St. Mark 7:1-30: "1 Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem. 2 Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. 3 For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, 'Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?' 6 He answered and said to them, 'Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. 7 And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men--the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.' 9 He said to them, 'All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother;" and, "He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death." 11 But you say, "If a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban'"'--(that is, a gift to God), 12 'then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, 13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.' 14 When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, 'Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!' 17 When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. 18 So He said to them, 'Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?' 20 And He said, 'What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.' 24 From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. 25 For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 But Jesus said to her, 'Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.' 28 And she answered and said to Him, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs.' 29 Then He said to her, 'For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.' 30 And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed."
This pericope contrasts the faith of the people who chased after our Lord Jesus to hear His holy Word and be healed by Him, with the Pharisees and scribes, who chase after our Lord Jesus to find fault with Him and to harass Him with questions. These questions to not center on the commandments of the Lord, but in human tradition. This comes from a very literal understanding of the Prophet Isaiah 1:16, "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil," and also, the Prophet Isaiah 52:11, "Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing; Go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the LORD." The Pharisees and scribes have taken something that is meant to be understood spiritually, that is, they are to be clean of heart, and made it into something that is not spiritual; Understanding these passages to mean they were to be physically clean.
We see from this tradition, that the Jews were obsessed with baptism, that is, the baptism of hands, pitchers and cups, copper vessels, and couches. In other words, things that do not need to truly be clean. If one's heart is full of corruption and sin, and unbelief, it doesn't matter how clean these objects are, for the person using them is still unclean, that is, unbaptized in heart. This is what our Lord Jesus, and the Prophet Isaiah, are referring to, having a heart that is clean, that is, baptized. Holy Scripture talks about this also in terms of circumcision. The Jews were circumcised in the flesh, but they were not circumcised in the heart. Now, clearly this does not mean that one should cut open one's chest and cut off a piece of one's heart. Nor when referring to a clean heart, would the same cutting open of the chest apply. We can agree that this would be ridiculous. So clearly, our Lord Jesus is not referring to a phyical cleanness, but to spiritual cleanness, that is, being pure in heart.
Here though, we see the Pharisees and scribes up in arms about our Lord's disciples not washing their hands before they eat. This is more than just a hygiene issue to the Jews, this is a tradition of the elders, which they have made into a commandment of the Lord. Worse yet, as our Lord Jesus points out, they have disregarded the commandments of the Lord, by their traditions. Their traditions stand in opposition to the commandments. Our Lord Jesus uses an example, of honoring one's father and mother, the fourth commandment. They break this commandment by their traditions. This is the dangerous thing about traditions. For traditions in and of themselves are not bad.
For example, every parish has a tradition of what time they are going to meet for worship. Certainly this is a helpful tradition. If every parish did not have this tradition, no one would know what time worship was going to be, and that would lead to one of two solutions, either always being at the church, so you wouldn't miss it, or never being at church, so that you always miss it. So we can see that traditions are not necessarily bad. What our Lord here is condemning is the traditions of the elders, which allowed people to break the commandments. The elders provided a loophole, and since now there would be no punishment for breaking this commandment of God.
We see this today as well, church bodies create loopholes in the commandments of God, by saying women can be pastors, ignoring the commandment given through the Blessed Apostle St. Paul, by saying he either wasn't speaking on God's behalf, or that he was only referring to that time and place in Corinth. The same is true of making homosexuality out to not be a sin, or worse, making them to be pastors, ignoring what our Lord God says about it in the Old Testament, and what St. Paul says about in his Epistle to the Church at Rome, for similar reasons to the one given above. There are church bodies that say abortion is okay, ignoring the commandment against murder. All these examples show how church bodies have vacated the commandments of God, and taken on the position of the world, that is, the traditions of man. These are no different than the Pharisees and scribes of our Lord's day, and these examples are by no means exhaustive.
From these examples we can see that true uncleanness, that is, evil and corruption, lies in the heart. For men naturally do what is in their heart, if their heart has not been cleansed through Holy Baptism. Our Lord Jesus even supplies us with a list of things that come out of the heart of natural man. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man." These things can certainly be see in the traditions of man that were given as examples above.
The good news for us, is that the world and those in it can make up as many traditions and customs contrary to the commandment of God as they want, but it does not change the commandment. Their punishment for breaking them will be the same. God will remain the same as He always was for us. And since this applies to the Law, it also applies to the Gospel, that is, the promise of forgiveness, life and salvation. The world and false church bodies may try to distort or corrupt the Gospel, but the Lord God's Word always remains. Mankind's heart, and the evil that flows from it, does not effect the Word of God and its promises.
This is shown to us by the Syro-Phoenician woman whose daughter is severely demon-possessed. Here we have contrasted the Jews who reject the Messiah, who are represented by the Pharisees and scribes, and who have done away with the commandments of God on account of their unclean hearts, with a Syro-Phoenician woman, that is, a Gentile Greek and a descendant of the Canaanites, who were the enemies of the people of Israel, who shows that her heart is pure and clean, for she shows her humility and faith in our Lord Jesus. It is not surprising that this next part of the narrative takes place in the region of Tyre and Sidon, that is, next to the sea. Again we see an allusion to baptism by the Evangelist St. Mark.
The Venerable Bede carries this thought through when he says regarding this miracle and the woman's faith, which healed her daughter,
"On account then of the humble and faithful saying of her mother, the devil left the daughter ; here is given a precedent for catechising and baptizing infants, seeing that by the faith and the confession of the parents, infants are freed in baptism from the devil, though they can neither have knowledge in themselves, or do either good or evil."*
This woman's faith, and her clean heart, saved her daughter, that is, purified her daughter of the demon. From this we see how God desires to cleanse us from the corruption and sin that rests in our hearts, that is, through the waters of Holy Baptism. By this washing, we are cleansed of sin, made pure and whole, and the affects of the devil, the world and our sinful flesh are washed away. This also is one of the commandments of our Lord, that the Church go forth and teach all nations, and baptizing them. For in this our Lord Jesus is with us always. Therefore, let us rejoice in our baptisms, for by them our hearts have been made clean.
May God be with you!
Deacon Dulas
* The Venerable Bede "On Mark", 7:30.
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