The of Mark: Session 7 The Inclusivity Of the Kingdom 1. Purity Rules and an Honor Challenge, 7:1-5 a. After a summary report of ’ successes and popularity (6:53-56), b. Mark returns us to the conflict brewing around him. c. Joining to watch him are scribes from (7:1), i. The temple establishment is now concerned about Jesus.

2. They noticed some of Jesus’ disciples eating bread with unwashed hands a. What is the messiest foot that you enjoy the most? b. What is the most fun you have had getting dirty? c. Mark then explains Jewish ritual purity practices regarding food and food preparations, which is the “tradition of the elders” (7:2-4). d. Some have considered this explanation to be necessary for in Mark’s audience. e. But it also highlights the “external” nature of these purity practices: i. If the food is ritually clean (note: hygiene is not the concern; the issue is holiness), ii. If pots, pans, and hands are ritually clean, then nothing ritually unclean/unholy enters the person eating. iii. The focus of ritual purity is on externals, i.e., boundaries, surfaces, on keeping the “dirt” beyond one’s borders. iv. The temple structure illustrates this point. 1. Priests could draw near the Holy of Holies, but those who were unclean could not enter the sanctuary at all so that the “center” would not be defiled. v. This focus is also what set apart from Gentiles. 1. A Jewish body was more pure than a body, 2. A male body more pure than a female body, 3. And a physically whole body more pure than one that was less than whole. 4. Again, the importance of birth status is underscored. vi. What would you name as the major issue for the scribes and Pharisees in their conflict with Jesus? Was it their Jewishness? The way they practiced their religion? A love of power and privilege? What would you name? vii. Have Christians ever practiced an “external purity?” If your answer is yes, can you give an example? f. This story suggests, that scribes from Jerusalem would have been very concerned about purity and that they could use the issue to try to dishonor someone who was considered holy by the people. g. Further, the practices at issue in this text revolve around eating. h. writers frequently mention trouble with meals i. (e.g., see Luke 14:12-14; Acts 10:9-16; Gal 2:11-14; 1 Cor 11:20-22). ii. Since table fellowship— then and now—brings communities together, and since “kosher” eating practices kept Jews and Gentiles from sharing table fellowship, these practices raised significant questions for followers of Jesus. i. So, in a public setting, the scribes and Pharisees call attention to disciples eating bread with unwashed hands and ask Jesus why they “do not live according to the tradition of the elders” (7:5). Such a public challenge is designed to dishonor Jesus.

3. Jesus’ Response to the Challenge: Not Subtle, 7:6-13 a. First he calls them hypocrites and quotes Isaiah at them (7:6-7). b. Then he accuses them of abandoning and rejecting ’s commandments (7:8-9)

1 c. He supports his charge with example (7:10-12). “Moses said… but you say…”. i. Referring to an offering dedicated to God so that it cannot be used for other purposes, including care for parents. ii. Jesus suggests some were using it to let themselves “off the hook” of parental care and that the religious leadership endorsed the practice (for the money would eventually go to the temple). Thus, he says, they have “made void” the word of God (7:13). 4. Jesus Subverts Their View of Purity, 7:14-15 a. He called the crowd and said that there is nothing outside a person that can defile that person (7:14-15). b. He has subverted their whole practice of determining (seeing) who is holy and who is not. 5. Explaining the “Parable” to the Disciples, Making All Foods Clean, 7:17-23 a. Later the disciples ask him about the “parable” (7:17). i. Remember that in Mark a parable is any teaching that “stands the world on its head,” and this one does. ii. Purity, he said, is a matter of the heart (7:18-21), 1. Which means that a Gentile could be as pure as a Jew, 2. A woman as pure as a man, 3. A leper as pure as a priest. iii. Mark’s editorial addition, “thus he declared all foods clean,” makes clear his understanding that when the kingdom of God draws near, everyone is welcome at the table.

6. The Syrophoenician Woman and the Children’s Bread, 7:24-30 a. Jesus, having rewritten the definition of purity, traveled into Gentile territory (the region of Tyre) b. He encountered a Syrophoenician woman with a request (7:24-26). i. As a Gentile and a female, this woman was automatically unclean to a Jewish man, ii. The association of with ancient Jewish struggles over foreign religious practices, especially temple prostitution, means “syrophoenician” could indicate a woman from the “seamier” side of a city. iii. Have you ever felt like a religious outsider? What was it like? What can you do to reach out to someone who might feel like they are outside God’s love? iv. This woman approached Jesus, a Jewish man with a religious vocation to whom she was unknown and unrelated, so that she has stepped out of “her place.” 1. She did so on behalf of her daughter, a further liability since sons, not daughters, were the focus of a family’s hopes. v. Finally, her daughter was possessed by an “unclean” spirit, 1. A note that completes the portrait of a thoroughly impure woman— a. female, foreign, pagan, sexually suspect, inappropriately assertive, and “home” to an unclean spirit. c. Thus Jesus’ response (“it is not good to take the children’s bread [artos] and throw it to the dogs,” 7:27) i. We, however, find his words harsh and troubling. ii. Because we do not want to think of our “sinless Christ” speaking this way, 1. Great efforts have been made to “fix” his words (e.g., he was testing her). iii. But the text does not help us. It only gives us Jesus’ words without softening them. iv. Perhaps we can be less uncomfortable if we focus on the theological concept of incarnation. 1. How human will we let Jesus be?

2 2. Interpreters have often thought that Mark gives us Jesus at his most human. 3. This story is a premier example. 4. In it Jesus may be a man still learning and growing in his awareness of God’s kingdom. (Is it sinful to be growing still?) 5. Though he himself had declared that purity is a matter of one’s heart so that everyone is welcome at the table, when confronted by a thoroughly unclean woman he responded, “But not you.” How human is that? d. So Jesus has put the woman in “her place,” but she will not stay there. i. She throws Jesus’ words back at him: Aren’t dogs allowed to eat crumbs (7:28)? ii. Isn’t there plenty of bread, plenty of God to go around? iii. This time Jesus affirms that she is right and grants her request (7:29), iv. Thus signaling his recognition of her purity before God. v. The woman has “won” her argument with Jesus in more ways than one.

7. “Be Opened!” 7:31-37 a. Jesus then traveled back toward the Sea of , though still in Gentile territory, b. People bring to him a deaf and mute man (7:31 - 32). c. If you were to become deaf what sound would you miss hearing the most? d. If you were to become unable to speak what would you miss saying? i. On the surface, this is only another miracle story. ii. Jesus has subverted the purity system of his world and replaced it with purity of heart that welcomes—finally—even a Syrophoenician woman. iii. Now he encounters one who cannot hear or speak clearly. iv. First, Jesus sighed. Why? 1. Frustration that people are deaf to God’s word? 2. Regret that his ears weren’t initially open to the woman? 3. The text does not tell us. We are left with what his sigh evokes within us. v. Then he commanded the man’s ears, “Be opened!” vi. This man’s ears were opened, and his tongue loosened (7:35). vii. The story ends with Jesus once again ordering people not to tell, but they did, for they were astounded beyond measure (7:36-37).

8. Bread for the Gentiles, 8:1-10 a. Since the feeding of the five thousand, Mark has many references to bread (Greek, artos) i. Jesus fed them artos in the wilderness, ii. The disciples in the boat didn’t understand about the artos, iii. The disciples ate artos with unwashed hands, iv. The children’s artos should not be fed to the dogs. v. In and around these stories, Jesus has undone the purity rules that divided Jews and Gentiles, making it possible for everyone to come to his table. vi. Now this section of Mark comes to a close with Jesus again feeding bread (artos) to a multitude in the wilderness (8:1-10). 1. The story is remarkably similar to the first feeding story: a. Jesus had been teaching the people for a while, the disciples are clueless, b. They have but a few loaves and fish to share, yet everyone eats and is satisfied. c. The key difference is that this feeding happens in Gentile territory.

3 9. Is this merely historical recording, or is Mark trying to help us see? a. The boundaries (the sea; the purity rules) have been crossed, the bread has been shared, and everyone has been filled. The kingdom of God has drawn near. So, do we understand about the bread? 10. At the end of Mark 7 Jesus tells people not to tell what was happening, but they did tell (7:36). We may find Jesus’ counsel not to tell unsettling. What do you imagine is going on here—are the people telling about the miracles, or are they talking about how everyone is welcomed at the table? Which would bother Jesus, and why? 11. How has your grasp of who Jesus is changed over the years? 12. What can you do this week to show friendship to someone who is alone? 13. What would you like Jesus to help you hear or say?

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