Internal Purity over External Purity by Keeping the Leavens of the Pharisees Off- Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Are you clean?

Of course, I am! I take shower everyday and change my cloths daily.

I know you look clean outside. But are you clean inside?

If you have this conversation with a physician, it is referred to physiological cleanliness as all harmful substances generated by life-sustaining activities are promptly neutralized and removed. As our physiological system becomes “dirty”, then the pH level of body fluid becomes acidic and this contributes to pathogeneses of many diseases, including cancer. Even you always eat healthy foods,

On the other hand, if you have this conversation with Jesus, the cleanliness is of the seats of our emotions and thoughts, which lead to our actions.

In the Gospel Reading (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23) of the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, the Pharisees, with some scribes, ask Jesus why his disciples eat a meal with unclean hands, not following the tradition of the elders to wash (vv.1-5). And Jesus responds, citing from Isaiah 29:13:

Did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’ You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition. How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! (Mark 7:6-8)

Jesus does not explain to his contenders why his disciples did not follow the purity tradition of the elders, which the Pharisees meticulously follow by carefully washing their hands before eating. Rather, Jesus describes them as the type of hypocrites that Isaiah was prophesizing against, for their futile worship and disregarding of God’s commandment for the sake of their own precepts.

So why does Jesus respond to the Pharisees and the scribes in such a way? And we will find it out in his words, as he further spoke to them:

For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother shall die.’ Yet you say, ‘If a person says to father or mother, “Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’ (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things (Mark 7:9-13).

Though this saying of Jesus to his contenders is omitted from the Gospel Reading, it is nevertheless important to understand Jesus’ reason to call them hypocrites for hijacking God’s commandment for their own human teaching. His words above explain how they actually dishonor God by twisting His commandment for their own interest. For this, Jesus describes how their tradition to demand qorban, which is a gift consecrated to God, collected in the Temple, can make it difficult for the poor to keep the filial piety commandment (Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9; cf. Deuteronomy 5:16).

This commandment is intended for children to assure the welfare of their aging parents. It means that they demonstrate their reverence to their parents by taking a good care of them. However, as pointed by Jesus, the Pharisees keep people, especially the poor, from observing God’s filial piety commandment by the way they impose the human precept of qorban for the administration of the Temple in the name of God.

Imagine, your diocesan bishop mandates that you give 10% of your meager income as your tithing not to be excommunicated, even you are poor, barely making ends meet and need, while you need to care for your aging parents. If that were the case, what Jesus would say to this bishop?

No, Jesus is not necessarily speaking against the qorban. But what he criticizes is the way this human precepts is imposed to the poor, resulting in making it difficult for the poor to keep the filial piety commandment. While it is God’s commandment to take care of aging parents, it is not in His Law to demand qorban in His name for the Temple. This was created by the religious leaders. And this is not to be confused with God’s precept of qorbanut, a sacrificial offering in the Temple (i.e. Numbers 28:1-15; Deuteronomy 16:2-6) and tithe (Deuteronomy 14:22-23).

So, Jesus rebukes his contender with these strong words:

You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on (Mark 7:13).

Because they void God’s word for the sake of their tradition and precepts that they pass on and impose, Jesus calls his contender hypocrites, whose worship is in vain.

Then, Jesus assembles the crowd and teaches:

Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile (Mark 7:14-15).

Now Jesus shifts the gear from criticizing the hypocrites to the true cleanliness by giving the above small parable.

Though the Pharisees and the Scribes demand them to wash hands before eating, it is not in God’s law to wash hands, as well as, dishes, cups, and utensils, before eating. The meticulous cleanliness by washing and cleansing is required by God’s law for the Temple priests for the ritual purity, based on Exodus 30:17-21. But God does not impose His people to wash hands before eating to worship Him.

After the crowd is gone, the disciples ask Jesus what he meant by the parable (Mark 7:16).

Jesus explains:

Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine? But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile (Mark 7:17-23).

In this, Jesus uses an analogical metaphor to teach that what goes into a person per se is not what defiles but a certain thing within us, especially, within our hearts, can defile, as Escherichia coli (E. coli) in our intestines can make our feces pathogenic though food we eat is free from this pathogenic bacteria. By this, Jesus wants his disciples and us to understand that we should really strive for the cleanliness of our hearts more than cleanliness of our hands before eating. According to him, our internal cleanliness matters far more than external cleanliness. And he also teaching against the vanity of the hypocrites who take pride in their practice of the purity tradition, while neglecting certain precepts of God, because of their internal filth. No wonder Jesus warns against the leavens of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy (Luke 12:1; cf. Matthew 16:6; Mark 8:15).

A good example is money, though it does not go into our bodies.

They say that money is the root of all evil. But it is not true, because money per se is neither good nor evil, though many people do evil things for money. The culprit here is what is in our hearts, such as greed. Otherwise, money can be used for a good cause, such as charity projects to please God (i.e. Deuteronomy 1:17; Psalm 82:3-4).

The Pharisees are highly educated with the Word of God. Even though the Word, which is good, is taken into them, what comes out of them is defiled, because of the evil leavens in their hearts. It is not that the Word become corrupted but can be twisted and abused as it goes through defiling hearts with leavens of the Pharisees. That is why they nullified God’s commandment for their own way of tradition and teaching. As a result, as Jesus points out, what the leavens of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, does is that imposition of their tradition of quorban can keep the poor from observing God’s precept of filial piety.

In the First Reading (Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8), we hear Moses teaching not to edit God’s Law for our own interests if we want to be respected. But what the Pharisees seek respect for themselves by altering the Law for their own tradition, as Jesus confronts in the Gospel Reading (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23). In this Gospel Reding, Jesus also reminds us that nothing we receive and take in us from God defiles us but we must be aware of what is in our hearts to make sure what comes out of us is not evil.

James the lesser, in the Second Reading (James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27) calls us not only to receive the Word of God with humility to keep our hearts from defiling evil but to act according to the Word in us so that our religious tradition can be pure and undefiled, reaching out to those who are in need with love and justice. As reflected in the refrain of the Responsorial Psalm 15:1a, this is how we live in the presence of the Lord.

Let us receive the Word of God without any self-interest but open and humble heart to keep our hearts undefiled so that our acts of the Word contributes to the purity of our religious tradition, keeping the leavens of the Pharisees away. Otherwise, we risk ourselves to be like these hypocrites to hijack God’s Word and Law to build our own tradition, voiding His precepts and making our worship in vain. Now we know how important the cleanliness of the seat of our emotions and thoughts, and why Jesus presses on our hearts rather than keeping God’s commandments superficially (Matthew 5:20-30).

Let us also receive the Holy Spirit for cleansing of our hearts, for God says:

I will sprinkle clean water over you to make you clean; from all your impurities and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them (Ezekiel 36:25-27).