Today's reading: Leviticus 26; Mark 7
These two chapters actually fit incredibly well together...
I have mentioned this before, but it is precisely the threat of Leviticus 26 that drove the Pharisees to such extremes in not only keeping the law themselves, but also seeking to force others into compliance as well.
Israel had already experienced the full brunt of these punishments and had been carried off into exile while the land was left desolate to enjoy its Sabbaths. Afraid that it would happen again if Israel continued in unfaithfulness, the Pharisees sought to be as faithful as possible, including adding extra regulations on top of the law to help ensure nobody accidentally transgressed God's commands. You could think of this like churches that prohibit dancing to protect people from sexual immorality, or that prohibit drinking to protect people from drunkenness.
And while the desire to avoid this punishment is obviously a very good motivation, what we see here in Mark 7, as well as in other interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees, is that they severely misunderstood the heart and priorities of God.
Think about what Jesus says to them in Matthew 23, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others."
The Pharisees were so deeply concerned with keeping the outward, functional instructions of the law, focusing on how much of their spices to tithe, what did or didn't constitute working on the Sabbath, and what may or may not inadvertently defile you, that they completely neglected the things God was most concerned about. This is why Jesus quotes Isaiah to them in Mark 7 saying, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."
It has always been really striking to me, in Matthew 23, what Jesus tells them at the end of that statement about their spice boxes, "These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others." In essence, He is saying that yes, if you see your spices as part of your harvest, then it is indeed good and right to take from your harvest and tithe. If God has put that on your heart, then go forth and tithe your spices diligently! BUT, no amount of attention to detail in these functional things excuses the neglect of the weightier priorities of the Lord: justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
In seeking to avoid Leviticus 26, they forgot about Leviticus 25. They forgot about God's deep concern for the poor and vulnerable among them. They forgot all the instructions and commands throughout the Scriptures seeking to ensure God's people would be characterized by justice and mercy in their dealings with one another, and that faithfulness to God was not just a matter of tithes, Sabbaths, and ritual cleanliness, but of compassion and care for His people. They should have been celebrating with the man whose withered hand was restored, rather than berating Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. They should have been praising God for the miracle of the lame man walking rather than condemning him for carrying his mat on the Sabbath.
Israel was not removed from the land for failing to tithe their herbs as part of their harvest or for walking too far on the Sabbath. They were removed for abandoning their believing loyalty to Yahweh and pursuing other gods instead. This resulted in their abandoning the Sabbath, abandoning the temple sacrifices and offerings, and abandoning the care and concern for the poor and marginalized among the people. All these failures in the law were symptomatic of having turned away from Yahweh in the first place.
The Pharisees didn’t need to add their own laws to ensure the people didn’t transgress Yahweh’s, they needed to learn to follow God in love and joy, and to teach the people to do the same.
I think there are a lot of churches today that need to listen closely to Jesus here. It is entirely possible to hold faithfully to the Word of God while not neglecting to love the people Christ died to save. There are churches who will re-write the Scriptures so that what God has declared to be sin they can affirm in the name of loving others, but to call sin good is not loving. At the same time there are churches who seem to have decided that some sins are more worthy of condemnation than others, and will loudly denounce entire groups of people in the name of keeping faithful to the Word, but rejecting and condemning people made in the image of God is not faithful to the Word. Jesus ate and drank with the tax collectors and sinners. He didn't say that what they did was okay, or not sinful, but their sin did not stop Him from moving toward them in radical love.
This is the picture we get of God in Leviticus, and it's the picture we get of Jesus in the gospels, and it’s the picture we should seek to reflect in the church.
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