David Bahn – Reflections

Mark 7:5

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders,but eat with defiled hands?”

Phil Collins says that good is the enemy of great. Sometimes we must give up good things in order to do something truly great. The question of the Pharisees and scribes betrays the fact that they did not know or believe the good-to-great truism, or that they did not perceive that Jesus’ new way was truly great. Indeed, however, Jesus was ushering in something so totally new and different that it meant that certain old ways not only could be abandoned, but had to have been abandoned in service to the new way of Christ.

The disciples had abandoned the traditions because something better was on the scene, and Jesus’ ways offer something better; the old ways were getting in the way of their actual supposed purpose. Jesus lived the religion of the Jews; he actually embodied it in all he did. He taught that to love God and love your neighbor was not a matter of ritual but of relationship. As such he was less concerned about religion than about people and life itself.

On the one hand you might think people would be happy to abandon religious ritual in favor of a truer expression of faith. On the other hand long-ingrained behaviors are difficult to change. Religious rituals are meaningful to many. When the agenda is something other than doing religion, however, they are quickly discarded. Jesus was on a mission to seek and save the lost. His disciples were learning what that meant; and it didn’t mean learning ritual. It meant preaching the good news, casting out demons, and healing diseases.

A missional life is different. As you consider what you do or don’t do any particular thing, ask yourself what good thing you might you abandon in order to attain something truly great. It’s a matter of making things that really matter really matter.

Mark 7:1-13

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders,but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he 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 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”