(Mark7 1-8,14-15,21-23)

When the Pharisees talk about the law, they are referring to what originally was nothing more than the 10 commandments and the first five books of the Bible, otherwise known as the Pentateuch. There are some detailed regulations but in the main there were generalised principles (love the lord your god with all your heart etc). Gradually people became concerned about the details of how these general principles should be put into practice. These detailed procedures were written down along side the law and became known as the Mishnal – the more concerned people were to show that they were doing everything they could the more detailed these procedures became.

There the discussion is about the disciples washing their hands and there were definite and rigid rules for the washing of hands; it was hygiene but ceremonial cleanliness that was the issue at hand. The Pharisees accused the disciples of eating with unclean hands. The hands had to be washed before each meal and between each course. Before the washing started the hands to be free of any coating of sand or gravel or mortar or any such substance. The water fro cleaning had to be kept in large stone jars so that it was clear that it had not been used for any other purpose. First the hands were held with the finger tips pointing upwards with the water running at least down to the wrist. While the hands were still wet each hand had to be cleansed with the fist against the surface of the other. This meant that at this stage the hands were wet with water; but now that water was unclean because it had touched unclean hands. So next the hands had to be held with finger tips pointing downwards and water had to be poured over them in such a way that it began at the wrists and ran off at the finger tips.

Although it might not seem so now, this passage when it was first spoken would have been heard as one of the most revolutionary passages in the whole of the New Testament. Jesus has already talked about the irrelevance of hand washing. What he does now is to take a firm step away from Jewish dietary laws (there is a large list in Leviticus ll) and say that it is only what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. The law has and can only bring the Israelites so far – eventually there becomes too many detailed regulations to follow and it is only the Pharisees trained in the minutiae of the law that know what to do. However, the fact that the law has become too complicated means that those who really want to listen can recognise the simplicity and the rightness in what Jesus is saying.

For us this story has two warnings. The story is about being too concerned to do the right thing and can choke the feelings and thoughts someone might have in their hearts – the law creeps ahead of peoples feelings and attitudes and then doubles back and chokes them. If the external ritual runs ahead of the internal feelings then this is what happens. It can happen all too easily coming to church. If we lose sight of why we come to church on Sundays thin it becomes a boring, legalistic drudgery. If we stop enjoying or engaging with our job, if we are constantly bored or frustrated with our family. If at any point the ritual of our day to day living leaves us behind then we are trapped.

However there is a different but equally as strong danger going in the other direction. If legalism is one trap them sentimentalism is another. If your life is simply dictated by what you do and by what is happening to you then you are trapped in one way. However if all you care about is what you feel then you are trapped in another way. People say to me “I don’t need God or religion or church” because I know God right here in my heart – why do I need to go to any church. Sometimes I can see their point and they have a beautiful rough untidy bright eager faith growing inside them (Pia had been praying to God a long time before she started coming to church and it is only now that the inside and the outside match up that she has decided on her baptism. Sometimes though, I simply do not agree and when people tell me that they don’t need religion or church what they are actually saying is that they want it all on their own terms. It is the same in any other context if all you care about is what is inside here then eventually you lose the ability to understand what is outside there because you are wanting everything on your own terms.

What Jesus wants of the Pharisees and what Jesus wants of us is for habit and heart to reflect each other – if you are caught by all the ritual and routine of your life then you are trapped by legalism.  If what is most important is simply what you feel and nothing else matters then you are captive to a form of sentimentality. When habit and heart both reflect each other then you can begin to know a peace with yourself, a peace with others and a peace with God. It is this that is on offer in the name of Jesus Christ who lived, died and rose again that we might know this perfect love and freedom