Sanitizing Jesus

Have we over-sanitized ourselves, our children, our environment?  I don't know the answer, but I have suspicions.  In 1990 my good friend, Linda and I partnered together on a church trip to the Holy Land, ending up with the Passion Play in Oberammagau, Germany.  For 10 days, I delighted in trying new foods that captivated my senses - for the most part. I delighted in lox and hummus and herring - especially the vast array of Israeli breakfast food.  But something I ate didn't delight my stomach and my digestion was a serious problem on the 24 hour flight home.  The memories of watching folk line the airplane aisles for the bathroom caused as much anxiety as my actual physical symptoms.
While I'm grateful that I raised my children in the 20th century with homogenized milk, sanitary wipes, and all our immunizations, I also watch the rapid spread of hand/foot/mouth disease through the schools or the youth succumbing to travelers' disease in El Salvador with concern.  The recent research showing that infants living in a house with dogs were healthier and had fewer ear infections and needed fewer antibiotics raises the question that exposure to dirt and bacteria builds up babies' immune systems (Wall Street Journal, 7/9/12,p A2).
So, exactly what is Jesus getting at in Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23 when he criticizes the Pharisees and the Judean elite (who had access to water and money) for mandating ritual handwashing before meals?  Please understand that I'd never recommend not washing our own fruit before we eat it.  But Jesus sees that the Pharisees have made the laws (originally developed partially for sanitary reasons) that elevate ritual above God - as distractions from focusing on God.
So, Jesus responds to the Pharisees' challenge with:  "It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit - that's the real pollution." (E Peterson, The Message, Mark 7: 15)
Acknowledging that addictions to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes are an exception, I see that Jesus calls us to focus AWAY from the issue of sanitization and AWAY from elevating cherished traditions into hardened laws that separate us from God's heart.  Jesus also calls us AWAY from our focus on the devil as a metaphor for naming sin and evil as that which is only outside us.  Instead Jesus calls us to recognize, acknowledge, name, and repent from the hypocrisy that inhabits our hearts - our whole being - our total personhood.  Jesus names our polluted hearts as ones tempted toward or dominated by "obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness." (ibid, v 21)  Wherever  we present our superficial self as unblemished by sin, Jesus calls us to task for our hypocrisy.  Whenever we give lip service to purity and ritual, we fool ourselves and remain apart from God's holiness and God's forgiving love and mercy.  As Cynthia Campbell writes, "Beware when religious observance gets in the way of fulfilling the heart of the law, which is love of God and neighbor" ("ID Check," The Christian Century, 2006).
Let us look inside and measure our hearts (attitudes, thoughts, behaviors) by the standard Jesus sets as the highest:  Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley