Day 251

Germs! Of course you wash your hands before you eat when you come back from a public place. But that is not why these religious leaders were washing their hands. They did it because they thought they were better than everyone else, and the hand washing was a way to show it to everyone. Their motive for doing these religious things was to get credit for them before God. These were all manmade rules, not God’s commands.

We do this sometimes when we compare ourselves to someone else in order to justify our goodness. “I’m a good person. I don’t murder anyone. I buy Girl Scout cookies.” We all have our own internal set of do’s and don’t’s. We sometimes use them as a measure of our success. “I’m not one of those rich people who deserve to pay more taxes.” Are we responsible with our money? Are we helping, really helping, those less fortunate, or do we leave that to someone else? 

Jesus in one sentence sets aside all the food rituals of the Old Testament. He fulfills them in His life and death. They were all meant to point people to their need for God’s grace, and then drive them into God’s presence. Now that Grace has arrived in the flesh, no need for those rituals anymore. We can eat lobster now!

Jesus preaches inside out living. That which is on the inside matters. It will show up on the outside. Just painting a barn does not change it into a mansion. Just going to church on Christmas and Easter does not make a person a Jesus-follower. And by the way, neither does going Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night! We experience God’s grace and then we live it out in our lives. We don’t try to live it out in our lives in order to experience God’s grace.

Mark then shows a living example of this inside-out principle. A woman, who by Jewish standards doesn’t have a chance before God, comes to Jesus. She has all the wrong credentials, but her heart is right. She knows she doesn’t deserve God’s grace, but she comes anyway. Grace can’t be deserved! Jesus makes a comment to her in order for her inner attitude to be made evident to the disciples. Grace is extended to her child. The inner demonstrates itself on the outside.

The deaf man is another outcast. Jesus pulls him aside quietly and heals him. I think He used a form of sign language with the man. Jesus puts His fingers in the man’s hears and then pulls them out, indicating Jesus is going to do something about his hearing. He spits and touches his tongue indicating He is going to do something about his speech. And then He prays and the man in healed. Jesus could have just prayed and healed the man. But Jesus wanted to make the connection between Himself and the healing. This was not removal of earwax and the power of suggestion. This was Jesus demonstrating that the fulfillment of the Old Testament was present in Him. God in flesh appearing!