Love Wins Because God Prevails

A reflection on Mark 7:1-8

“You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

We have to address the way this verse has been abused in the past seventy or so years. It’s been abused to cause abuse. It’s been weaponized to hurt the very people it’s meant to protect. Much of God’s word has, but the hate and evil that the church has justified and perpetuated with this verse is especially egregious and particularly deceitful. That spiritual abuse, abuse born of the deliberate manipulation and misinterpretation of scripture, has harmed innumerable people in irreparable ways. That spiritual abuse has diminished the personhood of both abused and abuser and driven them away from their creator, an all loving God, who was portrayed as a monster for political and social gain.

Too often American Evangelicals have pointed to verses like this in support of their “culture wars,” to denounce any acceptance of marginalized peoples as “novel,” “new,” an addition to the gospel. They teach that “the commandment of God” is that set of Pharisaical restrictions that Jesus directly challenges, and they oppose any social or political change as a triumph of supposed “human tradition” over the commandment of God. To accept this teaching though one first has to dismiss the spirit of the law given to the Israelites. The law brings life, literally, by offering practical advice on food safety, health, and sanitation. And the law brings life to communities and individuals by offering protection to the most vulnerable among us. The law commands the care of the orphan, the widow, the sick, the immigrant, the poor, and the oppressed. God’s law is love. God’s law is love, and where the law is applied to hurt, to abuse, rather than uplift and protect, Jesus meets those Pharisaical challenges by reminding them who God is and what God demands. God is love, and love trumps any human understanding of God’s law. Love wins. Love wins because God prevails.