Today's Scripture Reading (November 20, 2020): Matthew 15
Apparently, in Illinois,
a car must be driven with a steering wheel. And that is disturbing
for all of us whose cars came equipped with a computer joystick meant for
steering the vehicle. I am not sure of the reason behind the law. I
have driven for a few decades, and I have always used a steering
wheel, adhering to the Illinois law even when I am not in Illinois. But, at
some point in time, something happened that caused the State of Illinois to
pass a law that requires steering wheels, and I am sure that has hampered the
automotive industry (and, yes, my tongue is firmly implanted in my cheek). If
you are driving in Chicago, make sure that a steering wheel is correctly
installed in your car.
Cultures often have laws
that seem to make no sense to us. Sometimes, the law is badly- written, or
they are given without adequate explanations. Often, laws are simply outdated, and
the reasons for the law have been lost in the fog of the past. Or
maybe the rules seem to be too obvious, like a law that says that a
car must be driven with a steering wheel. For whatever reason, we
look at these laws and are at a loss to explain why anyone would take
the time to pass them. They seem out of place in our society.
At first blush, Jewish
cleanliness laws do not seem to belong to this set of regulations. In our
modern society, the concept of washing your hands before eating is clearly
understood. In a COVID-19 world, we are continually reminded about the importance
of washing our hands. We know that germs can crawl on our hands, and
we understand how sickness is transferred from one person
to another. But we seem to need to be continually reminded that we need to stay
clean. But the cleanliness laws of Judaism had been divorced from the idea of remaining
clean. The concept that had permeated the culture was that sin could
be committed and then washed from your hands through a ritual
cleansing. The problem is that this was never God's intention. God had always
wanted those who followed him to be different in nature, not just
different in ritual.
And that was the point
that Jesus was trying to make and that Isaiah had made centuries earlier. There
was no ethical difference between the people of Israel and those from other countries.
They were worshipful with their lips, but not with their lives. When they
entered the Temple, they pretended to be something that they refused to be
outside the temple walls. And the reason why this was possible in their society
was that the people were willing to ritually commit to washing their hands.
God's demands on us have
not changed. He wants something different for us. We are a people who
believe in grace, but not a cheap grace that comes with the idea of frequently
washing our hands. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in "The Cost of Discipleship,"
wrote about that kind of grace. Cheap grace is grace that allows us to
stay the same as we were before. Instead, Bonhoeffer advocated for a costly
grace.
Costly grace confronts us as a gracious
call to follow Jesus; it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken
spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit
to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My
yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Cleanliness laws had become absurd because
they were separated from the life that God intended us to live – a
life of following him, which never leaves us the same but instead prompts a
change in us into a people of love and light, which is precisely what
our world needs right now.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 7
See also Mark 7:6-7
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