The scriptures referred to are Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9, James 1:17-27 and Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23.
Today we can keep people alive who, 40 or 50 years ago, would have died. And that's good if we can also restore them to health. But in some cases, we can't. Yes, we can use machines to breathe for them and give them nutrition via tubes but the person can't leave the hospital bed or may not be able to regain consciousness. They won't survive if they come off the machines. In such cases, we are not so much prolonging their life as drawing out their death. If you don't want this to happen to you, it's vital that you have medical directives drawn up. That way you can put in writing what you want or do not want to be done in the event that you are too sick or too injured to be able to communicate those wishes. In fact there is a document you can get online called the Five Wishes where you can spell these out and it is legal in all 50 states. (fivewishes.org) You can also appoint one or more persons that you trust as surrogates to make medical decisions for you. And if you don't want to be revived if you die, say, from terminal cancer or a massive stroke, you can sign a DNR or Do Not Resuscitate order. That means no CPR or defibrillation will be done if you have a cardiac or respiratory arrest. It doesn't mean “Let me die”; it means “If I die, don't try to bring me back.” But it turns out that you can't just print the form on any kind of paper. At least here in Florida, a DNR order has to be on yellow paper. Even if it is a photocopy.
When I was working at a nursing home, I once had to send a patient to the hospital. I sent with him copies of all the relevant documents: face sheet, history and physical, list of medicines, etc. But I forgot to include a copy of the DNR. So I called the hospital to ask if I could fax it to them. Nope. They needed to have it on yellow paper. “Couldn't you put yellow paper in the fax machine?” I asked. No. “But it has the signatures of both the patient and his doctor saying not to revive him if he dies.” Nope. They needed a copy on yellow paper. So I put a yellow piece of paper in our copier and made a photocopy of the original DNR. And after work I had to drive the yellow copy to the hospital before turning around and driving home. If he had died before I got there, I guess they would have tried to revive him regardless of their knowledge of his stated wishes. In Florida, the color of this document is more important than its contents.
In today's gospel passage, Jesus is dealing with something he considers trivial. It was the elaborate hand washing ritual that the Pharisees practiced in his day. It was not done for reasons of hygiene but for religious reasons. Like most of the religions of the time, Judaism had a set of laws concerning ceremonial purity. For instance, if someone ate meat from an animal declared unclean, or touched a dead body, or certain body fluids, he'd be ritually unclean. Though not necessarily considered sinful, a ritually unclean person could not participate in worship. That's probably why the priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan did not aid the man beaten and left for dead. (Luke 10:30-37) Moreover, anyone or anything the unclean person touched was also considered unclean. So he couldn't even participate in everyday life. He was a virtual outcast until he was ritually purified. And, as if the Torah didn't have enough laws regarding ritual purity, the Pharisees, in an effort to create protective barriers around these laws, expanded and added to them. So the hand washing rules that they accused Jesus and his disciples of violating weren't actually found in scripture, going against what our Old Testament reading says. (Deuteronomy 4:2)
Jesus' real problem was that the Pharisees were so concerned with the many outward signs of devotion to God that they weren't dealing with essential matters, like the stuff that actually comes between us and God. As he said to the Pharisees elsewhere, “...you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.” (Matthew 23:23) What defiles a person, what makes him unable to serve God, is not external, Jesus says. It comes from within. It is our evil imaginings—our penchant for thinking up new ways to harm, cheat, and betray each other—that defile us. Like all the ways we've dreamed up to torture people—things like waterboarding, and thumbscrews, and crucifixion. People said to themselves, “This would be a very bad thing to do to another human being.” And then they drew up plans or blueprints and someone else built it, making little refinements, and then they tried it out on people to see if it made them suffer. It all started in someone's cruel imagination.
I frequently refer to the 7 deadly sins, a traditional list of the most basic and destructive sins. You can see their ultimate origin in the list of 12 sins Jesus reels off in today's reading from Mark. Let's look at them in detail.
Jesus starts with sexual sins—the Greek word covers more than just fornication. Later in the list Jesus mentions adulteries (note the plural) and licentiousness. A lot of modern people dismiss sex as a source for serious sins even though they paradoxically insist on how important and irresistable sex is. That's like saying electricity is only beneficial and can't harm us. Anything powerful can be used for good or misused for evil. We tend to forget how destructive lust can be. Besides crimes of passion, rape and the twisted desires of serial killers, there are the less sensational but also tragic issues of all the divorces, broken hearts, damaged children, lives crippled or ended by sexually transmitted diseases, not to mention people desperately looking for fulfillment in a series of passionate but empty physical encounters or who want love and commitment but settle for whatever their less involved partner offers. Sex, like fire, can do a lot of good or a lot of damage depending how it's used.
Next Jesus mentions theft. It is related to avarice (greed) and envy, which come later in his list. All 3 stem from a lack of contentment with what one is or what one has. Our materialistic society may frown on straightforward theft but it encourages greed and envy to keep the economy going. Businesses would like us to spend, spend, spend. So we are bombarded with ads about how we need to buy this product and that service because they will make us happy. Our economic wellbeing needs to be based on something other than greed and envy. And our biggest financial companies, like hedge funds, should stop acting like thieves.
Almost no one will disagree with Jesus for listing murder as a sin, since it's universally seen as such. Yet we find it entertaining enough to make it the focus of an awful lot of TV shows, movies and true crime documentaries. We disapprove of serial killers and yet are weirdly fascinated by them. We do not pay nearly as much attention to their victims and their families. And if someone kills a huge number of people in a war, he will often be considered a hero. And a lot of people are taking it upon themselves to declare war on their political or religious enemies to gain the approval of their group. Yet Jesus' brother James said, “Human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness.” (James 1:20)
Next comes deceit, which is usually done to cover up another sin, like theft, murder or adultery. And slander is related to it. It is using lies or false accusations as a non-physical attack on another person, which can do a lot of damage nonetheless. Because they use words and misdirection, those who commit these sins often think of themselves as clever. But it is just as valid to see them as cowardly, since they seek to hide the truth or hide from it. Being honest, even when it is not to your advantage, is brave.
The word the new RSV translates as “wickedness” other translations render as “malice.” The Greek word comes from a root that means “pain.” It can also mean “diseased.” So it is about that sick desire to cause others pain. It led to the creation of those torture devises we talked about earlier. Today people can torture others through cyberbullying, which in some cases have driven their victims to suicide. Deliberately causing others harm or unnecessary pain is evil. Jesus commanded us to love others, even our enemies. (Matthew 5:43-48)
The second to last sin on Jesus' list is pride. Today that's considered a virtue. And so a better translation is “arrogance.” It's thinking you are better than others in every way. It's thinking you are the one indispensable person. It's thinking you are always right. It's thinking that you know better than God what is and is not sinful. It's thinking that Jesus was wrong when he said that the way the world would identify his disciples was by their love for one another and so trying to replace it with criteria of your own. (John 13:35) It's thinking that the unity of the church that Jesus prayed for on the night before he was crucified isn't as high a priority as your own non-essential pet causes. (John 17:20-21) Arrogance is, as C.S. Lewis said, the ultimate anti-God state of mind, because the arrogant person feels no need for God or his forgiveness, since they think they are, for all intents and purposes, perfect themselves.
It's interesting that Jesus finishes his list with folly. You don't hear that word used much these days but its continued existence is seen in the neverending stream of stupid things people do. Like calling 911 to complain about being cheated in a drug deal. (That actually happened!) Like a politician insisting he never said things that he most certainly did say on an earlier date on live TV. Like company executives sending each other emails sharing their intentions to lie, cheat or deceive customers. You hear these stories and you wonder, “What were they thinking?” And then you realize they weren't.
And it's not like Jesus is condemning people with mental deficiencies as sinners. The Greek word for “folly” literally means “thoughtlessness.” Jesus is not condemning those who can't think straight; he is denouncing those who can but who don't take the time to think things through. And people can be harmed by stupidity, either their own or others. For instance, conservative Germans thought Hitler was a fool but he was popular. They thought they could control him and so they put their power behind him and he became Chancellor. And we all know what happened next. In terms of human lives, that was the costliest display of stupidity the world has ever seen.
If we reverse-engineer Jesus' list of sins, we see the kinds of things that God would prefer came out of our hearts instead: observing sexual boundaries, respecting the property of others, respecting the life of others, being faithful to your spouse, being content with what you have, not causing unnecessary pain, being honest, having self-control, being content with who you are, speaking respectfully of others, being humble and being thoughtful. Unlike external rituals which may or may not reflect true religion, these are essential ethical qualities.
The reason we don't see them as often as we see overt religious displays is that it's easier to clean your hands than to clean your soul. It's easier to wear a cross than it is to bear your cross. In fact, it's not just that these things are more difficult to do; they are impossible without the help of the Holy Spirit, whom God gives to all who put their trust in Jesus. (Romans 8:9-11) If we let the Spirit go to work in us, he will produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) These are the qualities God wants to see in us.
As long as we ignore what is essential, the trivial will triumph. But if we ever start really trusting God and acting as if what he said was not just nice but true; if we ever start really loving God with all we are and all we have and in all we do; if we ever start really loving others as we do ourselves; if we ever start disowning ourselves, taking up our crosses and following Jesus, everything will change. And only then will what is external reveal the essential qualities that come from God's Spirit within our hearts and manifest themselves in our lives.
This was originally preached on August 30, 2009. It has been updated and revised.
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