The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost | 1 September 2024 | A Sermon on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 | Paul Bieber |

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Revised Standard Version

7 Now when the Pharisees gathered together to Jesus, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, ² they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders; ⁴ and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.) ⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?” ⁶ And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

         ‘This people honors me with their lips,

           but their heart is far from me;

⁷           in vain do they worship me,

           teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’

⁸ You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.”

         ¹⁴ And he called the people to him again, and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵ there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.”

also

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9

Psalm 15

James 1:17-27

UNDEFILED RELIGION

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

Jesus feeds the crowds with endless supplies of bread, but the Pharisees are worried about some of his disciples eating without washing their hands. To be clear, the issue is not hygiene but ritual purity. Washing your hands, and cups and puts is a good thing to do, but does it bring you closer to God?

The Pharisees thought so. Their whole project was the sanctification of all of life, particularly mealtimes, and they observed lots of little rituals, especially around meals, to remind them of God’s holiness and their desire for sanctification, holiness, and purity. They wanted to be like the person described in today’s Psalm, who leads a blameless life, and so is worthy to be in God’s presence.

This concern for sanctification, holiness, and purity is there in the law God gave through Moses; just look at the Holiness Code in the Book of Leviticus. The Pharisees didn’t think their practices were adding to God’s commandments—as Deuteronomy forbids—nor following tradition at the expense of the law, with the express purpose of having an excuse to disobey the law: That is obviously hypocrisy.

But even with the best intentions, too much focus on secondary traditions obscures the primary teachings of God’s law. So I need to check my pharisaic tendencies to focus too much on my little rituals and their proper performance.

But Jesus, as always, goes further than just practical correction. Holiness and purity are primary concerns of the law. And, for the law, purity and impurity—defilement—are transmissible. If you touch something or someone unclean, you become unclean yourself. If you eat unclean food, or eat with unwashed hands, you’re defiled.

This is one of those places where Jesus intensifies the law—as he does in the Sermon on the Mount.: it’s not just murder, even anger brings judgment; not just adultery; a lustful look is sin. So here: it’s not what food goes into you, but what evil thoughts and deeds come out that defile.

Outward observance of law and ritual won’t make you clean before God. Nor, for that matter, can we create within ourselves a clean heart. Fortunately, the holiness of the Church does not depend on the holiness of its members, but on the holiness of Christ. He is the one who fulfills the law: the unclean touch him, and they are cleansed and healed; he touches the dead and they rise.

Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is sown in this world like a seed falling into the earth, a Word implanted in our hearts that our lives might bring forth good fruit. It is this implanted Word that has the power to save, despite the rank growth of wickedness inside me. God’s initiative, sowing the Word in this world, is a pure gift of grace to a sinner like me. But it calls for a response of faith, faith enacted in a way of life in accord with God’s will for me.

If, then, I merely hear this Word and then go back to my little rituals, I deceive myself. I am a hypocrite. The Father’s perfect gift, the Word of truth, can purify my heart and bear fruit in my life. The faithful disposition of my heart is intended to lead to mastery over speech and ministry to the needy, according to James, as well as keeping my integrity as a believer in this world.

Not because if we really, really try we can do it—cleanse our own hearts, make our lives holy—but because the relation of the Father of lights with the world is mediated by Jesus, not our rituals or our traditions or our wisdom.

Jesus promises to give us bread to eat that will purify our hearts whether our hands are clean or not. We see the wisdom of the world: take comfort in your little rituals, because if you really, really try, you can do it—and over against that the perfect law, the law of liberty, of love: obedience to God’s will for your life really is perfect freedom. We see our reliance on outward signals of virtue and religious forms, and over against that a conscience formed by the Word, bound to and freed to act by the deep reality the Word reveals.

What we do in the Christian life is an expression of our faith in the God who has been faithful to us. We are freed to offer ourselves as a kind of first fruits—no longer constrained by the structures and categories of human traditions that seek to evade the commandment of God, the giver of every perfect gift.

Born by that Word of truth, joined to the waters of Baptism, we come to the place where Jesus offers us bread. Grace is transmissible. Here in God’s presence we are cleansed from our defilement by his gracious gift so that we live out our self-offering as he guides our ways to those most in need. Our religion is, as Luther says, one beggar telling another where there is bread.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

—

The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber, STS

E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net

All Saints Lutheran Church

San Diego, California, USA