Mens sana in corpore thingummy-do-dah
Mark 7:1-23 and Titus 3:3-7
The Romans had a saying, Mens sana in corpore… thingummy-do-dah. I can’t quite remember the Latin but it translates as A healthy mind in a healthy body. It has become a mantra for our culture as we strive to purify our bodies of the poisons of modern living.
Go into any bookshop around Christmas time and the shelves are groaning under the weight of detox diet books. Detox – short for detoxification – is an essential part of modern living.
Anyone ever tried a detox diet? What was it? Did it work?
Detox diets demand that we eat only the purest things – raw vegetables, fruit and yoghurt are in: meat, alchohol and coffee are out. They seem to make people feel better… so much better that they can throw themselves into another eleven months of binging on toxins with no guilt whatsoever.
Of course, channel jumped on the bandwagon with its inevitable Extreme Celebrity Detox programme. In this, 15 people no-one had ever heard of submitted to a range of detoxifying therapies from drinking urine to something called genital weightlifting. The results were stunning if Dominic Diamond is to be believed, “I’ve never achieved anything like it”, he gushed, “Apart from producing two kids”. If the practice of genital weightlifting can enable a male TV presenter to give birth then this is a therapy with a future.
Failure to detox
This was a hot issue in Jesus’ day and it comes to the fore in a confrontation with religious leaders in Mark 7:1-23.
The religion Jesus grew up with was really into detox. There were strict rules about what you could eat and what you could not. Lamb, beef and venison were in: camel, hare and rock badger were out. The full English breakfast definitely out. On top of this, there were elaborate ceremonies involving washing before meals – not to keep your hands clean (sensible) but to keep your heart clean (not sensible – see below).
Jesus was always getting into trouble with the thought police. They had one simple criticism; Jesus’ failure to detox (1-5)
In reply, Jesus whacks them over the head with a quotation from the Old Testament (6)
Whatever kind of detox you go in for, it could be your diet, it could be religious ceremonies. It is just play-acting (the literal meaning of Jesus’ word hypocrite) you are pretending to be pure whilst remaining as inwardly filthy as you always were.
There was once a knight who had spent most of his life fighting the king’s battles. Now in middle age he was angry and disillusioned. He embarked on a search for a famous monk who could explain the way to heaven to him. When he found the monk he posed his question, “Can you explain heaven and hell to me?” he asked. The monk just sneered at him, “You are nothing but a lout! I can’t waste my time with the likes of you!” And he turned his back in a calculated insult to the warrior.
The knight flew into a rage, and immediately drew his sword. Sweeping it above his head he moved forward to slice the monk in half. Just as he was about to release his anger into the blow the monk turned to face him. “That”, he said quietly; “Is hell”.
The knight was stunned, in a moment he had been made to realise that he was being swept away by the toxic feelings inside him; he was out of control and miserable. Amazed, he sheathed his sword and bowed deeply to the monk, “Thank you, thank you!” he said.
“And that”, said the monk, “Is heaven!”
I don’t know about you, but I want a clean heart. If you car breaks down you don’t give it a thorough wash, you have to rip the engine out. Jesus goes on to rip the engine out of our mind-set. We need to listen to him.
The elephant in the room
Listen to Jesus as he goes on to diagnose the problem of the human heart (6-15).
I wonder if you are familiar with the phrase, the elephant in the room? It has become a popular way of referring to something obvious that everyone is ignoring. For example, when George Bush and Tony Blair give a press conference, but won’t answer questions on Iraq, the issue is described as the elephant in the room.
Whenever people talk about their problems, or we agonise about youth crime or world poverty, there is an elephant in the room. Something everyone knows, but no-one will talk about openly. It is the same here, look how Jesus describes it:
- You hypocrites!
- Your hearts are far from God.
- You ignore God’s law and substitute your own ideas.
- Your values are inverted.
- You are defiled by what you say and do.
The elephant in the room is human sin, our love of self, our pride, and our rejection of God, that seems to be hard wired into our souls. That’s the problem and no amount of scrubbing will get rid of it.
This is so obviously true that even aggressive atheists and agnostics acknowledge it. Bertrand Russell was a famous philosopher and mathematician in the early part of the last century. He played the kind of role then that Richard Dawkins does today. He once wrote, “It is in our hearts that the evil lies and it is from our hearts that it must be plucked out”. He was dead right; he just didn’t know how to do it!
How do we do it… purify our hearts?
Detox for the soul
Well for starters Carol Vordeman’s detox diet will not do it for you. In fact it is certain that the only thing that will loose weight with most detox books is your wallet. You can’t fix a car by giving it a wash (17-19).
Incidentally, this is why Christians regard all foods as acceptable. If you are a vegetarian for ethical reasons (because you don’t like what they do to animals) I salute you. If you are a vegetarian because you are suspicious about what Bernard Matthews puts into your Turkey Twizzlers – I suspect you may be right – I man even join you one day. But being a vegetarian will not detox your soul (19)
It is our thought-life that defiles us (20-23)
There is a sense in which heaven or hell starts now and just continues into the afterlife. The toxic thoughts and behaviours we tolerate today will go with us into eternity. Today we practise what we will do for eternity; theft… deceit… envy… slander.
We need saving from this, don’t we?
Titus 3:3-7
Paul is writing to a Christian friend. (3)“We used to carry our own private hell around with us”, he writes, “As though we were rehearsing for an eternity of hell. But now everything is different, because of what Christ has done”
The elephant in the room won’t go away, it is a spiritual problem requiring a spiritual solution, the death of Jesus the Son of God on the cross for me. It’s a spiritual solution that goes right to the heart:
First because it washes away the past – you are clean and forgiven (4-5).
Second because as the Holy Spirit works in us the old toxic stuff is flushed out and replaced with clean stuff (6). This is important because:
Evil cannot simply be opposed it must be replaced by good, by the Holy Spirit. We must "overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21). For instance, it is difficult to overcome bitterness against someone by simply resolving to stop being bitter; one must replace bitterness by genuine forgiveness and love for that person.
Don Carson
Finally , it gives us a future (7-8). You are no longer practising for an eternity in hell – you are in a full dress rehearsal for heaven!