5th Week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday – 9th February 2021 — Gospel: Mark 7,1-13
Holding the Traditions High
In response to the accusation of the Jewish religious leaders (7,1-5), Jesus defended his disciples and exposed the hypocrisy of their accusers (7,6-13). The first thing he did was to quote from the prophet Isaiah (Is 29,13), and then he brought in the law of Moses (Ex 20,12; 21,17; Lev 20,9). Jesus first exposed their hypocrisy and then indicted them for breaking the fifth commandment. History reveals that the Jewish religious leaders honoured their traditions far above the Word of God. In defending their tradition, the Pharisees destroyed their own characters and also the authority of the Word of God. Note the tragic sequence: teaching their doctrines as God’s Word (7,7); laying aside God’s Word (7,8); rejecting God’s Word (7,9); finally, robbing God’s Word of its power (7,13). True worship must come from the heart, and it must be directed by God’s truth, not by man’s personal ideas. People who revere man-made traditions above the Word of God eventually lose the power of God’s Word in their lives. No matter how devout they may appear, their hearts are far from God.
