Passionate About Jesus

Homily for Sunday, September 1, 2024
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Probably all of us had favorite teachers in high school and college. In high school, my favorite teacher was Mr. Bartz, the history teacher.  At my school Mr. Bartz was an institution –my uncle had Mr. Bartz – and he was known (among other things) for being a tough teacher with high standards, but also for the “click, click, click” of the chalk against his wedding ring as he rubbed his hands together, which he would do whenever he thought we were taking too long to answer a question.  In college, my favorite professors were both in the classics department – at my small school, they were the classics department:  the one was a dynamo of energy, and the timbre, pace and inflection of her voice made it sound not unlike we were being taught by Bullwinkle the moose; the other stood no more than 5’6” and was known (among many other things) for his ability to strike the pose of any statue from antiquity, the most memorable being that of Laocoön being strangled by the sea serpent.  What these favorite teachers – and I think what all good teachers have in common – is both a passion for their subject and also a love for teaching:  they want their students to catch the passion and “fire” that they themselves have for their subject; and they believe in their students, that they can.

And I want to get back to good teachers, but first, from today’s Gospel lesson:

For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.

In most Bible translations,these verses are set off in parentheses. And style manuals suggest that writers use parentheses “to enclose non-essential, incidental information…”  In terms of word count Mark is concise, sometimes to the point of being terse, and Mark’s Gospel is by far the shortest.  So if Mark saw fit to use up ink and parchment with what later editors deemed to be “non-essential, incidental information,” he must have had a good reason for doing so.

So why would Mark add,in today’s Gospel lesson, that “the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands… and [that] there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles”?

It could be that Mark added these verses because his audience was composed of enough Gentiles to warrant an explanation.  Or it could be that Mark included this parenthetical because he wanted to highlights for his readers that Jesus’ ministry took place within the context of Judaism and Jewish ritual observance.  Or perhaps Mark included these verses to help to build up to Jesus’ punchline (quoted from Isaiah) in which Jesus bests his interlocutors:  

This people honors me with their lips,
But their hearts are far from me… (Is 29:13).

We don’t know exactly why Mark included these “parenthetical” verses in today’s lesson.  But when I read these verses, I see in Mark the heart of a teacher.  I see Mark caring about his community and wanting them to learn and to grow.  I see him wanting his community to understand that Jesus’ ministry took place within a Jewish context.  And I see him wanting to present Jesus as an authoritative teacher who can best his interlocutors in debate.  

But most of all, I see Mark as a teacher who is passionate about Jesus, and who wants his community – and us his readers – likewise to become passionate about the Jesus he had come to know. Mark had come to know Jesus (to quote from his Gospel) as one who has good news (1:1); he had come to know that in Jesus “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near” (1:15).  Mark had come to know that Jesus is the Messiah (8:29), that “Truly this man [is] God’s Son”(15:39).  And Mark had come to know about the cross and how Jesus did indeed need to “undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again” (8:31).

Mark is passionate about Jesus.  And Mark, the consummate teacher,wants us his readers likewise to become passionate about Jesus.    

In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer writes that:

Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness. They are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves,their subjects and their students so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves.

To help pass on to us his love for Jesus, Mark in his Gospel weaves a complex web of relationship between himself, Jesus and us, his readers.  Even though subsequent editors of his text may have put these verses about washing and Jewish tradition in parentheses, suggesting they are “non-essential, incidental information,” Mark – so careful with his material, including nothing extraneous in his text – [Mark] hopes that this passage might be part of our “weaving a world for ourselves” concerning Jesus.  I encourage us to take time during the week to pray with Mark’s Gospel, perhaps praying with next Sunday’s lesson (which is always listed in the order of service).  I trust that as we pray with Mark’s Gospel and come to “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” it, that his Gospel – including these verses – will help us better come to know and love the one whom Mark himself had come to know and love: Jesus Christ.