3.4.2015 Wednesday of Lent 2 Mark 7:1-23 A good heart is the source of a good life
Once again Jesus comes into conflict with
the scribes and Pharisees over the Law and Tradition. To keep from breaking the
Law, the scribes announced detailed laws and interpretations. The body of these
pronouncements was known as the “oral law” or the Tradition of the Elders.
Later the oral law was put into writing and is known as the Talmud. Jesus
distinguishes between the law of God and the traditions of men. Jesus is asked
why He does not require His disciples to observe the tradition by washing their
hands before eating. Jesus points to the heart as the source of good living. It
is not a matter of dirty hands but a dirty heart. Vices come from a filthy heart
and they make a person unclean. On the other hand, a good heart will produce
good deeds.[2]
Do not use religion to avoid the demands
of faith. Leadership of Jesus day built for themselves a religion of traditions
and proceeded to use tradition to escape the demands of faith. Jesus has a word
for this – hypocrisy. Whose voice will you listen, the voice of God or the
voice of the church? That was the issue of the 16th Century.
Certain reformers repudiated those traditions that they found contrary to the
word of Scripture. Is the church today in need of another overhaul? Some
believe that a reformation is long overdue. If so, who is to be the arbitrator?
At all costs, we need to avoid making religion our religion.
We need a religion based on the clear
word of the Lord.
His Word will not fail. What does His
Word teach us? It teaches us that mere ritual, washing, or clean living will
never do. However, His washing will always make us clean.
St. Paul reminds us, “When we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we
were baptized into His death. We were buried with Him by our baptism into death
that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we
also should walk in newness of life. For if we were united with Him in a death
like His we will certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”
Romans 6:4-5
In Baptism you were incorporated into the
life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ is the only one who has
ever live a perfectly good, clean life before God. He alone is the spotless Lam
of God. He never soiled Himself with the stain of sin, even though He was
tempted as you are.
His Word gives salvation and life. Jesus
chose to cover Himself with the entire dirt and filth of your sin. The Father
chose to give Him your punishment for that sin and to give you His
cleanliness. Now in the waters of
Baptism the Father give you Jesus’ clean, holy life as your own and washes away
the stain and dirt of your sin.
This is the Father’s idea of godliness.
Not what we can do to look impressive before God rather it is what He has done
for you. The power of forgiveness in Baptism we are able to really do what the
leaders of Jesus’ day and our own hypocritical nature can only mimic – offer a
life to God that is also externally clean and godly.
In Jesus Christ all our actions as God’s
people – from the rituals of our worship to the duties of our daily lives are
now clean in God’s sight. No wonder the Scriptures call Baptism a “washing of
regeneration” and “a renewing of the Holy Spirit.”
O God, you so loved
the world that you gave your only begotten Son to reconcile earth with heaven;
Grant that we, loving you above all things, may love our friends in you, and
our enemies for your sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.[3]
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