Wednesday 09 February 2011

Background

This reading follows directly on from the debate Jesus had with the religiousleaders about their interpretation of the law. Jesus now turnsfirst to the crowd and then to his disciples, and clearly they areconfused or perhaps even stunned by what he is saying to them. IsJesus really sweeping away the rules given to them by Moses, whichmade it explicit what food was clean and unclean?

It is possible that Jesus was comparing one set of rules withanother and making it clear which he felt to be the most important.Just like the Old Testament prophets before him (eg Hosea6.6), Jesus is pointing out that if people focus their time onpublic ritual to demonstrate signs of cleanliness but do not cleantheir hearts and live by moral standards, they will be failing tolive as God wants them to.

Mark (the author of the Gospel) however takes us further than thisunderstanding. At the time that he was writing, the growingChristian communities were struggling with the relevance of Jewishfood laws. This is evident in the importance placed on Peter'svision in Joppa of a large sheet descending from heaven carryingunclean food being offered to him, a story repeated a number oftimes in Acts chapters 10-11. For the new Gentile(non-Jewish) Christians it was important for them to know that theold rules about what could be eaten had been abolished, and theywould have looked to these words of Jesus to confirm that. For themit was yet more evidence that the old barriers had been broken downand that God loved them just as much as he loved the Jews.

To Ponder

What in your own life leaves your heart unclean?Ask God's help to deal with this.

How far do we place unreasonable expectations onothers who are seeking faith which then act as a barrier to themknowing God more fully? What should we do instead?