Introduction
Welcome back to the Gospel of Mark!
The RCL has done a very interesting job cutting up this passage that it can somehow be more “understandable” to a listening audience. And truthfully, the additional verses are complex, because they introduce very specific rules and cultural norms.
And so, I think there are a couple of ways to go about preaching this text. If you take the verses that are assigned, this is a text about a right relationship with ritual rather than strict ritual just for the sake of being strict. But if we take the text as a whole (including the missing verses), then it actually sets up a clearer tension with next week’s text of the Syrophoenician woman. Jesus essentially sets himself up to be wrong for next week.
Preaching the Assigned Text
The assigned verses are asking the question of observing a ritual practice.
There is a debate happening here between three parties: the Pharisees, Jesus, and the disciples. The Pharisees notice that Jesus’ disciples do not wash their hands before they eat. Similarly to the disciples plucking grains of wheat on the way to the synagogue (back in 2:24-28), it is the disciples doing this action and maybe not Jesus.
Now, to be clear, this not the same thing as washing our hands nowadays. Today when we say that it is for hygiene and to be sanitary. But in the text today, this was a ritual action, where you wash your hands by pouring water from a cup over each hand. It’s not scrubbing with soap and water. Its ritual. It may have some hygienic effects but that was not the explicit purpose. But in order to wash your hands, you need access to water.
But Jesus and the disciples, who are constantly on the road, traveling from town to town and don’t have points of contact or regular lodging, will often just sit down on the road and begin eating… without having washed their hands.
Now there are tons of reasons for why this would be an unfair claim by the Pharisees. And there are a lot of good reasons why this is a good question from them to Jesus. If Jesus considers himself a Holy person, one sent by God, then why doesn’t he honor the ritual tradition handed from God?
But whether you include the missing verses or not, Jesus seems to avoid that question. He doesn’t engage with it. Instead, he immediately tells the Pharisees that they are missing the point.
Now, I want to pause for just a minute, because this is not a good argument tactic. When someone asks a question about why you are (or are not) doing something, it’s not usually good to immediately call them names and say they’re wrong. But Mark isn’t trying to make the Pharisees look good here. And so, we have to distance this conversation from actual Pharisees. This is a straw man argument.
Mark is trying to ask the question, why do we, or why don’t engage in a ritual practice? What is the purpose of a ritual practice?
Jesus does not reject all ritual practices in Mark. The Lord’s Supper in Mark is full of them. Him blessing and breaking the bread at the feeding of the 5,000 was a ritual action. His going to the mountain to pray is a ritual action. The woman with the alabaster jar of oil anoints his head. So, what is the line?
Mark never explicitly answers that question. But in each of the ritual actions above, they connect him God and/or neighbor.
What makes something spiritual vs. not spiritual is the intentional thinking about God and/or the God’s calling to serve our neighbor. And that is what is so important about this Gospel text.
The Pharisees want ritual to be done. But they are not attempting to be nearer to God. They just want things done in a certain way. The disciples do not want ritual to be done. Practically speaking, they just want to eat sooner. But in doing so and in that way of thinking, they also are not attempting to be nearer to God.
God, however, is already near to each of them in the presence of Jesus Christ standing in their midst. If either the Pharisees or the disciples would take the time to intentionally think about it, they might just look up and see God right then and there.
Preaching Possibilities
Now, ritual for the sake of ritual may not be bad. Brushing your teeth at the end of the day, could be considered a ritual. And just because you don’t think about God in that moment, does not mean that it is useless. Yoga is still good for the body even if you don’t find it meditative. Coffee is still a caffeinated drink even if you are not thanking God for its divine qualities.
Dipping your hand into Holy Water and making the sign of the cross as a habitual action without thinking about God does nothing to harm you.
But what if we did intentionally engage in these habitual moments with ritual and spiritual purpose?
In a sad moment in the Lutheran church history, there was a campaign to be less Catholic. To never dip your hand into Holy Water or make the sign of the cross because it was “Too Catholic.” For a time, many Lutherans objected to chanting the liturgy, procession of the cross, elevating the Body and Blood of Christ at the Consecration, genuflecting, private confession and absolution, and observing the Feast Days of saints.
A full movement was organized by a subset of Lutherans to not engage in specific ritual actions just because we didn’t want to be like someone else.
I am not saying that those things would make us fundamentally make us more spiritual as whole. But I do think that that hard stance robbed many Lutheran churches of the opportunity to find ritual actions that would be important to our spiritual life.
What makes something spiritual vs. not spiritual is the intentional thinking about God or how God is calling us to serve our neighbor. What makes ritual meaningful and beautiful, is the intentional thought along with the action, that God is present in this moment.
I’m not saying that every Catholic in the world remembers their baptism each time they dip their hand in Holy Water. But how beautiful would it be if they did? How beautiful would it be if each of us, daily or even weekly, dipped our hand into water, whether at the font or at home, and remembered that God loves us?
How beautiful would it be that each time we said, “Peace be with you,” with one another, we remembered that these were Jesus’ first words to the disciples after the resurrection and that the Risen Jesus is with us in our midst right now.
How beautiful would it be that each time we celebrated communion, and heard the words, “This is my body given for you,” we remember that millions of our siblings in Christ are hearing these words today as well. And there are millions (maybe billions?) of Christians who have heard these over the last 2000 years.
Spiritual rituals ground us in our faith, connect us to tradition, and are often beautiful and elegant. But most importantly (and really the only important thing) is that when we intentionally think about them, they bring us nearer to God. They remind us that God loves us and that we are called to serve our neighbor.
Missing Verses Addendum
The missing verses today make this text a little more tense. In the missing verses of 9-13, Jesus is calling the Pharisees hypocrites because they call for the excess produce (or maybe first fruits) of the land to go to the Jerusalem temple as an offering as opposed to going to the elders of the community (father and mother) who need additional aid since they cannot work on their own.
Then the next missing verses, 17-20, are Jesus explaining that it is what comes out of a person that defiles and Mark uses that as a moment to interpret that all foods are clean, and people can eat anything without restrictions.
Ultimately this set up next week beautifully. Jesus is calling the Pharisees hypocrites for their ignoring the tradition of caring for others in the community and instead choosing to support the affluent temple folk. He is then essentially saying that the Pharisees defile themselves by talking negatively about others and about forgetting those in need (the elders of the community).
Next week, the Syrophoenician woman will be in need and come begging for the help of Jesus. Jesus will focus on tradition (that he is there only for the people of Israel) and will look past someone in need. Furthermore, he will defile himself with words of inside himself, by calling her a dog. The woman turns that line on its head and causes Jesus to see that he did the very same thing that the Pharisees did. And it opens everything (Ephphatha – Be opened).
Micah Krey 
Leave a comment