The Third Pascha.

Censuring the Pharisee Traditions.

(Mat. 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23).

On the third day of Pascha, the Lord was absent from Jerusalem. However, the Jerusalem Pharisees never paused their surveillance on Him and not finding Him in Jerusalem, they went to Galilee. Meeting Him with His disciples, they renewed their previous condemnations of His disciples for not conforming to the traditions of the elders. Their reason was that His disciples didn’t wash their hands before eating. According to the laws of Pharisee piety, before eating and afterwards, the hands must be washed without fail. Moreover, the Talmud determines precisely the required measure of water, time and order in the washing of hands, and if there were more than 5 people, or if there were less. Following these rules was deemed so important that those who violated them, were subject to Sanhedrin’s punishment — up to excommunication. The Jews believed that Moses received two sets of commandments in the Sinai: one was recorded in books, while the other was not, and was passed orally from father to son, to be eventually recorded in the Talmud. This second one was named “traditions of the elders,” i.e. ancient men, ancient rabbis. This unwritten law was also outstanding in its great pettiness. Thus, for example, the law on washing hands, initially inspired because of hygiene (which by itself is beneficial), became detrimental and together with similar requirements, obscured the more important demands of God’s commandments, becoming empty and harmful. The disciples, with their Divine Teacher, labored for a great cause, building God’s Kingdom on earth and didn’t have time to even eat bread (Mark 3:20, while the Pharisee’s demanded that they adhere strictly to all these petty traditions. The Lord Himself responds to these accusations: “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Mat. 15:3; Mark 7:9). “Through this, the Lord showed that a sinner in big deeds shouldn’t note in others, with such solicitude, their minor transgressions” (Golden Tongue). Specifically, the Lord points out that in the name of their tradition, the Pharisees are violating a direct and definite commandment on honoring parents. This tradition permitted children to deny their parents material support, should they declare their possessions “Corban,” i.e. are dedicated to God. And this dedication as a gift to God could include everything: house, field, sanctified and unsanctified livestock; at the same time, the donor could continue enjoying his possessions by making a small payment into the temple’s coffers. For this, he regarded himself free of all social obligations, even from the responsibility of taking care of his parents — denying them even the very basic needs of life. Calling the Pharisees hypocrites, the Lord ascribes Isaiah’s prophesy (29:13) to them, confirming that they honor God superficially, while their hearts are far away from Him; and it’s futile of them to think that in this way they are pleasing God, and fruitless that they are teaching others the same thing. Turning to all the people, the Lord further adds to His censure of the Pharisees: “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Mat. 15:11; Mark 7:15). The Pharisees didn’t understand the difference between physical and moral cleanliness. They presumed that if food is unclean or is handled by unclean hands, it was capable of soiling the person, making him unclean before God. But the Lord shows that what makes a person morally unclean is through what comes out from an unclean heart.

However, sectarians and other opponents to fasting, maintain a completely groundless presumption that these words of the Lord were against fasts, established by the Holy Church. Naturally, food entering the mouth does not make a person unclean, if this is not associated with gluttony, disobedience and other types of sinful inclinations of the heart. We fast not because we are afraid to corrupt ourselves with moderate foods, but for the sake of making it easier for us to struggle with other sinful passions, to conquer our sensuality, to train ourselves to sever our will through the adherence to the Church’s determinations. For example, in acknowledging that drunkenness is a sin, we don’t assert wine is evil because it defiles a person. The Lord provoked the Pharisees because He never cited traditions of the elders, and evidently, not even the Law of Moses, which establishes the strict differences between different types of food. The Lord calmed His disciples, calling the Pharisees “blind leaders of the blind” (Mat. 15:14), and that there was no need to follow the foolish notions of their teachings: all similar teachings that do not emanate from God, will be uprooted. Further on, the Lord explains to the Apostles that food, entering through the mouth, bypasses the soul and is expurgated, not leaving any trace in the soul. But sins that come forth from the mouth and heart, defiles him.