The Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the traditions of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?” And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

—Mark 7:5-8

Yesterday I served on the welcome team by holding the front door open and welcoming anyone who entered. I think I said, “Good morning! How are you?” at least three or four hundred times. And just as many times I heard, “I’m doing well. Thank you.” They were all incredibly polite interactions and completely devoid of any kind of meaningful connection. In fact, they were more like closed doors, barring the way to any significant conversation.

Until my friend Hannah walked up to the door. Her smile was warm instead of bland and polite. I still asked her how she was doing and she still said she was doing well, but there have been days when we’ve given each other different answers than the expected one and our conversation was more than just the ritual of a polite greeting because we have a relationship. 

Today’s passage also deals with a ritual, and although it doesn’t deal with a greeting, it stands as a barrier to meaningful connection between people and the Savior they were created to be in relationship with. 

During Jesus’ time, it was tradition to wash your hands before a meal to ceremonially cleanse yourself from the impurity of the world. This tradition, which involved specific movements and positioning of the hands, was neither hygienic nor had any basis in Scripture, but was a tradition passed down from earlier generations. But this didn’t matter to the Pharisees. They held to the traditions of the past as strongly as if they had been ordained by God and considered anyone who didn’t uphold those traditions to be impure.

That’s the backdrop against which Mark 7’s episode of “Jesus vs. the religious elite” is set. As always, the Pharisees and scribes were angry with Jesus and looking for a way to bring Him down. So when they got word that Jesus’s disciples weren’t engaging in the ritual of ceremonially washing their hands before sharing a meal with Him, they were ready to pounce.

This was an area in which the Pharisees would have considered themselves pure and righteous because they were “cleansing” themselves multiple times a day. This is probably why they felt so comfortable condemning Jesus’s disciples for not living up to the same standards they did when it came to purification, but the very fact that the Pharisees confronted Jesus about this shows how deeply they misunderstood what it means to be purified.

They believed that the symbolism of sacrifices and cleansing rituals actually erased the stains of sin in their lives and that nothing more was required of them. Instead of worrying about rituals, however, the disciples decided to dine with Purity incarnate and build a relationship with Him. 

When Jesus quotes Isaiah in response to the Pharisees’s question, He says that the people honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far away. The word translated as away in our Bibles doesn’t just mean that someone or something is far away. It can also mean to keep off or to hold back. It’s an intentional separation.

Just like we can sometimes use a quick “I’m doing well” to ward off a deeper conversation with someone today, the Pharisees were using tradition and rituals to ward off any opportunity to draw their heart closer to God. It was a defensive measure, an attempt to stave off the need to surrender prideful hearts.

It can be easy to fall into that trap ourselves. It’s easy to think we’re doing pretty well on our own because we go to church regularly, serve in church, read the Bible every day. Sometimes it seems like that should be enough, but none of it is worth anything if we go to church out of obligation and read the Bible with a closed heart so we can cross that off our to-do list and continue on our way.

Confession time: while listening to the sermon yesterday, I was convicted that there are parts of myself—those dusty, cobweb-filled corners I would rather just ignore—that I have not trusted Him with because I don’t want to face the purification that will go along with it. 

I’ve ignored them while reading the Bible and worshiping on Sunday mornings. I have effectively stuck my fingers in my spiritual ears and refused to hear what He might say about those parts of me. In a way, I’ve become like the Pharisees in this passage and I’ve missed out on the joy of being fully open and surrendered to Jesus.

My prayer this week is that our Father will show us whatever might be holding us back from deeper intimacy with our Savior Who stands ready to wash us with His clean. Let us be like the disciples who drew close with open hearts rather than the Pharisees who approached Jesus thinking they were already clean.