About two-thirds of the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Mark focuses on what true religious practice looks like. Jesus does this by contrasting the behavior and teaching of some of the Pharisees and Scribes with a simpler, truer and more straightforward way. (Simple is not the same as easy.) In the Gospels the Pharisees, Scribes, Sadducees and Elders are frequently presented as opposing Jesus, his way of living and his teaching. What is Jesus’ complaint? What is it saying to us?
On top of the Torah, over centuries, those who studied these five books (known as “The Law”), tried to spell out the details and implications of what is written. This is how they ended up with 613 commandments – much beyond the Ten Words God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai. These were first passed on as an oral tradition. So far, so good – at least as intentions go. The experts just wanted the people to be holy. But who could possibly follow all the little sub-points extracted from the Law? Only those who knew them and were well-off enough to live independently. This created a class system based on religious practice = the Holy and the Sinners.
Jesus comes along, accepts and befriends “sinners,” and presents them with an image of God who is Merciful Love, instead of Law-enforcing Judge. Jesus also reduces all those commandments (human rules) to love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self. Do this and you have fulfilled God’s requirements. No wonder there were clashes with those who clung to the 613!
When those who considered themselves in good standing with God confronted Jesus about some of his disciples, who had failed to properly wash their hands before eating, according to the tradition, Jesus responded by quoting the Prophet Isaiah. “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Uselessly they worship me, teaching humanly manufactured precepts as if they are from God” (Isaiah 29:13) “You put aside God’s commandment and hold on, with a death-grip, to human traditions.” Jesus calls them out as hypocrites.
A hypocrite, from Greek theater, was an actor who covered his face with a mask – hiding who he was in order to play a part. Jesus is saying, “You are phonies, pretending to be righteous, holy, religious. It’s all a show!” Who are you really? Drop the pretense! Put down the mask! It’s remarkable that Jesus was so much more comfortable with the simple people who were just being themselves, who weren’t trying to look good, who weren’t trying to impress, who weren’t putting on a show. They allowed others to see who they really were, as they were, with their gifts and their faults.
Do we put human teachings above the commandment to love, trying to look like we are doing what God wants? Are we hypocrites? With whom, or before whom, do we feel the need to put on a mask – to pretend to be who we are not inside? Who are we trying to impress? Is our favorite mask being right, or appearing humble, or looking strong and having it all together, or seeming helpless…? Do we play a part in our relationships instead of being ourselves? Are we acting, or are we simply who we are? Jesus invites us to let go of the fears that drive us to the deceit of hypocrisy. God is truth, and loves us madly – just as we are.