GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 7:2
Seeing
Seeing
I went to a fruit stand to select a cantaloupe. I saw one that looked just right and picked it up. Standing beside me, Alice took the cantaloupe, smelled it, and put it back on the rack. “Why?” I wanted to know. Alice, in her spousal tone, told me that it’s possible to tell if a cantaloupe is ripe by smelling it at the stem end. If there’s no smell, the cantaloupe is probably not ripe, but if the cantaloupe smells too strongly sweet, it may be overripe or spoiled on the inside. Looks alone are not enough.
In a classroom, I always like to sit as close to the front as possible to avoid distractions. It’s usually possible to hear more clearly and see the teacher’s expressions. So, I was sitting in the front row of one class when the professor, whom I had never seen before, came in. I questioned my choice of seating. He was short and rotund; his pants were short, and he wore no socks. Those were the first things I saw. As the semester progressed, however, the professor took complex issues, broke them down for analysis, and led the class on intellectual journeys. By the end of the semester, all I saw was a kind, knowledgeable, brilliant master teacher. I enrolled in some of his other classes, developed a personal relationship, and he later served on my dissertation committee. That incident reminds me of the hazard of trusting first sight.
As Jesus taught and ministered in the region of Gennesaret, Pharisees and “some of the teachers of the law” (scribes) made the long journey of nearly one hundred miles from Jerusalem to where Jesus was—it was likely an official delegation. “And when they saw some of his disciples that were eating loaves with common hands, that is, unwashed…” (Mark 7:2) Wait! People were being taught; many were being healed; it is likely that the atmosphere of the region was changing; and all the Jerusalem delegation saw was that the busy disciples didn’t take time to ceremonially wash their hands. This makes one want to shout, “Look, guys—really look.”
Mark’s word for common (κοινός, koinos) in this instance refers to something stripped of specialness, so it is ordinary, common, stripped of its sacredness, ceremonially profane. This does not mean that the disciples’ hands were unhygienic.
A good prayer is that the Father will give spiritual sight—sight beyond the superficial—to behold His work.
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