“The Pharisees and some of the teachers the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of His disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)” (Mark 7:1-4 NIV)
This scripture brings to mind 2020 and the apparent advent of hand-washing. I remember when the pandemic first started and the tv ads began: cover when you cough, wash your hands and stay home if you are sick.
Honestly, these are all things I had been doing since kindergarten. I can still remember my intimidating Mrs. Colstag going over the instructions at the beginning of the year. I also remember the morning my mom made me go to school when I was sick (in her defense, I think she had a final for her masters degree). It was bad; I threw up at my workstation in front of my friends, maybe even a little bit on my friends. I spoiled my lovely written letter sheet: I could read but was enthused to be learning to write. I remember never wanting to return to our happy red table after that, convinced it wouldn’t be the same after the splash session of horror. Maybe the most mortifying part of that memory was knowing full well the teacher told me to stay home when I didn’t feel good. You may have noticed, but I’m a rule-follower by nature.
The pandemic has continued on for almost a year now and our family is family fairly religious about hand washing. I remind everyone as soon as we come home from work or the store. “Wash your hands!” We sanitize fingers and palms before every meal in the car or at a picnic table and on the rare occasion where we eat in a restaurant. I’m sure we are not alone as the world continues to fight covid on every front of life.
This morning I wonder if societally, we have become like the Pharisees: clean on the outside but downright filthy on inside. The covid crisis and the current political climate have created a perfect storm of opinion and offense. Everyone is striving to be politically correct and super-sanitized on the outside: we wear our masks and stand six feet apart, but on the inside we are a hot mess of sin. Angry. Selfish. Greedy. Offended. Anxious. Distrusting. Accusatory. Hostile toward others. Totally isolated in a world ruled by the individual instead of the community.
Jesus reminds us that it doesn’t matter how clean our hands are if our hearts are still dirty. It’s what is inside that makes us impure.
“Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them… For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils com from inside and defile a person.” (Mark 7:15, 21-23 NIV)
CoVid can kill a body, but sin will kill a soul. There’s a less than one percent chance that we’ll die from coVid. There’s a one hundred percent chance that we’ll one day stand before God and give account for our sinful thoughts, words and actions. Let’s go ahead and wash our hands, but wash our hearts with all diligence, too.
“Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:8 NIV)
Lord, we have been so good about hand-washing in this pandemic, but heart washing is of even greater importance. Today we lay our hearts bare before You: search out and convict. We repent of the things that defile: evil thoughts that inevitably turn into evil actions. Forgive us for what we have been thinking even when our hands are clean. Purify our hearts, restore us into right relationship with You and others. We are so grateful to walk with the God who sees the inner workings of our lives, loves us enough to disquiet us in our sin and offers a chance to start anew. Draw us near to You. Amen.