September 1, 2024
St. Raphael’s Episcopal Church
Submitted by Janet Knipfing-Schult, Chronicle Contributor
Today’s gospel from Mark (7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23) has Jesus and his disciples being criticized by the Pharisees and the scribes. Apparently, the disciples didn’t wash their hands sufficiently before eating for the Pharisees’ liking. In his sermon, Fr. Tom Schneider pointed out that their criticism had much more to do with how Jesus’s disciples lived than with their cleanliness. And the way they lived, according to the Pharisees, should be as the Pharisees themselves thought they should. None of this was written in the Book of Leviticus, but was interpreted by the Pharisees as they liked.
Jesus criticized the Pharisees, saying “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition…Nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” Jesus listed fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly, as what defile a person.
