Mark 7:1-8-- Wash Your Hands!

The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?" And He said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.' Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men."

The fact that some Pharisees and scribes were coming from Jerusalem was significant, for it showed that Jesus was gaining official notice from some of the leaders in Jerusalem.  Not the high priest, but some of the education facilities were paying attention to his teaching.  

As others have done in the past, these officials attack Jesus through the actions of his disciples, which seems unorthodox.  Three things can be seen from this—that first, Jesus followed the orthodox practice (in this case, washing his hands) or else they would have complained about his practice specifically; second, that the disciples were unschooled and clueless about the finer points of the law; and third, that in not correcting his disciples, Jesus didn’t care whether they followed the orthodoxy of his day or not.  Even though Jesus himself practiced proper orthodox actions, he did not insist that his disciples do the same.  

It is well documented that the Pharisees were very concerned with keeping things ritually clean.  Hand washing—as well as the washing of the outside of pots—was considered very significant for keeping all things acceptable before God.  While this may seem ridiculous in modern eyes, the modern focus on cleansing things with an eye to controlling germs would be equally ridiculous in the first century.  But what the Pharisees were most concerned about in the washing of hands is that it is the passed down opinion that God is concerned with this action. 

Jesus’ rebuttal to the Pharisee’s complaint makes it clear that the washing of hands is really unimportant.  That they are focusing on the law invented by men, but not as concerned about obeying the actual commands of God.  Because of this focus, he applies to them a prophecy of Isaiah (29:13) which speaks of false obedience.  Jesus is saying that the scribes are giving the appearance of obeying God, but in reality doing nothing like that.  For this reason, he calls them “hypocrites”—which in Greek literally means “those less than able to discern” and could be translated "actors" or “pretenders.”  Those who seem to do one thing, but in reality is doing another.

We all have traditions that are essential to our spiritual life.  Perhaps it is listening to worship music, perhaps it is reading a particular translation, perhaps it is attending a certain church, maybe it is meditating in a forest. Maybe it is reading the psalms. Maybe it is attending a certain AA meeting. These traditions are good for us, and often they are healthy for our spirit.  

Some of our traditions are so close to our heart that we cannot imagine living without them.  In fact, we wonder how others live without these habits, they are so close to the heart of our spiritual health. We might even claim that they can't be spiritually healthy without our traditions or practices.

We're wrong.  Jesus is just setting us straight on that.

As important as our traditions are, that doesn't mean that someone else isn't just as spiritually healthy without them.  And if we look at someone else's traditions and say, "That's not godly," we're probably wrong.  The great thing about God is that he scattered many different traditions to meet the spiritual needs of many different people.  What seems offensive to us may be essential to another person.  What is at the heart of our spiritual life may be death to another person, as hard it is to believe.

This is not to say that there aren't some practices that are better than others, or that some practices are spiritually deadly.  But we are so attune to our culture and habits that it is probably better to stop and seriously consider before we judge another person's practice, or insist that they take part in ours.