jesus further explains that it isn’t the foods that we eat or ritual defilement that makes us unclean, but the thoughts and feelings of our hearts. This is received as strong language in the context of the Jewish culture that honors food laws and other ritual observances. The Torah goes into great detail regarding clean and unclean foods, and Jewish people distinguish themselves from their pagan neighbors by observance of these food laws.
We are called today to “nurture holy things.” This should not be confused with pious practice. We live in a culture that tells us that we must honor our feelings rather than to control them, and fiercely resist any constraints that Christ or common sense would place on behavior. The result is that we live in a world characterized by evil thoughts, (adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, and etc., etc…) Jesus’ teaching points us in a radically different direction. He tells us that "evil things come from within;" within our human heart, and implies that we have a responsibility to nurture holy things rather than evil things in our hearts.
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