Where are our priorities? What are our priorities? In essence
that is what Jesus asks.
First with a crowd around him and then again later with
his disciples, Jesus basically says, "You're concerned about following a
ritual for hand-washing so that you're acceptable to God? You think your traditions
and rituals are what God views as important? Your priorities are wrong. If your
actions aren't matched with integrity, then… your actions are empty. You are
defiled by your actions."
It's not like this hadn't been said by others before
Jesus. Look at what the prophets stated -- Hosea
6:6, Micah
6:6-8, Isaiah
58:1-14.
What does the Lord
require of you?
It's about coming from a "pure" [tohar] place. "He teaches that
purity is not primarily ritual or physical, but spiritual." [i] We are required to do
justice, to love mercy and walk humbly with God.
What about Jesus declaring all foods clean (verse 19 in
parenthesis)? Was he wiping the slate "clean" for everyone?
Well… the writer of this Gospel has Jesus declaring
all foods clean. Why did the writer include this passage (since there is some controversy over this issue)? Putting it into perspective of the times, "not found in MATTHEW, it may have been added when the
Gospel (of MARK) was brought into an understanding of Jesus' teaching that was
compatible with Paul." Such as Romans
14:20. Or maybe the writer wanted to keep in line with what Peter shared in
Acts
10:15 (his experience in Joppa).
What Jesus
didn't do was "abrogate the laws of kashrut
(set of Jewish dietary laws) and thus declare ham kosher." [ii] Jews were still to eat
kosher foods. Yet all foods were ritually clean. Washed hands or not. But let's not get hamstrung on this issue...
It is what comes from within, out of a person's heart,
that ultimately matters to God. And then Jesus shares examples of what evil
thoughts could come about, which defile a person -- "obscenities,
lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings,
carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness." [iii]
None of us are above these examples. None of us are the
exception. Every day, we are susceptible to these. What Jesus gives us is an
opportunity for self-examination.
As Bev * stated, "We live it every day -- this
reawakening. How you deal with it, how you handle it, how you digest it, how it
comes out. The responsibility is now on the person."
NEXT...
A journey to "unclean" territory and people
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