According to Chapter 7 of the Gospel According to Mark, Jesus was confronted by a group of Pharisees and legal scholars who demanded to know why he had not insisted that his disciples follow the rabbinical rules regarding ritual washing before eating. Although various parts of the Torah (such as Leviticus Chapters 13-15) contain various rules regarding purification rituals (especially where people have had diseases or discharges), the rules referred to here in Mark may have been part of an oral tradition considered by the Pharisees to have been handed down from Moses (and later codified in the Talmud). As in other situations in which authority figures raise objections regarding the behavior of weaker or lower-status people, Jesus responded in defense of those being attacked. He objected to the legal scholars' tendency to insist on following human traditions that honored God "with the lips," while belittling people who could not be expected to know all the rules. He also criticized the Pharisees and scholars for using technical legal requirements to avoid broader ethical responsibilities toward their elders. As in Chapters 2, 3 and 4, Jesus addressed his responses separately to the legal challengers, to the crowd, and to his disciples. He insisted that a person is not contaminated by anything that goes into his or her mouth, but rather by what comes out of it (in the form of spiteful speech).
It is, of course, easy to criticize the Pharisees and scribes in the story for what appears to be an excessively legalistic approach to piety. But the author of the Gospel seems more concerned with (a) emphasizing Jesus' unique authority, and (b) raising questions about the natural tendency of all people to excuse their own shortcomings while insisting that other people behave only in ways that seem proper. For example, it is easy for those of us who have never been tempted to use illegal drugs or alcohol to feel highly critical of those who have found themselves addicted to those substances. At the same time, we all hope God will forgive our own faults; after all, we know that our intentions have always been good. All too often in our own time, the Bible is used, not as a proclamation of God's love, but as a weapon for proving that other people are behaving improperly. Can you think of any ways in which you object strongly to behavior by other people, who have given in to temptations you do not personally share? On the other hand, does Jesus really believe that "anything goes?" How can we tell what rules are important?
