Saving Grace

Today’s Gospel Text:  Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?" 6 And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'  8 You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men." 9 And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die'; 11 but you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban' (that is, given to God) -  12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do." Mark 7:1-13

Reflection: At the time of Jesus religion was no science nor was there any talk of science and yet the Pharisees and all the Jews would not eat unless they first washed their hands. (vs. 3)

The Pharisees and Scribes even considered it an offence to not to eat with clean hands. In this they purely went  by the demands of the law. 

There was definitely no science in their minds when they were insistent on the need for clean hands but there was definitely a religious reason for it.

If they had known the modern scientific reason, what would happen? Perhaps it would have made them more fanatics at admonishing Jesus and boasting about their religion being scientific too. 

How about seriously looking at the situation from a pure scientific point of view?

Jesus would have again stood condemned; for the evidence of science too, which is our modern religion in which everyone is well schooled in, would condemn Jesus.

Who in our age, educated in our modern scientific culture, doesn't know that if we do not eat with clean hand we are ingesting all kinds of bacteria's and germs?

Yet the dog on the street who knows no science and the animal in the stable survive the onslaughts of all kind of bacteria’s, whereas we as human’s tend to fall sick at the slightest hint of it.

What is more, the disciples of Jesus too seem to fit in with the category of the animals, when it came to bacteria's and germs. They had their meal without the washing of their hands in sharp contrast to the normal Jewish way of life.

To follow Jesus means to go contrary to the laws of science in many matters. It means to rise above the gravitational or earthly pulls of life. It shows us the power of his message to save and lift us up from the earthly things that bind us and hold us to bondage and slavery, into the freedom that comes through his saving action.

The greatest freedom that Jesus gives us is not freedom from disease but the freedom to face the onslaught of it without fear or trepidation because he is above the earthly laws, that hold us in bondage, and he will lead us to eternity.

Prayer: Lord, help me to trust in your salvation; your saving grace!

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