Eating With Unwashed Hands

 

Eating With Unwashed Hands

Mark 7

     Jesus and crew got in hot water again with the Pharisees and Jewish onlookers.  Eating with whores and sluts, tax collectors and thieves, unclean and deserving of dissing, I assume this was the backdrop again to the Master’s gathering.  “Why do your disciples eat without washing their hands first?”  Jesus unloads on them as He blows holes in their hull sending them back to port with a smoking stern exposing their naked reasoning.

     Don’t mess with Jesus.  The Wolverine will turn on you and rip your insolent disposition down as your sails are shredded.  The Pharisees saw His fangs and drew back.

     Barring Jesus’ strict reprimand, what was the crux of His argument with them?  It certainly was not about cleanliness next to Godliness.  No, He took aim at something that still plagues the Church today.  All protectors of the faith should attest to the lesson He wrote down in concrete for us to observe.

Don’t hold up the traditions of men to the same height as God’s commands.

     All denominations have goop slopped around the essentials which define common Christianity.  These tailored confines mark all members and does set them apart like school children in contrasting dress codes.  How funny it is to see some young boys obeying the code and wearing effeminate attire!  Not funny.  Masculine men quite often find no fit in our politically correct gatherings called congregations.

     Jesus strips it like the chemical applied to lift the old paint and expose the beautiful wood.  He then offers a stain to enhance and bring out the grain.  He did not come to destroy but to glorify those who agree with His Father.  In other words, we tend to mask the real with overlayment.  Jesus seeks to exemplify the truth showing its brilliance with a finish able to withstand our abrasive weather.

     Moses veiled his face.  A covering needed to guard their eyes from the brightness of God’s glory.  His law, given by God, proved him to be an honorable man put up to the pedestal that the Pharisees built and worshipped.  One step further, off idolatry, sent them on the slippery slope holding their father’s traditions as commandments.  Jesus simply shook the mountain and saw them topple.

     In our gatherings, do we add to the cross?  “Oh, you need Jesus and …”

Matthew 23:15 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”

     Do we add to the convert a yoke which he cannot bear?  Church traditions, taught as axioms, bind and strangle a fledgling’s faith.  Instead of encouraging him to cling to a naked cross, do we offer our denomination’s golden pole erected in self-glory?  The Pharisees would have been happy to see our obstructions preventing an intimate relationship with the Savior.  Afterall, confidence with Jesus results in authoritative directives threatening the religious regime.

     Will we eat with unwashed hands today?  With whom do we identify?  Church so and so or Jesus first?  In the name of Christ, the gospel is to go forth.    

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