B Cycle – 2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 24

Mk. 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Have you ever wondered why the Pharisees could not accept Jesus as the Christ?  With years of training in the scriptures and the law many of them remained steadfast in their denial and proclaimed Jesus as a blasphemer.  The Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus was zealous in his denial of Christ as the Messiah.  That is until he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus.  It was then, after his encounter with Jesus, he began to see how the prophets’ words pointed to Jesus as the Christ.  Paul’s knowledge of the law and the prophets became a useful tool in his ability to articulate why Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise.    

Paul did not disregard the law, but he used his knowledge of the law to motivate thousands of years of believers.  Paul was able to express the law was their disciplinarian until the law of the Spirit came.  Jesus in today’s gospel reinforces how the law kept them in check until Jesus expanded the intention of the law.  God has never wanted blind obedience to a law because we can achieve that goal by sheer willpower. But we know how hard it is to remain faithful to the law.  God wants more than our will power; He wants our hearts.  Obedience to the law gives us a false sense of righteousness which prevents us from growing closer to God.    

Paul in his letter to the Hebrews, says we need “…to move away from foundational, elementary things and press on to maturity.”  Paul is writing from his own experience. While Jesus was performing miracles and teaching fundamental truths about God’s forgiveness, Paul clung to the things he had learned and practiced all his life.  We are no different.  We cling to long held beliefs and practices without ever realizing how dependent we are on them.  Jesus is shaking us up, challenging us to consider why we have not moved beyond obedience to give God our hearts.  To become aware that there are other things we need to be concerned about.  Things which reside and come out of our hearts which separate us from God.  Things like greed, malice, evil thoughts, deceit, envy, arrogance, licentiousness, and folly.  All of these, Jesus said comes out of our hearts and create a barrier between us and God. 

Did you notice those minor “sins” are listed with some sins we call “deadly?”  We deceive ourselves because we have not murdered anyone, or stolen great sums of money from someone, or lived a licentious life.  Jesus is telling us to wake up and realize how all sin is destructive to our relationship with God.  All sin, big and small separates us from God.

For two thousand years we have clung to foundational teachings about sin and punishment.  We have failed to move from a childlike faith to a disciple’s faith.  We need to have this teaching about sin penetrate our hearts and open our eyes to the life we are destined to live.  We need an experience an encounter with Jesus.  We need a prodigal son moment, a woman at the well moment or a Damascus moment.  We need to stand before Jesus knowing we need to see how all sin clings to us and how Jesus wants to wash us clean by what He will do within us.  We need Jesus to send the Spirit to us and allow that Spirit to teach us the truth about how there is no condemnation for those in Christ.  We need the Spirit to show we have kept our hearts from being engaged in our attempts to be holy.   

Shortly we will say, “Lord I am not worthy, but just saying the word and I will be healed.”  We need to realize how none of us are worthy by our own efforts. At our creation God declared each of us to be worthy of His love.  We need to walk away from a childlike faith and begin living a disciple’s faith.  We need to repent not because we have done evil things but because evil things lurk in our hearts, and we are unaware of them.  But they are there, and they do impact our ability to encounter Christ each day.   We can be certain the Pharisees did not receive this teaching by Jesus very well. 

For we like them have lived our lives guided by the law.  Each of us has, like the disciples, disobeyed the law and has failed to follow the law to purify ourselves. What the disciples did on this day had to be scandalous.  Particularly since Jesus, the so called Messiah, was with them as He is with us each time we break the law.  Jesus ignored both the law and chastises the Pharisees instead of His disciples.   He tells the Pharisees they have “disregarded God’s commandment and cling to human tradition.”  

If we learn nothing from this gospel, we need to learn how insufficient it is for us just to follow the law.  God wants more than law abiding followers, He wants to change us by His presence and that of the Holy Spirit.  Transformed just as Saul of Tarsus was transformed. But for us to become transformed we need to be on a journey, one that seeks to encounter the followers of Christ and to understand why they are so free because they understand how Christ freed them.   We need to allow the Spirit to transform us into the very image of Christ.  To change us so we would in our words and our actions seek the embrace of the living God.   The law has given us a foundation to build a life of discipleship upon. But to become a disciple we must engage our hearts where our passion resides.