RITUAL VS. MORALE
CEDRIC B. SWINNEY, MINISTER
When it came down to rituals, Jesus often opposed the view of the religious leaders. The Gospel of Mark illustrates this with various conflicts or confrontations between the religious leaders and Jesus. Mark 2:13-17 deals
with the calling of Matthew the tax collector. The Pharisees had a problem with Jesus eating with tax collectors
and sinners. They extended their interpretation of the ritual purity laws to every day and not just when they were
at the temple. Jesus eating with the tax collectors and sinners, from their perspective, made Him unclean. His
eating with these people served a higher purpose that just adhering to the ritual purity laws. Jesus said in Mark
2:17 that the healthy are not in need of a physician. He also said that He came to call sinners to repentance. The
Pharisees were judging the cleanliness from the outside, while Jesus was looking to clean the hearts of men from
the inside.
In Mark 2:18-22 the Pharisees again question Jesus about His actions, but this time it is about His disciples not
fasting like the disciples of John the Baptist and those of the Pharisees. Jesus tried to get the leaders to understand
that His teachings were not going to fit into their old way of thinking. Jesus used a wineskin as an example to
illustrate the difference between His teachings and the world view of the things of God. It was not that Jesus was
violating the laws handed down form God, but rather that the religious leaders were adjusting some of them to suit
their own desires.
Mark 12:28-34 somewhat sums up Jesus’ opinion about the importance of rituals. Jesus is asked by one of the
teachers of the law which of all the commandments is the most important. Jesus replies in verse 29-31 with the
statement that loving God completely and loving your neighbor as yourself are the greatest two commandments.
The man agrees and then makes the statement that these are more important than all the offering and sacrifices. In
light of this statement, Jesus says that he is not far from the Kingdom of God. Totally devoted to God, showing
love towards our neighbor, and caring for others, in the eyes of the Messiah, puts us closer to the Kingdom of God.
A person can spend a lifetime of making sacrifices and going to church and not get any closer to the Kingdom of
God. The message that Mark provides for us is that we must strive to remember that Morale law will always be
more important than any ritualistic practice as it relates to a Kingdom mindset.