Mark 7:9-13-- Set Aside for God

He was also saying to them, "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER'; and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH'; but you say, 'If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),' you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that."

While Jesus seems to be speaking of the same subject as the last paragraph, the subject is actually slightly different.  In v. 12, Jesus said that the scribes and Pharisees “neglect” to do God’s commands, but they focus on human tradition or law.  In this paragraph, Jesus is giving an example of how the Pharisees actually disobey God’s command in preference to human law.  Jesus uses as his example the fifth command out of the ten—“honor your father and mother” (Exodus 20:12) and supports it with a command denying evil speech against one’s parents (Exodus 21:17).  The tradition the Pharisees were proposing on the surface seems to have nothing to do with these two commands.  They were saying that one may make a vow to the Lord to dedicate the resources one would normally use to provide for one’s parents in their old age, and to give it to God’s use (possibly the temple).  The word corban is a Hebrew word which means “gift”—in other words, even though someone is using it, it has been set aside for God, and thus cannot be used for one’s parents.  

Jesus, however, sees that the honor of one’s parents is done precisely by caring for them when they are no longer able to care for themselves.  And since the law says that to speak evil to one’s parents is a crime worthy of death, then anyone speaking to their parents of how they will not be caring for them is speaking an evil and thus is worthy of the death penalty.  But this is the very thing the tradition is telling them to do—to dishonor parents by not caring for them and to speak evil to them by telling them how you are going to dishonor them.  Jesus is using this as one example of how the scribes and Pharisees twist Scripture on it’s head to tell people to do exactly what the Scriptures tell people not to do.  Thus, Jesus concludes, the Pharisees are not interested in obeying God at all.  They are only interested in keeping men’s traditions.

As deeply committed religious people, we know instinctively that God is more important than our families.  After all, Jesus said, "Whoever does not hate his father and mother, sister and brother, wife and children and even his own life, cannot be my disciple."  (Luke 14:26)  Our commitment to God should me more than our commitment to our families.  Our commitment to God should be more than our commitment to our fellow church member, the poor or our closest friends.  Always keep God first.

This is true.  And it is not true.  Both.

Because what we often fail to remember is that our commitment to God includes our commitment to our family.  Our commitment to our brother or sister in Christ.  Our commitment to the poor.  Even our commitment to our enemy.  We may feel that associating with a certain family member is a compromise of our faith.  But if our faith is to love, then perhaps it is keeping our faith.  Certainly holding onto our anger and bitterness isn't a real part of our spiritual life.

John takes this principle even more severely: "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." (1 John 4:20) If we fail to care for our family, our poor, our needy, our friends, then we don't have the commitment to God that we think we have.

Jesus says that the bottom line is to always care for our needy, whether they be our parents or our children or our poor neighbors.  If we don't, then we really aren't obeying God at all, no matter what else we are doing.

So what did Jesus mean about the "hating" of family?  Well, our family will tell us that if we really loved them we had to share in their prejudices and hatreds and practices that God doesn't want us to participate in, or else we "hate" them and everything they stand for.  Let's face it, most of our families have things they stand for that we should hate, whether a political ideal or a commitment to money or a certain destructive lifestyle.  Those we should separate from.

But always love.  Always care.  Always meet need.  Because that's what God has called us to.