In Mark 7:1-8,14-15, 21-23 Jesus teaches that the people of God are not set apart by particular traditions or ethnicity, but by a purity that emanates from the heart, manifested by love for others. We do not need more religion, but more reflection on what proceeds from our heart. Yes, traditions can be good, and can point others to God. However, they can also send a message explicitly or implicitly, "you don't belong."
Jesus challenged the purity “laws” and turned them upside down. In their place
he substituted a radically alternate social vision. The new community that
Jesus announced would be characterized by interior compassion for everyone, not
external compliance to a purity code, or by egalitarian inclusivity, but rather
by inward transformation.
"No outcasts," writes Garry Wills in What Jesus Meant, "were cast
out far enough in Jesus' world to make him shun them — not Roman collaborators,
not lepers, not prostitutes, not the crazed, not the possessed. Are there
people now who could possibly be outside his encompassing love?"
“Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile…
from within come evil thoughts and they defile.”
Who do we judge when we sanctimoniously spurn those who are not like us or not
part of our group? (Word to Word, Bob Reina, August,
27, 2018)
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