Day 20 - The Heart of Faith

Today's reading is from Mark 7.

The context for this passage is in the first couple of verses: Mark 7:1-2 (NLT)
1 One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus.
2 They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating.

The religious rulers followed strict "religious" rituals in relation to practices of tradition. The Mishnah was a compilation of oral laws around the 2nd century and it stated the summation of the Pharisaical rules: "Tradition is a fence around the law." As far as they were concerned these rituals protected the word of God and made it possible for people to keep it more clearly.

The problem was not in interpreting the law. We interpret God's word all of the time. In this encounter, they wanted Jesus to enforce rules having to do with purity - the washing of hands was an elaborate ritual meant to show their separation from normal everyday life. To this Jesus has nothing to complement them about:
Mark 7:6-8 (NLT)
6 Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
7 Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’
8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”


Jesus calls them "hypocrites" - the word is "hupo krites", and was used to describe an actor, a person who is putting on a face and playing a role.
The rules were not leading them to God, they were a barrier to real heart following. While they performed outwardly, they ignored the heart of real faith. Mark 7:14-15 (NLT)
14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand.
15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”
and shortly later,
Mark 7:20-23 (NLT)
20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.
21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.
23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

What follows is a brief glimpse into the future. Jesus touches a Gentile woman, and then heading further north where he heals a deaf man.

God's heart was not for rule-keeping. That produces an ego-oriented life of inner pride about one-self. God's heart, as Jesus revealed, was in recognizing the dangers of a heart that is not soft, humble, repentant, open to God.

The heart of faith is that we recognize that without God's grace we cannot hope to know what it means to follow Christ. At best, we can simply be religious; but we've all seen what the world looks like with religion. What we need is humility that is surrounded by faith.

Peace

If you're reading through the Bible in a year with me, read 1 Samuel 21, 22, 23, 24. We're in the David story. It's a story of David's character being honed in the wilderness.