‘Laws and customs’– that is what Moses is placing before the Israelites. Isn’t that what we expect religious leaders to do, lay out the rules and regulations in order to be in good standing with God? “Just follow these rules, and God will be pleased with you.” Clear and simple, isn’t it? Clear cut directions for holiness.
That was the thinking of the Pharisees and scribes who had gathered around to observe Jesus. They were devout Jews who had heard the scriptural challenge to holiness in their tradition. For example: “Be holy for I the Lord your God, am holy“ (Leviticus 19:2). Their response to the call to holiness was to develop a protective hedge of 613 precepts around the core commandments of their faith. They knew each of these precepts and observed them as carefully as possible.
For example: hand washing was not just a matter of cleanliness and good hygiene. It was a means of obtaining holiness in preparation for ritual and ceremony. The manner of hand washing was prescribed exactly. It was to be done before every meal and even between each course. (It must have taken a long time to get through a meal!) The washing required hands with fingertips pointed upward. Pure water was poured over them and flowed down to the wrists. Even the amount of water was prescribed; about a quarter of a cup. After the prescribed washing the hands were declared clean and allowed to be used for holy purposes. Precise cleansing procedures were also spelled out for washing pots, cups, and other utensils.
The Pharisees challenged Jesus because his followers failed to perform these required cleansing rituals. Can you imagine, peasant farmers, carpenters, and fishing people, the sort of people who followed Jesus, going through the elaborate cleansing at each meal! How would they have time to work and feed their families? Jesus confronts his opponents on their lip service and proclamations about goodness. He accuses them of being preoccupied with superficial observances, “human traditions,” while they ignore “the commandment of God”, to live with hearts of justice and generosity to others.
If the Pharisees thought they were pure in the ritualistic observances, Jesus draws on the teachings of their own prophet Isaiah to critique them: “This people honours me only with lip service, while their hearts are far from me….” “You disregard God’s commandments, but cling to human tradition.”
So what really should be the purpose of law? To bring our hearts to God. Does following religious law make us holy? Not necessarily!
As Christians we believe that what makes us holy is God’s free gift of love, God’s grace. It’s that grace that brings our hearts to God. What religious law can do is prepare us to receive God’s grace.
Last Thursday we celebrated a feast of St John the Baptist. Words from the prophet Isaiah were often used to describe John - ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’ and ‘Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’ Those words also tell us the purpose of religious law - to make it easier for us to accept God’s love and grace into our hearts. And this is why we must be careful that our religious laws don’t become speed bumps, or even barriers, on the highway that can impede God’s love and grace coming into people’s hearts.
Just in case we’re tempted to believe this was only a problem for the Jewish scribes and Pharisees, let’s remember that our church has its laws too. The purpose of those laws is to open our hearts to God’s love. However sometimes the laws seemed to have little to do with grace, generosity or joy. For example, I’m just old enough to remember when mixed marriages, the marriage of a Catholic to a non-Catholic, couldn’t be celebrated at the altar, but only in the sacristy. Talk about creating barriers to God’s grace!
Jesus took exception to the scribes and Pharisees because, in trying to scrupulously observe the laws and regulations they missed the importance of inner transformation that flows into words and works.
So, having soiled hands at worship is not as important as having a soiled heart that can stop us from accepting God’s grace and love. As Jesus says, it is not what comes from the outside that the defiles a person, “but the things that come out from within are what defile.” We should then examine what is at the heart of our daily religious practices, the laws we follow. Do they reveal a genuine love for God and compassion for others? Do they open our hearts to God’s love, made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord?
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