REFORMING
PURITY THROUGH TRANSGRESSIVE ACTION
Mark
7:1-5; 20-23
In
March this year, a Dalit man, Shankar was killed by his father – in – law, as
an act of ‘honor killing’. Shankar and Kaushalya had an inter – caste marriage,
and because of this, they had to pay the ultimate price for transgressing the
boundaries of love. Why so? Simply because it is believed that Dalits are
impure, and that inter – caste marriage is a defilement. It comes as a wonder
that even pastors and Bishops have made statements that inter – caste marriages
will dilute the purity of Christianity. This is just one such example where the
idea of purity becomes noxious. This morning, with the help of the text that
was read and in the light of such happenings, I attempt to speak on reforming
purity through transgressive action.
The
idea of purity was important for Mark and his community and is quite evident in
Mark 7: 1 – 5 and vv 20 – 23, as much as it is evident in the entire gospel. The
Jewish law believed that impurity was passed from the hands to the food and to
the eater. And so, the ritual of hand-washing was extremely important. This
ceremonial washing was done not for hygienic reasons but to remove any stain of
impurity that might have been incurred in daily life. In the text, we find the
Pharisees and Scribes attacking the disciples of Jesus, and indirectly Jesus as
well, for not following this ritual of hand-washing. Jesus, though challenges
them, does not disregard purity completely, but rather reforms it in favor of
other core values. Drawing upon this background, I would like to bring out
three points. My first point:
- Purity
as a tool for Alienation and Control
The
Jewish ritual purity has a deep theology to it altogether. The rituals and
religious observance, grounded in the Jewish law was done in order to show
gratitude to God and to provide a sense of Jewish identity. Bringing sacredness
into everyday lives through purity rituals, was an attempt to get as close as
possible to God. This clearly
informs us that ritual purity for the Jews was an important aspect of intimacy
with God, self and also with the community. However, when we look at the event
in the text the question then arises, why was Jesus taking the side of the
disciples when they quite clearly violated the ritual law? Jesus could’ve
probably just asked the disciples to go and wash their hands. Simple, right?
But strange enough as Jesus’ actions always are, he questions their
understanding of purity and exposes their hypocrisy. In v. 2 the word used by
the Pharisees is ‘defiled’, which in Greek is koinais, meaning ‘profane’. This in some way implies that even if
the disciples had washed their hands, they would still remain defiled as they were
believed to be defiled by default, because of their social location. The desire
to extent priestly holiness to all aspects of life created a barrier between
the Pharisees and the Scribes and the so – called outsiders. It gave them the
power to establish and control people’s social identity, social
classifications, and social boundaries. The Pharisees and the rich Jews administered
the purity system as it gave them control over the common people, the economy,
and the Temple. Therefore, the Pharisees and Scribes became fearful that the
disciples would end up defiling them and also became momentarily powerless when
the disciples, perhaps unintentionally, transgressed that particular purity
ritual to directly challenge the authority and supremacy of the Pharisees and
Scribes.
This
system of purity and defilement is very much evident in our contexts today as
well. We see that the purity code has crept into our society in various forms
and has somehow become an accepted norm by people. Let’s take a look at a few
of them. First, on the issue of marriage. The community which I come from, Chang
Naga, has four major clans under which all the Chang people are constituted. Marriage
within the same clan, though from the same tribe, is strictly prohibited as people
from the same clan are considered as brothers and sisters. And so marriage
within the same clan will make the couple and eventually their off – springs,
impure and cursed. Secondly, on the issue of moral policing. Here we try to
thrust morality upon people whom we think are not living or behaving according
to our prescribed and fixed morals. What becomes worse is our own projection of
self – righteousness, and because of this, we condemn and alienate others as ‘sinners’,
‘outcastes’, ‘deviants’, ‘corrupt’, etc. Third and finally, the biased acceptance
of heteronormativity, whereby a superior feeling, “I am straight, therefore I
am pure” condemns the LGBTQ communities as being defiled and sinful. All these
issues and many more have so many aspects within it, but one underlying factor
is the purity concept, which has been detrimental to so many people. Hasn’t
purity, then, being a tool of control accounted for alienation?
- Inner
Purity over Ritual Purity
In
v. 21 Jesus goes on to say that it is from the heart that evil intentions come.
Why would Jesus say this, if for the Jews the observance of ritual purity was primarily
external? It is because the whole idea of ritual purity should have been a
matter of intentionality, which unfortunately wasn’t to be. And so Jesus
pointed out to the defilement of the heart as he noticed the evil intentions of
the Pharisees and the Scribes. Jesus raised a more fundamental issue of purity,
which went far beyond the limited question of hand-washing. Jesus once and for
all underlined the truth that defilement or impurity does not lie in a person’s
external body, social location, economic status, faith community, clan, caste,
color, gender, or sexual orientation. For Jesus, their understanding of purity was
quite simply a social construct.
How
different is the context today? I’m pretty sure there isn’t much. I believe we
become defiled when we speak ill of others, deny rights and opportunities to
the needy, lurk in darkness hoping to find something worthy of gossip,
masterfully craft environments where people whom we are jealous of are bound to
fail or lose ground, abuse and slander those who are weaker than us, eye – rape
women, take what rightfully belongs to someone else, and the list can only go
on and on. By portraying ourselves as the righteous ones, we look down on
people whom we think are weaker or poorer than us. What then is our
accountability? Where then is our authenticity? We can go on performing rituals
and take sacraments after sacraments. But then what about the cleansing of our
heart and the intentions that it holds? Jesus clearly gave primacy to inner
purity over ritual purity, and in doing so called for radical discipleship
i.e., to transgress societal structures that perpetuate oppression and
prejudice. This is why I believe the Church of today must encourage and
practice inter-caste and inter-cultural marriages; refrain from engaging in
moral policing and moralizing sexuality; and transgress human-made barriers and
affirm core human values. In doing this the Church would negate external and
destructive elements of purity.
- Transgressive
action as a means of Reforming Purity
Jesus,
in exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the Scribes and in bringing out
the importance of inner purity, in a way reformed purity from its impure political
elements. One of the powerful transgressive act that we can perform is the act
of embrace. When I speak of embrace, I not only refer to it in the literal and
physical sense but also intend to mean accepting, welcoming and affirming
transgressive acts. To affirm such acts is to embrace the agents of such acts. Jesus
in affirming the rebellious and subversive act of the disciples embraced the
disciples. He also embraced those that were considered impure by the society:
the tax collector, the prostitute, the poor, and the leper. By virtue of the
act of embrace, Jesus became a transgressor. His intentions, actions, and words
were a strong critique and protest against the prevailing unjust purity system.
We
all need to be able to redeem purity, and it is in performing the transgressive
act of embrace, we do so. However, if we harbor evil against each other and if
we welcome the privileges that we get from the dominant forces around, we
become defiled. And if you and I can become defiled by that, then there is also
a possibility for us to become sacred by resisting those forces and embracing
its victims. It is imperative that we draw ourselves to ‘grow into’ the lives
of those whom we have wronged. This brings about a redeeming participation,
both for us and for those who have been victimized; because it redeems both the
giver and the receiver of the embrace. And there are times, when we must be
open enough just to receive it.
May
we like Jesus and the disciples become active engineers of transgressive action
breaking every wall that sets one against the other. Jesus endeavored to create
a counter-cultural community and his attack on the oppressive purity system and
his embrace of the transgressive act of the disciples, I believe has enough
potential to inspire us to do the same. To envision a New Heaven and New Earth
is in becoming a transgressor. The question is “are we willing to become one”?
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