Unclean - Matt 15:1-9; Mark 7:1-13

The doctrine that Jesus is preaching is becoming more and more controversial, and become even more offensive to the Pharisees, particularly one that came from Jerusalem to question Him, “and when they saw some of this disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashed, hands, they found fault… Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?” It is important here to point out that the washing referred to was not the kind that we use today with soap and water, but a ceremonial washing. Forsaking the ritualistic washing didn’t mean that their hands were dirty because eating with hands free from dirt was very important for health. The Pharisees are asking why Jesus allowed his disciples to eat without making them first participate in a ceremonial cleansing of the hands. Jesus’ response must have come across as quite the rebuke, “why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.” Reading this, I am completely lost, I have no idea what this means or why it’s important. JTC further confirms that this is an important interaction saying, “To the Pharisaic mind this must have been a very sharp rebuke; for rabbinism held that rigorous compliance with the traditions of the elders was more important than observance of the law itself; and Jesus in his counter-question put their cherished traditions as in direct conflict with the commandment of God.”

Mark’s account of this encounter has Jesus using the word “corban” instead of “gift.” Apparently, corban was the act of giving something to God as a gift. A website called gotquestions.org explains, saying, “whatever money might have been used to provide for aging parents could be dedicated to the temple treasury instead. Saying, ‘it is corban’ would exempt a person from his responsibility to his parents. In other words, the Pharisees took a legitimate Corban offering and used it in an illegitimate and devious way to defraud their parents (and enrich themselves). Thus, the Law of God was nullified.”  Let’s think about this and try to make sense of it. Why would a person take their own money and give it to the church to avoid using it to care for their aging parents? I can think of a few reasons why this would benefit someone personally. First, if that person is a Pharisees and controls the temple treasury, then any money that that person gives to the “church” can then freely spend it however they want anyway without the societal obligation to use it to help others. Second, if a person really hates their parents and really doesn’t want to take care of them, then they can give any excess to the church in order to get out of an obligation to help the aging parents that they hate so much. Third, apparently just because you give something to the church doesn’t mean you can’t still use it anymore. It’s like willing something to an organization so that they can have it when you die and don’t need it anymore. So if you have an excess of money, you can “give” it to the church for use after your death, but while you’re still alive you can use that money to make more money and you can keep the extra money left over. So it’s basically like saying, “I’ll use what I have, and when I’m done I’ll throw it in the trash before I’ll give it to you.”

I wonder if the practice of “corban” was mostly used to allocate income and goods to something other than parents, or if helping parents when they need it was just a side effect of the use of corban. Were there any other ‘benefits’ to using corban other than to get out of giving it to someone else? I can’t think of anything at the moment, but ultimately, what corban is and how the ancient Jews used it isn’t really the lesson here. The lesson comes to us in the IM from Elder Dallin H. Oaks saying, “In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something… Jesus’ challenge shows that the conversion He required for those who would enter the kingdom of heaven was far more than just being converted to testify to the truthfulness of the gospel To testify is to know and to declare. The gospel challenges us to be ‘converted,’ which requires us to do and to become.” The lesson is that we don’t have to just do what we think is required, but we need to become like Jesus himself.

What are some “corban” like things in our lives today? What are some aspects of religion that we could get caught up in keeping the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law? For instance, the law of chastity, where people can go to Vegas and get married so that they can have sex and then have their marriages annulled a few days later before they go back home. Or what about the idea that you can’t have sex outside of marriage, but you can do anything else, that’s another example? What about the word of wisdom? Instead of smoking cigarettes, we do the new vaping thing, or drinking decaf coffee, etc. What about accepting a calling, but not showing up to do the job that you agreed to do? What about not welcoming a new member of the ward because they have tattoos? What about not speaking to anyone at church because you know they won’t like you anyway? What about showing up to church so late every week that you miss the sacrament all the time? How about being rude to people who are different than you because you don’t want to encourage their non-member lifestyle? What about scolding someone because they took the sacrament with their left hand and not their right? These are all things that I’ve seen, done, or experienced that were not in keeping with the Lord’s teachings. I genuinely understand that people might want to distance themselves from those who are different because they don’t want to encourage a lifestyle they don’t agree with, the whole “appearance of evil” concept. But look at how Jesus lived and what he did in those situations! He was friendly, kind and treated everyone like a human being, he answered everyone’s question, but he was also everyone’s friend, and helped them when they needed it. That’s how we should be.