The Outsider (Mark 7:1-16)

“They’re not one of us. We’re right, they’re wrong. We’re on the inside, they are outsiders.” This is what I hear in the accusatory questions that the Pharisees ask Jesus. “Why don’t your disciples obey the traditions of the elders? Why do they eat with unwashed hands?” There are two things to notice. First, they weren’t disobeying God’s laws, and their hands weren’t dirty, they just weren’t ceremonially clean.

I blush when I think about this, because I can identity with the Pharisees in that there have been times when I’ve wanted to be an insider. I’ve wanted to be right, and that involved following certain rules and regulations. The problem that I see in this passage is that Jesus was considered the outsider because His follows weren’t following the ceremonial washing prescribed by the traditions of the elders. Jesus and His followers are considered in the wrong and the Pharisees in the right. Jesus’ response shed a floodlight on the situation. In order to follow the traditions of the elders they had broken one of the 10 commandments of God!

As I have been thinking through this passage, my mind has gone again and again to Micah 6:8, “Mankind, He has told you what it is the Lord requires of you; to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” So God has shown us what the right way is: 1) act justly; 2) love mercy; 3) walk humbly with God. Where I get into trouble is when I’m trying to act justly, and all of the sudden I realize that I’m following a bunch of rules and regulations that have been given me by other people who are trying to walk justly. Following these rules sometimes overrides both mercy and humility.

Acting justly must be accompanied by loving mercy. The Hebrew word for mercy is hesed, a word that can also be translated loving kindness. What is being asked of us is that we treat others with the same kindness that God has shown us. Jesus is the personification of hesed.

Finally, we are told that mankind is to walk humbly with God. With my mind’s eye I look again at Jesus, Emmanuel, standing in the presence of the Pharisees and being condemned for not following their traditions. In their pride they have raised their throne of judgment above the throne of God. Even as I become aware of what I’m reading I whisper a prayer, “Lord, show me if I’ve made You an outsider.”