Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (NRSV)
Read Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 7Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, Verse 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. Verse 3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; Verse 4and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) Verse 5So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" Verse 6He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
Verse 14Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: Verse 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile." Verse 21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, Verse 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. Verse 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
Devotion
Did you wash your hands?
The first part of today’s reading raises the question of what makes for health and wholeness. I can still hear my mother saying,” It’s time for dinner; come in and wash up for supper!” If I would say to my mother, “Washing up is a silly rule.” I can hear my father saying, “Don’t disrespect your mother!” In Jesus’ day, external washing (Greek, baptismos, Verse 4) had come to be seen as a big part of what makes us whole with ritual rules about the washing of everything, and even fisticuffs over the rules passed down by the elders. In such arguments the invitation of God about wholeness could get lost.
Today, whenever we worship and hear the words “in the name of the Father and of The Son and of the Holy Spirit” they are a reminder of God’s baptismal invitation to be whole. Washed by a God who makes us whole we come to a meal of Christ’s Body in the bread and wine of God’s new creation.
Prayer
Holy and Triune God, out of Baptismal waters you call us to your dinner; may we there be made whole with you and with each other. Amen.
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