The Pharisees and some legal experts from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. They saw some of his disciples eating food with unclean hands. (They were eating without first ritually purifying their hands through washing. The Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat without first washing their hands carefully. This is a way of observing the rules handed down by the elders. Upon returning from the marketplace, they don’t eat without first immersing themselves. They observe many other rules that have been handed down, such as the washing of cups, jugs, pans, and sleeping mats.) So the Pharisees and legal experts asked Jesus, “Why are your disciples not living according to the rules handed down by the elders but instead eat food with ritually unclean hands?” He replied, “Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you hypocrites. He wrote, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. Their worship of me is empty since they teach instructions that are human words. You ignore God’s commandment while holding on to rules created by humans and handed down to you.” Jesus continued, “Clearly, you are experts at rejecting God’s commandment in order to establish these rules. Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and The person who speaks against father or mother will certainly be put to death. But you say, ‘If you tell your father or mother, “Everything I’m expected to contribute to you is corban(that is, a gift I’m giving to God),” then you are no longer required to care for your father or mother.’ In this way you do away with God’s word in favor of the rules handed down to you, which you pass on to others. And you do a lot of other things just like that.” Then Jesus called the crowd again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing outside of a person can enter and contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.” After leaving the crowd, he entered a house where his disciples asked him about that riddle. He said to them, “Don’t you understand either? Don’t you know that nothing from the outside that enters a person has the power to contaminate? That’s because it doesn’t enter into the heart but into the stomach, and it goes out into the sewer.” By saying this, Jesus declared that no food could contaminate a person in God’s sight. “It’s what comes out of a person that contaminates someone in God’s sight,” he said. “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.” (Mark 7:1-23, CEB)

What keeps us from including others?

What rules do we want others to follow that may not be a rule for them?

What are the evils that we hold on to while expecting others to get in line with our rules?

This passage starts with the Pharisees asking Jesus why some of the disciples eat with unwashed hands when the tradition is that all the Pharisees and Jews wash their hands before eating. Well obviously not all the Jews, because the disciples in question who haven’t washed their hands are Jews. But also there is no direct law or code in the laws about washing your hands before eating. It was understood that Priests and those entering the temple had to wash their hands and feet. This is in Exodus 30:17-21. And this was taken and used as a biblical hint that hands should be washed before all meals. It is a cultural and contextual thing. Not something that has to be done.

We should not and can not force our rules on others. We need to be putting off of all evil, and looking to the needs of others.

This translation of the scripture uses sexual sins for what the NRSV translates as fornication. The word in Greek is πορνεῖαι which is sexual immorality with the implications of prostitution. And it is different than adultery. Most of us would say we are not fornicators, thieves, murderers, or adulterers, but what about greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness?

Have you ever been greedy, or done something immoral?

Have you deceived someone?

Were you ever envious?

Did you insult someone, or yourself?

Did you ever brag about something you did?

We all do things that push the envelope of evil and bringing down others.

We are made in the image of God. All of creation. All of Humankind is created in God’s image. Not just one of us, but all of us. We need every human being to be the image of God and when we say someone doesn’t fit our rules and is not living correctly and is cut off from God we are no longer the image of God because we have cut part of the image away.

Following the rules will only get us so far…

We need to let go of rules and lean into love.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.