9And he said to them, �gYou have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moses said, �eHonor your father and your mother�f; and, �eWhoever reviles father or mother must surely die.�f ¹¹ But you say, �eIf a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban�f (that is, given to God)? ¹² then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³ thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.�h

Swine flu is spreading. To prevent infection and further spread, we are told to wash our hands and gargle when we come back home. It is very important to wash our hands to get rid of the germs. Mothers have always told their families to wash their hands before dinner. Who know what germs a person will get when petting the dog, playing with snails in the yard, working on the car! So, we have to be careful and wash our hands.

At the time of Jesus, people did not know about germs and viruses. They were worried not about being dirty but about being unclean. They did not want to be religiously unclean. At first it was a good idea. Mark 7:4 says, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. They were not concerned about catching the flu or some disease. The marketplace was an area where there were things more dangerous than germs! It was a place filled with sin. There were the dishonest merchants. There were the tax collectors. There were the Jews who did not follow the dietary regulations of the Bible. There were the pagan Romans. There were various temptations to sin. There was gossip and lies. This sinful stuff pollutes the mind and the heart. When a person would come from the marketplace and wash their hands it was like a prayer. Please God, protect me from the sin I saw today, forgive me if I sinned, make me pure and holy and keep me in the true faith.

In the years prior to Jesus, the Jews who returned from Exile in Babylon wanted to protect the people of Israel so that they would not be punished by God again because of their unbelief and disobedience. They became very strict. They kept the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses, and they added many traditions not written in the Bible but added with the purpose of helping people keep the Commandments of God. Then things became turned around. The traditions and man-made laws became more important than the Ten Commandments. They followed traditions and customs so carefully that I think maybe it was close to compulsive behavior. And then the real meaning of the tradition became lost. For example, washing hands was not longer a prayer; it was a symbol that someone kept the law. Washing hands became a sign that a person obeyed the Pharisees and their strangle hold on society. The Pharisees asked Jesus, �gWhy do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?�h In other words, why do your disciples not follow our teachings? It was no longer a matter of praying to God for forgiveness, it was a sign of obedience to the religious leaders. They thought that Jesus was trying to destroy their religion by destroying their religious traditions and therefore their religious identity.

Jesus called them hypocrites. The word in Greek means actors. The Pharisees said one thing but they were just pretending to follow God�fs Laws. The Pharisees seemed to be living a good life in public, but they were not following the good Law of God, but rather their own traditions. Jesus quoted a passage from the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah,

In summary, Jesus said that washing hands was not as important as cleansing the heart. It is in the heart where all sin and evil are. The heart cannot be cleansed by washing with soap and water. It can only be cleansed by the water of Baptism. It can only be cleansed by the blood of Christ who died on the cross. It can only be cleansed by the forgiveness of sin. It can only be cleansed by the work of the Holy Spirit who leads us to faith.

The Jew washed their hands when they returned from the marketplace, maybe we should, too. What I mean is this. Whenever we go out of the safety of our church and homes, there are many evil things and temptations to sin all around us. There are constant temptations to sin: drugs, drinking, gambling, fornication, cheating, lying, greed, violence and more. We need to pray for protection before we go out, and for forgiveness when we come home. Or we need to pray a prayer of thanksgiving that we safely returned home.

Temptation to sin will always be with us. But the forgiveness of Jesus is also always with us. Jesus is not with us because we wash our hands or because we try hard to be good, rather, it is his forgiveness that cleanses our hearts.

But rather than washing our hands, we need to wash our ears and polish our reading glasses. It is the Word of God that purifies our hearts. It is the Word of God�fs love that creates love in our hearts. Even if your hands are dirty, open your Bible or devotion book daily and read it. Hear the words of peace and forgiveness. Hear the words of encouragement and hope. Hear the words of psalms and hymns and praise music that put our trust in God. Listen to Christian music in your house and in your car. Then let�fs open our hearts and our lips and sing words of praise and thanksgiving to God.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church

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