Introduction
Jesus tells us that all evil words and actions start from inside a person. How might we live our lives if all of our thoughts and desires could be seen? Would we still act on everything we thought, desired and imagined? Or might we live our lives differently?
Context
A sad, but not uncommon, example of putting inner desire into action happened in the popular British party destination of Malaguf.
The way we think of ourselves and behave as adults often begins in childhood. According to The Children Society’s the Good Childhood Report 2015, children in England ranked 14th out of 15 countries for satisfaction with life as a whole, and were in the bottom half of the table for 24 out of 30 aspects of life.
There are many Christians – St. Paul among them (e.g. 1 Corinthians 8) – who would argue that what goes into a person can indeed have an effect on what comes out of that person.
Reflection
As we see in the this week’s Old Testament passage (Deuteronomy 4.1-2,6-9), God’s law for the Israelites is meant for their own good: ‘so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.’ The term ‘torah’ or ‘law’ in Judaism can have several meanings: It can mean the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch); it can be shorthand for the Ten Commandments; and it can mean the Oral or Scribal law. It was the latter which exploded into the plethora of laws that Jesus came to abhor. The oral law broke down basic commandments – such as not working on the Sabbath – into dozens of detailed statutes, e.g. the prohibition against carrying a burden. First the scribes had to define burden. And they determined that a burden was ‘food equal in weight to a dried fig, enough wine to mix in a goblet, milk enough for one swallow… ink enough to write two letters of the alphabet’ and so forth. This is referred to in rabbinic circles as a ‘fence around the Torah’. This type of law commands Jews not even to handle an implement that could be used to perform prohibited work (such as a pencil, money, a hammer), because someone holding the implement might forget that it was the Sabbath and perform prohibited work. So the ‘fence’ around the Torah is the laws instituted by the rabbis to prevent people from accidentally violating a central law.
Jesus’ quarrel was not with the basic Jewish laws (like the Ten Commandments), but with the hundreds of (as yet) unwritten and uncodified laws. So how did you know when you were breaking an unwritten law? Answer: the Pharisees (a name which comes from a Hebrew verb meaning ‘set apart’). Pharisees weren’t bad people (as some Christians tend to think) any more than Christian monks or nuns are bad people for wanting to live a holy life apart from society. Pharisees didn’t live a monastic existence, but they wanted to live exemplary, holy lives. Paul was a Pharisee, and Jesus held much in common with them – not the least of which was belief in the resurrection of the dead. So it’s no good belittling the Pharisees in a simplistic manner. For Jesus, the problem lay with the obsessive expansion of oral law to the point that, with the fence round the Torah so high, the original sacred laws were nearly forgotten.
For Jesus, the ‘fence’ around God’s central laws is to be found within each of us. That is, God’s law is to abide in each of us (Jeremiah 31.31f) such that we intuitively live it and act on it in the outworking of our daily lives. Thus it is no longer by external rules, laws and customs that we are to live, but by the deep inwardness of our relationship to God through Christ.
Prayer
The following litany could follow on from the lectionary readings or the sermon.
Loving Creator God,
through your Son, Jesus Christ,
you have provided us with the example
of how you would have us live.
Those who heard Jesus teach were all amazed,
and they kept on asking one another,
‘What is this? A new teaching – with authority!’
Help us to understand that what people see and hear in Jesus
is none other than your authority;
and that you would have us follow Christ
by integrating your will into our lives, thoughts and actions.
Lord, give us this understanding.
Living Lord, you have taught us the hard reality
that we need not look beyond ourselves
for the causes of evil in this world;
rather, all violence, lust, malice and deceit
originate within our hearts and minds.
Lord, give us the strength
to resist acting on any thoughts
that would defile ourselves or others.
Lord God, both through the prophets and your Son, Jesus,
you have taught us
that our faith must be more than empty words, mere lip service.
Father, as your children,
grant that we may truly be what we claim to be
as followers of Jesus.
Loving God, in Jesus you lived and walked among us,
knowing the trials and temptations of this life,
yet without succumbing.
Lord, help us to trust in your victory and your promise
that in Jesus Christ we can become new beings,
freed from sinful thoughts and actions.
Sustaining God, give us the true humility
that comes from seeing ourselves as you see us.
And grant us the assurance of your forgiveness
when we turn to you in repentance.
These things we pray through Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
Questions
- In animated films and cartoons, we can often see and hear what a person is thinking. What if this were the case for you and me? Would we seek to change our thought patterns?
- Have a look at Psalm 139:1-6. How do we respond to the Psalmist’s words: ‘Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely’?
Action
In Mark 7:21-22, Jesus enumerates many of the actions which defile us as children of the one creator God. Not many of us get very far in life without having been tempted by at least one of those. In a safe, trusting setting (perhaps a prayer group, Bible study or healing service) people could be asked to write down anonymously and privately any particular troubling thought or desire, which could then be placed in a brazier or metal bin and burned, while praying God’s healing and forgiveness.
Young People
‘Post in haste, repent at leisure’ might be a good motto for social media. For discussion: have you posted anything on Twitter or Facebook that you wish you hadn’t? How did you feel afterwards? Has it made you more careful? What merit might there be in not immediately telling the world what we think or feel about… well… everything?
Jack Lawson is the Mission Enabler for the East Anglia District of the Methodist Church, a lecturer in Hebrew Bible and freelance author (www.jacknlawson.com).
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