How do you like this hot weather? Is there anyone here
for a freak cold spell once in a while to keep us cool?
Well, it’s not the time of year for it—I wrote about
this in the winter of 2008—but have you heard of the Pajamas-Inside-Out,
Spoon-Under-the-Pillow-Snow-Day Ritual? Has anyone? So, if you don’t know about it, first of all, it’s only supposed
to work if there’s already a chance of snow in the weather forecast. So, I’m
sorry. It’s not going to work; at this
time of year. But with that in mind,
kids put a spoon under their pillow and go to bed with their pajamas inside out
to ensure that the next day will be a snow day, and thus, no school. Mark Dursin, a high school English teacher,
found out about P. I. O. S. U. P. S. D. R., as it’s referred to, one day when
talking with one of his students. After explaining the ritual, she said, “See
for yourself. Look it up online.” He
did, and his eyes were opened. Students all over the eastern United States are
serious about it. He even discovered a reference to a Tennessee schoolteacher
who learned about the ritual during her first year of teaching 25 years
ago! When he asked if the ritual
worked, some said, “Yes, definitely!” and could count off the times that it
worked. Others acknowledged, “Only sometimes,” but even they still practiced
it.
Actually, the Jews had their own kind of irrational
ritual. Only they didn’t expect a snow day. They wanted cleansing from
ceremonial impurity. It was the rule
about washing hands before a meal. It didn’t come from God’s word; it was
merely an oral tradition. But so
rigidly did the Jews observe it, that there’s one story of a famous rabbi, who
after being imprisoned, and having only a limited amount of water, preferred to
risk dying of thirst to eating without washing his hands. “To eat with unwashed hands,” he said, “is a
sin. It is better to die of thirst than to commit a sin.” — http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111935/jewish/Rabbi-Akiba-in-Prison.htm
It had nothing to do with getting the dirt off your
hands. It was all about getting clean from ceremonial impurity, whatever that
might be. And this rabbi would not eat without washing his hands. Going through
the motions in some ritual of pouring water over his hands in a certain
way. So we see how important it was for
devout Jews to do this kind of motion, this kind of practice, this kind of
ritual before meals. It was like an
obsession.
In fact, have you heard of O. C. D.? Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder? I think these rabbis had it! It was O. C. R. actually.
Obsessive Compulsive Religion.
And we find this same obsession referred to in the
gospels, right here in Mark 7.
I invite you to look at verses 3 and 4. I’ll be reading from the New English
translation. Mark 7, and verses 3 and
4. “(For the
Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing,
holding fast to the tradition of the elders.
And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they
wash. They hold fast to many other traditions: the washing of cups,
pots, kettles, and dining couches.)”
That sounds funny, doesn’t it?
Dining couches? Some
translations say ‘dining tables’, which makes a little more sense.
You see, the rabbis taught that a person might have
somehow contracted ceremonial impurity after being in the marketplace or
something like that. Touching some
vessel that was impure, or whatever, and that unless they did this little
ritual, that impurity might somehow be conveyed from their hands to their food,
and then from their food to their body, and then from their body to their soul.
It was serious business for them, this ritual.
But let’s follow the gospel story surrounding this
tradition in both Mark 7 and in Matthew 15. We’ll be looking at both accounts,
so you might want to keep your finger in both places.
A little bit of background first, though. The scribes and Pharisees had expected, just
before this, for Jesus to come to Jerusalem during the Passover. But Jesus
stayed away, foiling their plans to do that.
To trap Him.
And so, since He did not go to them, Matthew 15, verse
1 tells us, then “Pharisees and experts in the law came
from Jerusalem to Jesus.”
And they needed to find something to use against Him.
What could they come up with on this occasion to nail Jesus?
Of course, as usual, a particular thorn in their side
was Jesus’ bothersome disregard of all of their rabbinical traditions.
Now since there is a crowd mentioned in this passage,
Jesus must have been teaching a group of people while He was there in Galilee,
and perhaps Jesus had stopped just long enough for Him and His disciples to get
something to eat.
That’s when these Pharisees from Jerusalem decided to
crash the party. But now they didn’t much like this crowd of Galileans around
them, because people like them from Jerusalem tended to look down on the
illiterate and simple people of Galilee with contempt, commonly referring to
them, in a derogatory way, as “people of the soil” [SDA Commentary, Mark 7:2].
Picking their way carefully through the crowd, I can
imagine their narrow eyes and scrunched up faces and arrogant frowns as they
were very careful about guarding their personal space. They were just a little out of their comfort
zone. “Make sure we don’t touch any one
of these dirty people.”
Now Mark’s account adds a little bit of detail here.
Mark 7, verse 1.
“Now the Pharisees and some of the experts in
the law who came from Jerusalem gathered around Him.” Gathered around Him?
How would you like for people to stand around you,
critically observing everything you do, especially when you’re sitting down to
eat?
Especially squinty-eyed, scrunchy-faced and
arrogantly-frowned Pharisees?
Here they are, surrounding Jesus and His disciples
like a pack of wolves, salivating hate and disgust.
Mark 7, verse 2.
“And they saw that some of Jesus’ disciples ate
their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed.”
“Ugh! What an
abomination!” they must have felt.
Feeling this inward repulsion, their disgust level zoomed to the skies,
like being repulsed with the smell of garbage.
This was exactly the nail they were looking for.
That’s exactly what they were going to argue about.
But with much of Galilee seeming to be in favor of
Jesus, they felt outnumbered and nervous. They certainly didn’t want to offend
those who thought well of Jesus.
So they decided to be sly, to nuance their attack.
Yes! Criticize Jesus’ disciples. “Oh, this is a brilliant idea. Use an indirect attack to avoid offending
those who like Jesus.”
But oh, they really wanted to nail Jesus as having a
flagrant disregard of their traditions and rules.
In the presence of this multitude, Mark 7, verse 5,
the Pharisees and experts in the law all joined in the attack.
“Why do your disciples not live according to
the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?”
“Yes, they are flouting the rules.”
“How dare they play fast and loose with what the
religious authorities teach!”
“That’s right.
It’s disobeying the tradition of the elders,” piped up someone else.
[See Matthew 15:2]
Can you see the pained and saddened expression come
over Jesus’ face. He thought about it for a brief moment, and then He put it
right back to these sticklers for human rituals.
“And why do you disobey the commandment of
God because of your tradition?” [Matthew
15:3 NET]
I’m not sure the Pharisees quite anticipated what they
were about to hear, are you? Jesus continued.
Matt 15, verses 4 through 9. “For God said, ‘Honor your father and
mother’ and ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If someone tells his father or
mother, “Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,” he does not need to honor his father.’ You
have nullified the word of God on account of your tradition. Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly
about you when he said, ‘This people
honors Me with their lips, but their heart is really far from Me, and they worship Me in vain, teaching as
doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
In other words, they were weaseling around God’s
commands, canceling them by their petty, little rules.
But all the while they acted like they were doing the
right thing, but using God merely as a cover for teaching whatever suited them.
In this specific example that Jesus used, they taught
the people that the devotion of their property to the temple was a duty far
more sacred than even the support of their own parents.
So Jesus really put it like it was, especially with
that last word, that quote from Isaiah 29, verse 13.
In fact, I’d like to read to you Isaiah 29, verse 13,
but I’d like to read it to you in the Revised Standard Version. You’re welcome to look at it and compare it
with your own Bible version if you have something else. That’s chapter 29 and verse 13. “These people draw
near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, while their hearts are far
from Me, and their worship of Me is a human commandment learned by rote.”
Jesus exposed them as frauds. Can you see their faces
getting red as Jesus says what He does? They are just livid, filled with rage
as their teaching was laid out in the open as false.
Frustrated, there was nothing they could say. They had
no come back. They weren’t prepared for this.
Embarrassed in front of the multitude of Galileans
whom they despised, all they had in return were angry looks and half-muttered
words of dissatisfaction.
Did you see them as they left, shaking the dust off
their feet, spewing out irritation and vows of revenge?
As they did, Jesus must have been shaking His head in
amazement and sadness.
And then turning to the multitude, He motioned for the
crowd to get closer. [Mark 7:14,
15 NET] “Listen to Me, everyone, and understand.
There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into him.
Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles him.” As far as ceremonial impurity or something that takes us
away, makes us unfit for the worship of God.
Let me read to you Jesus’ words from the Message
translation, which, of course, always puts it in a much more explicit way. “Listen, and take
this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you
vomit up” [Matthew 15:10, 11]. Well, is that how God views it? Is that how we should view it?
Later, after all the dust had settled, and when Jesus
had left the crowd, His disciples asked him about it.
And looking at Matthew 15, verses 17 to 20, He said, “Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth
enters the stomach and then passes out into the sewer? But the things that come out of the mouth
come from the heart, and these things defile a person. For out of the heart come evil ideas,
murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are the things that defile a
person. It’s not eating with unwashed
hands that defiles a person.”
In other words, it’s the evil imagination and
selfishness of the heart. Not the
neglect of some mechanical, man-made, hocus pocus ceremony.
By the way, what about us? Do we have our own little
rules and traditions that take our focus away from the principles of God’s word
and away from trusting in Jesus? Just a thought . . . .
Anyway, after this story, both Matthew and Mark tell
us about someone else who argued with God.
Someone, who, despite the belief of the Jews, God cared very much
about. Someone among many others that
He was especially fond of.
Mark 7, verse 24.
“After Jesus left there, He went to the region
of Tyre. When He went into a house, he did not want anyone to know, but He was
not able to escape notice.”
Well, most of the people in that area were heathen,
non-Jews. But because there were some Jews living in the area, the news about
Jesus’ healing miracles spread all over.
And one Canaanite woman heard the talk of the town
that Jesus was spotted in the area. And that’s when hope sprang up in her
heart.
She probably had sought help from the heathen gods,
but had obtained no relief. And she must have been tempted to think, “What can
this Jewish teacher really do for me?”
But the stories repeated over and over, all of the
grapevine gossip told her, “He heals all manner of diseases, no matter whether
people are poor or rich.”
And conviction settled on her. Ultimately she determined to believe that He
could heal her child.
And I really do believe that Christ must have known
about this woman’s situation ahead of time. I believe He knew about her need.
So it’s not hard for me to imagine at all, that Jesus
chose to be in the right place where she could find Him easily. It’s just like
the kind of loving God that Jesus portrayed.
And when she did find Him, it was much to the disgust,
however, of Jesus’ disciples. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is
horribly demon-possessed!” [Matthew 15:22, NET] But in trying to teach a lesson for His
disciples, Jesus seemed to ignore her request.
Strangely. Couldn’t His disciples
somehow notice that Jesus wasn’t behaving in His usual compassionate way? Did
Jesus really feel hatred toward this woman’s race? And she kept yelling and carrying on. “Mercy please, Master! My daughter is
cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit.” [See Matthew 15:22 MSG]
And yet, Jesus said nothing. He knew what was going to
happen. He knew what He was going to
do. Always the master Teacher, He was
hoping that the disciples would notice the contrast with how Jesus normally
treated people and with how He was treating her now and how He was about
to treat her.
Although Jesus did not reply, this woman did not lose
faith. As He passed on, as if not hearing her, she still followed Him,
continuing her loud begging. Annoyed by
her persistent cries, the disciples must have started to cover their ears. That was it! That was all they could
stand. Would He please take care of
her? Send her away! And Jesus simply
said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel” [Matthew 15:24, NET]
But the woman began to urge her case even more. She
got on her knees in front of Him and continued begging. “Lord, help me.” And still
apparently mocking the unfeeling prejudice of the Jews, for the sake of His
disciples, Jesus said, “It’s not right to take the
children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” You see, many Jews felt that it was not right to take the
blessings brought to the favored people of God and waste them upon strangers
and aliens. And yet, hearing what Jesus
just said didn’t discourage this woman one bit. After all, the very fact that Jesus condescended to discuss the
matter with her at all, instead of abruptly dismissing her, as the rabbis would
have done, gave her the courage to believe that, “Yes!” He would answer her appeal.
Beneath this apparent refusal of Jesus, she saw a
compassion that He just could not hide. And she didn’t waste any time in responding. “Yes, Lord, but even
the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” [Matthew
15:27 NET] Well, if she was looked upon
as a dog, didn’t she have a dog’s claim to the leftovers? Weren’t there crumbs, also, for her?
Now let’s pause right there and put all of this into
context.
Jesus had just left one area because the scribes and
the Pharisees were seeking to take His life.
They murmured and they complained.
They manifested unbelief and bitterness, and they refused the salvation
that He came to bring them.
And now Christ is talking with someone whom the Jews
referred to as a dog, from a despised race that had not been favored with the
light of God’s Word.
And yet; and yet, she has implicit faith in His
ability to answer her request, begging for the crumbs, if that’s what was
necessary. She has no national or
religious prejudice or pride to influence her, and she acknowledges Jesus as
the Redeemer, as being able to do all that she asks of Him.
I believe that response on her part was music to
Jesus’ ears. He tested her faith and He was immensely satisfied. From Jesus’ perspective, she is no longer an
outcast, no longer an alien, but a child, a daughter of Abraham, a child in
God’s household. And as a child it’s
her privilege to share in the Father’s gifts.
“Woman, your faith is great! Let what you
want be done for you. And her daughter
was healed from that hour.”
And over and over again, time after time in the
gospels, we see Jesus getting excited about one thing. And that’s when people have faith in
Him. Faith. Trust. He doesn’t get
excited about all the rules that people have to show how righteous they
are. He gets excited about faith.
I love these stories, don’t you? They’re so amazing. Here we have those who
were familiar with the light arguing contentiously with the Source of the
light. Ones who rejected the Living Light.
This woman, on the other hand, a stranger, and an
alien, also argued with God, but she responded in trust. Against all
appearances, against all surface discouragement and regardless of Jesus’ words
that might have led her to doubt, she trusted the Saviour.
And I guess what I would wish that we would all carry
away from these stories, is that we will never want to be so familiar with, or
so enamored with our rules and our traditions and the way we ‘do church’, that
we fail to trust in the living Light, and fail to see Jesus. Let’s fill our minds, let’s fill our
imagination and our hearts and guide our lives by these amazing stories of
Jesus, because we’ll really see the kind of God He came to portray.
Let’s sing our closing song, “My Hope Is Built on
Nothing Less.”
Our gracious heavenly Father. There’s only one way to You. Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Thank you for the gift of Jesus. May we
accept all that you have done for us through Him. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hymn of Praise: #264, O For That Flame of Living Fire Scripture: Mark 7:1,2,5 Hymn of Response: #522, My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less
Return to McDonald Road Sermons Index
Return to McDonald Road SDA Church Home Page
McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 7/22/09