Articles
Clean vs Unclean
In a 1791 sermon John Wesley proclaimed "Cleanliness is next to Godliness". The Pharisees of Jesus' time would have agreed.
In the Old Testament many cleansing rituals were prescribed so that people could approach a Holy God. Like sin; death, disease and deformity were all reminders of mankind's fallen condition, and contact with these made a person unfit to enter God's presence. In this month's new studies of the Gospel of Mark cleanliness is a hot issue.
"Unclean" was a word rich with symbolism and meaning for the Jews of Jesus' time. The woman healed of constant bleeding in Mark Chapter 5 had been "unclean" for twelve years. People with leprosy were unclean, as was anyone who had touched a corpse. Gentiles were unclean, and for this reason Jews did not eat on returning home from the marketplace until they had ritually washed their hands.
When the Pharisees accused Jesus and his disciples of eating with unclean hands, Jesus' response was scathing, and he turns the notion of cleanliness upside-down for his shocked listeners. He declared,"Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'" (Mark 7:15) He went on to say that what goes into a person's stomach is not so important as what comes out of a person's heart. It is the evil that comes from within makes a person unclean. Ironically, these religiously obsessive Pharisees had murder in their hearts and were plotting Jesus' death. Their hypocrisy was evident when they brought Jesus to Pilate to have him falsely charged and executed, but would not enter the palace, as to enter the home of a Gentile would make them ritually unclean and preclude them from being able to eat the Passover meal. (John 18:28)
It is this hypocrisy against which Jesus warns his disciples in his otherwise confusing warning about avoiding the yeast of the Pharisees in Mark chapter 8. Leaven (yeast) was forbidden during the Passover, for God's people were remembering a time when they left Egypt in haste and did not have time to wait for dough to rise, but cooked and ate it on the move. Yeast was a symbol of corruption, for a small amount of leaven dough changed the texture and taste of the whole loaf, like the English proverb about "one bad apple." In his letter to the Romans, Paul records his struggle with temptation and sin, culminating in the cry,"Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24 & 25)
After being caught in his sin, David famously prayed, Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51:6 & 7)
When I was a teenager our youth group often sang a chorus based on this Psalm, "Create in me a Clean Heart, O Lord". Although we did not share a centuries-old tradition of ritual cleansing, we certainly knew what "unclean thoughts" were!
"Thanks be to God!", who through Jesus Christ is ready and willing to forgive sin and restore a clean heart to His children.