Mark 7:1-13: right game, wrong field

Have you ever been to a professional baseball game?  One of my favorite things to do when I lived in Atlanta was to go to Braves games.  Sometimes they would let Little League teams come and play games on the Braves field.  Of course, things would be a little hard to manage if you had t-ballers trying to play on a field designed for professional adults, so they usually divide the field up and let them play four or five games at a time.  No one judges the children because the bases aren't the standard 90 feet apart, nor do they downplay their ability to hit the ball because it's on a tee.

I mention all of this because in some ways that's what the religious leaders of Jesus day were doing.  They were taking professional standards, and applying them to people who practiced their faith out of joy and devotion.  In this section of Mark, we find the Pharisees and some of the scribes asking Jesus why His disciples eat with "unclean hands."  After all, the Old Testament is very clear about the fact that one should wash up before supper.  

Or is it?  In fact, the practice of ritually washing one's hands was begun for members of the priesthood, and then extended by the Pharisees to all Jews in an effort to produce increased holiness.  While they had good intentions, the end result was the scene we read of, with the Pharisees placing an undo burden on men who were never meant to bear it.  The scribes own response shows that the disciples hadn't actually violated the law, but the oral interpretation of the law given by respected elders and Jewish leaders.  The prophet Isaiah spoke against such legislated morality when he said:

 "because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden." (Isaiah 29:13-14)

God would send the same message thought Amos, as he railed against a faith that worships God with words, while dishonoring others, and God, with actions:

"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.  Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.  Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.  But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." (Amos 5:21-24)

Jesus sums up how he sees such behavior by referring to the Pharisees and scribes as hypokrites.  The meaning of the word hypocrites for us in English literally comes from the Greek word which described an actor in a Greek drama who would wear a mask.  If our worship is with words only, and not actions, then all the hymns, songs, and spiritual songs are nothing but a mask hiding the true disposition of our heart.

The attitude described by Isaiah and Amos and condemned by Jesus leads not to faith, but rather to a religion centered on litigation and the letter of the law.  Jesus refers to instances where men were "pledging" money to God or the temple, and because of this preventing it's use in meeting the needs of one's own father and mother.  An interesting note is that in pledging the money, the man retained possession of it.  In other words, the man had in his possession money that could be used to meet the needs of his own parents, but it had been "earmarked for God", so he refused to use it.  Jesus makes it explicitly clear that this is not what God had in mind.  Jesus is not saying that a man should break his vow, but that the vow should never have been made it the first place, because it violates the spirit of God’s law.  Obedience to one commandment was never intended to nullify another.  Rather than using the law to withhold things from one another, the people of Jesus day should have seen the law as a driving force for justice and compassion.  If they had read the entire law, they would have come across sections like Leviticus 19 that not only list the rules, but also God's reason for giving them, "but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:18)  Jesus insists on viewing the whole law, especially in light of its purpose, to be a blessing to mankind.  Hopefully we can same the same thing about our faith.