Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (NRSV)
Read Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 7Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, Verse 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. Verse 3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; Verse 4and 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.) Verse 5So 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?" Verse 6He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
Verse 14Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: Verse 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile." Verse 21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, Verse 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. Verse 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
Devotion
“Did you flush the toilet and wash your hands?” It is a common question in our home. It is also common for the child to return to the bathroom to do what wasn’t done the first time.
I have always sympathized with the Pharisees and the scribes in these verses. I, too, would be rather disgusted at watching men eating with “defiled” hands. When the Pharisees question Jesus, I question him, also.
While it is true that his men might have been only “ill-mannered fisherman slobs” Jesus turns the situation into a teaching moment. Jesus explains that the evil one does comes not from the outside, but from the inside.
It is not a matter of our being able to make ourselves clean. We cannot rely on handwashing to send sin down the sink. Without Christ we are lost. Grace and mercy come to us only through Jesus.
Prayer
Good and Loving God – May the waters of Baptism remind me that in your cleansing, I am clean forevermore. Any human ritual is secondary to your great Washing. In humble awe, I kneel … I stand … before You. Clean. Amen