Rules and Relationship

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

September 1, 2024

Mark 7:14-23

 “Rules and Relationship”

We live by rules, don’t we? There are rules at home and rules at school. There are rules of the road, even when it looks like most drivers aren’t following them. On this Labor Day weekend, as we give thanks for the blessing of work for our hands, we know that there are rules for the workplace. There are rules in the communities where we live through HOAs. There are rules for sports competition and rules for finances. Even in that restaurant that advertises itself, “No rules – just right,” there are rules. There are rules for just about everything in life. It’s a funny little word, isn’t it? “Rule.” We know what it means, but where does it come from? I am fascinated by word origins, something called etymology, and so I had to look up the origin – the etymology – for the word “rule.” Like many words in our English language, the origin of the word “rule” comes from the Latin language. Rule comes from the Latin word, regere, meaning to “rule, govern, control, or restrain.” To be sure, we need rules to govern life in this world, or we would quickly descend into chaos. Much as we’d like to think otherwise, we cannot trust that everyone is going to do the right thing, and so rules are needed. We may be tempted to think that if we follow the rules, that is what will change hearts and minds. Rules will lead to transformation and regeneration. Rules will bring about new life. But in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus challenges the rules that govern life and faith. And so we consider Jesus’ words under the theme, “Rules and Relationships.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

Today’s Gospel lesson immediately follows what we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel lesson (Mark 7:1-13). There were accepted rules that governed life in Israel according to the Law of Moses. Everybody knew about them, and there was general consensus about following them. The religious leaders saw to it that these rules were enforced. Last week, Jesus challenged religious traditions that were not necessarily given by God through Moses as recorded in Scripture, but traditions that came about to support what God did tell Moses to instruct the people. There were rules, and then there were rules. Today, Jesus goes much further in saying that it’s not all the things out there that defile a person – like eating certain foods that were forbidden. Rather, Jesus says, it all the things in here – within our very hearts – that defile us. In the Mosaic Law, certain foods were (and still are) forbidden (see Leviticus 11). There was (and still is) a long, revered tradition concerning foods that are clean and unclean. The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus meant, and so they asked him privately about this. Jesus’ response is revolutionary! He said: “Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.)” (Mark 7:18b-19). For the people who first heard these words of Jesus, it must have seemed like their rules and traditions were being thrown out the window. “All foods clean?” That was unheard of, and it certainly flew in the face of the Law of Moses

We’re really not so different from the people of Jesus’ day. Not much, if anything, has changed with our human condition over the course of history. God knows our hearts better than we do ourselves. Jesus’ laundry list of what comes out of our hearts is not pretty: “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21-23). If we’re honest with ourselves, we know this is all too true. The problem really is in here. Are rules really going to change that? Remember the psalm that we spoke together last Sunday? “They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:3). Here’s the thing: no matter how hard we try to keep the rules, it doesn’t work. Rules do not change the human heart. Relationship is what changes the heart.

Truth be told, there really isn’t any Gospel in today’s Gospel lesson. It’s all Law. It is the Law that convicts us of the evil we have done and the good we have failed to do. But the Law and all of its “Thou shalts” and “Thou shalt nots” is not going to save us. The Law tells us “Do,” but on our own, we can’t do it. We can’t change what’s in our hearts, and we can’t make our hearts clean before God. It is only the Gospel – the good news of Jesus – that tells us all of this has already been “Done.” What saves us is Jesus and what he has done for us. In contrast to our own hearts that defile us, God promises to do some radical heart transplant surgery for us. Hundreds of years before the time of Jesus, God spoke through his servant, the prophet Ezekiel, about this: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). That’s what it takes: not rules, but relationship. Already in the Garden of Eden, after our first parents fell into sin, God promised that he would rescue his children and his creation from the curse of sin and death (Genesis 3:15). God made good on that promise, and has given us something that we cannot get on our own: a new heart. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we don’t receive more rules, but a saving, grace-filled relationship. This relationship is based on what God has done and continues to do for us, not what we can do for God. The familiar words of Psalm 51 are fulfilled through the cleansing blood of Jesus, shed on the cross for you and for me: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). With this new relationship, with this new heart that we have received by God’s grace alone, we are led by the Holy Spirit to want to follow the way of the Lord; to obey God’s rules and commandments. Through Jesus, it becomes a “want to,” rather than a “have to.” The motivation shifts within our hearts. Even then, our lives won’t be perfect. We will still make mistakes; we will still sin. But we see all of this through a new lens. It becomes a new obedience that is not rooted in score-keeping, but in praise and thanksgiving for that saving relationship that we have been given in Christ Jesus. And so we might say, “Relationship Rules.”

Like any solid relationship, the relationship we have with Jesus is based on honesty, trust and communication. We can be ourselves with God and tell him everything that’s on our heart and mind – the good, the bad, and the ugly. God, in fact, wants this from us. It is this relationship of honesty, trust and communication, nurtured through God’s gifts of Word and Sacrament, that will help us do as Paul the apostle urges us to do in the opening words from today’s Epistle lesson (Ephesians 6:10-20): “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Ephesians 6:10). When it comes to spiritual warfare, when we face the giants that threaten us in our own journey of faith, it’s not rules that are going to help us. It is the strength of the Lord alone and his might that will help us to stand firm in faith. God help us to do this for Jesus’ sake. Amen.