June 19, 2012
Unwashed vs. Unclean
We took our grandkids to the Father’s Day picnic where they picked
clover leaves, dueled with tree branch swords and played hide-n-go-seek. Seven
year-old Lydia brought her home hygiene rules to park with her and when it was
time to eat she was concerned about washing her hands. We told her that this
time, because it was an outdoor picnic, we were making an exception and she
didn’t have to wash. “Oh yea. I get to
eat with dirty hands!” After living under the critical eye of the Pharisees
I can imagine the disciples had a similar reaction when Jesus said, “…eating with unwashed hands does not make
him ‘unclean’.” (Matt 15:20b NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Obviously Lydia has not spent much time watching any of the “Monsters Inside Me” series. I remember only a week or so of viewing these documentaries. They rearranged my thoughts about the soil under my feet, especially having learned as a child of the bacteria and parasites in the soil which could devastate a lake of trout in the wrong circumstances. I am sure the Pharisees were not wrong about the practices they proposed. I am sure they were wrong about why they proposed them. I look at my dirty hands occasionally and think about all the times I ate with them filthy. I think about the five-second rule for dropped dry food and the one second rule for dropped wet food. But I don’t think that parasite which first found its backside stuck to a shoe sole is going to obey any such rules when it now finds its front side smooshed into a morsel of food dropped upon it. We occasionally break the rules and bear the risks, since the chances for bad are rather slim. But a few other folks were not so fortunate when they broke the rules, and we watch their stories on “Monsters Inside Me” while marveling at the utility of a few Pharisaically practiced rules.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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