A Word From Joel - September 4, 2024

“Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’” Mark 7:5-6 This is neither Jesus’ first nor last conflict with the Pharisees. They fought a lot, and I think the reason they did is because they were family. Of the four sects of Judaism at the time, Jesus was most closely aligned with the Pharisees. Unlike the Sadducees who cozied up to the Roman aristocracy, unlike the Zealots who wanted violent revolution, and unlike the Essenes who withdrew from society to watch it burn, the Pharisees cultivated Jewish faith and practice in the countryside amongst the common people. They are not the bad guys. Many Jewish people today are pleading Christians to stop associating Pharisees with hypocrisy because modern Judaism descends from the Pharisees. With antisemitism on the rise across the globe, it is incumbent upon us to not mischaracterize Judaism either past or present.

In this story, what begins as a sincere question about faith practice, Jesus escalates to something else entirely. Now, I would think that ceremonial handwashing wouldn’t be that big of a deal, an example of something that reasonable people could come to different conclusions about and simply agree to disagree. But Jesus sees something larger going on beneath the surface of this issue. For him, who we label pure and who we label defiled is of the utmost importance. For him it’s not just about handwashing—it’s about who is worthy of belonging at the table.

Who you are willing to eat with is central to Jesus’ understanding of the gospel and what it means to be a child of God. God is busy bringing people together around a shared table who might otherwise despise one another.  Their image of the kingdom of God is one beloved people around a big table, sharing a feast together, where there is always room for more. When any of us looks across that table and says to another person, you don’t belong here, you’re defiled and unworthy, then you may honor God with your lips, but your heart is far from God. That’s not an insult or a put down as much as a description.

The heart of God is wide and open. Jesus is constantly revealing the heart of God by eating with outcasts and sinners, by touching the untouchable, giving dignity to those deemed unworthy. In fact, the only harsh words we ever hear Jesus utter are in situations like this one, where he sees those claiming to speak on behalf of God policing who belongs and who is excluded. For Jesus the only thing that’s excluded is exclusion. His criticism is not directed at the Pharisees or Jews per se. People of all faiths or no faith can be generous, open hearted, and compassionate, and they can be arrogant, exclusionary, and look down on others. It’s not about the label of Pharisee, or Jew, or Christian. It’s about reflecting the heart of God around a shared table of love and belonging. The good news is, you belong at this table, and so does everyone else., or Donald Trump, or Kamala Harris, or inflation or Project 2025, or anything else you might be afraid of. If Jesus is Lord, that means nothing else is. Trusting that’s true, living as though it is true is how you keep your head about you amidst the storms of life.