PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
Matthew 15 (click the link)
KEY PASSAGE:
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them… But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” (Matthew 15:10-11, 18-20, NIV)
REFLECTIONS:
I almost feel sorry for the poor Pharisees. No matter how hard they tried to question or accuse Jesus, he always turned the tables on them and demonstrated his absolute superiority of heart.
In the instance we read about today, the issue at stake
between Jesus and the Pharisees was not just that he and his followers were
doing things a new way instead of the traditional way. That's how the Pharisees
wanted to line things up, but Jesus' sharp response shows that it wasn't that
easy. They were accusing him of letting his disciples go soft on one of the
traditional purity codes: ritual handwashing before meals.
This may seem a trivial and unimportant thing to grumble
about, but this misses the point. Jesus was at the head of the movement that
the religious authorities saw as extremely dangerous. He was doing and saying new
things, and huge crowds of people were flocking to him. In those circumstances,
people would look for any little sign as to whether he was really "up to
snuff," whether he was really in line with "the way things ought to
be done," or was being disloyal to the teachings of Israel.
As he often did, Jesus doesn't answer the Pharisees'
accusation; instead, he launches a counter-attack. He says that the Pharisees'
traditions have had the effect of overturning something far more important than
tradition—the very commandment of God. The Pharisees of course tried to claim that
their traditions were the actual embodiment—or the practical outworking—of what
Scripture taught. But Jesus figuratively bodyslammed them by pointing out that
in at least one particular case the opposite was true.
In the Ten Commandments, the Israelites were commanded to
honor their parents (Exodus 20:12). The idea of showing honor to one's parents
entails a whole list of things, not least of which is looking after them in
their old age—when they encounter a whole host of physical and mental struggles.
But the Pharisees' traditions permitted someone to make a gift to the Temple of
an equivalent amount to what they might have spent on their parents. If they
did that, the Temple authorities declared them to be under no further
obligation to their parents. They could give their gifts to God instead of
their parents. This played right into the Pharisees' penchant for giving off
the appearance of piety. But it completely undermined the whole point of the
law.
From this one little example, Jesus launches his major
attack on the Pharisees—they are hypocrites. (This is a point Jesus will hammer
home with full force in chapter 23.) As you've probably heard by now, the word
"hypocrite" literally means someone who puts on a mask to play a part
(i.e., an actor). Jesus says that the Pharisees' mask is the words they use.
Behind their outward words of piety and holiness, they have no real
heart-intention of discovering God's intentions for their lives. The Pharisees
have made the mistake of elevating merely human rules to the status of divine
commands. And, in the process they have actually overthrown the very words of
God themselves.
……………
In many ways, we are just as susceptible to tradition and religiosity
as the Pharisees. We constantly need to ask ourselves if what we believe, what
we teach, and what we do really grows out of Scripture itself, or whether we are
simply going along with human traditions that need to be challenged.
Here's a list of scriptures that give an idea of Israel's
(and the church's) struggles with man-made tradition and religiosity:
Notice that God hates the whole religious,
going-through-the-motions deal. To guard against our natural susceptibility to
religion, we must dedicate ourselves to serious and authentic study of
Scripture. All believers—not just church leaders—need to regularly feast on
God's word. Unless we are constantly being refreshed and challenged by
Scripture, we will lose our ability to distinguish between healthy and
hypocritical traditions. And we won't be able to differentiate between
life-giving innovations and deadly ones.
……………
What's the point of keeping all the purity laws? Primarily
this: to be the sort of person God always had in mind. What sort of person did God
always have in mind? One that's pure, not just on the surface, but way down
deep in the very core of one's being.
There wasn't anything wrong with the purity laws themselves.
As many of our traditions, they probably began with the best of intentions. But,
over the years they had been raised to a level of importance that was clearly
out of sync with God's intention. Consequently, the Pharisees' main flaw became
that they focused on the outward laws and ignored the call to be pure in their
inner being.
Jesus' way of dealing with the Pharisees' challenge, was to
once again teach through a parable—a parable that surely was both puzzling and
shocking to his hearers.
"What goes into someone’s mouth does
not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles
them." (verse 11)
What on earth can he mean? Surely he can't be thinking of
vomit or spittle, can he? No. He is thinking of words. Jesus' point is that
words reveal what's going on in the inner workings of a person's heart—the deep
down center of one's being.
The actions which make someone unclean—unfit for God's holy
presence—are things like murder, adultery, sexual immorality, and the rest. These
sorts of ungodly actions can usually first be seen in the thoughts and words that
bubble up from the depths of a person's being. Whatever a person's outward
displays of purity may be, hateful and selfish thoughts and words demonstrate
that the innermost being of that person needs to be changed if they are to be
what God intends and wants.
……………
So, this discussion isn't simply about whether Jesus and his
followers were keeping the traditional purity laws. It surely started that way,
but Jesus changed the subject in order to address the real heart of the matter.
The discussion is now about what God really wants his people to be like. The
question now being addressed is: How can the human heart be made pure?
Anyone who doesn't see this as a problem—including anyone
who thinks that the answer can simply lie in following a list of
regulations—has not fully pondered the depth of wickedness that lurks inside
the heart of every man, woman, and child. Most of us are quite capable of a
good number of the things listed in verse 19, as well as a whole host of other
hateful and spiteful things. If that's what's in our hearts, we are impure in
God's eyes and need to be made clean—clean down in the depths of our being.
As the very next chapter will indicate, Jesus knew that his
public ministry and his very life were about to come to an end. So the point he
wanted to make crystal clear is that through his work God is offering a cure
for the deep-level impurity of the human soul.
The cure offered in the person of Jesus cuts across what
other teachers of his day were offering. They saw the purity laws as the right
place to start, and some of them were content to stop right there too.
Jesus saw these man-made laws as largely irrelevant to the
task he had come to undertake. His ministry—which began with a proclamation of
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near"—was about sowing
the seeds of the kingdom, planting plants that would grow and flourish
(13:1-23). But other people with competing agendas were planting plants that
would eventually be torn up (13:24-30; 15:13). People who were pushing the
purity laws as the primary solution to the problems of the human condition were
like one blind person trying to show another blind person the way to go (15:14).
Not only were both of them likely to get lost, both of them would probably end
up in a deep hole along the road.
The real challenge of this passage comes to all of us,
especially if we think we are sincere followers of Jesus. Are our hearts—our
thoughts and intentions—and the casual words we utter telling us that our own
purity is less than complete? If so, what are we doing about it?
In this passage, Jesus does not yet offer the remedy for the
human condition. That will come a little later on in the story. Ultimately, he
himself is the remedy. Through his atoning death and resurrection, and the gift of his Spirit, he
deals with the wickedness and uncleanness that abides in the heart of every
man, woman, and child. But the remedy needs to be applied to the disease—deep
down in the depths of our inner man—so that when we stand before God he will
see us, as he always intended, pure and spotless through and through.
PRAYER:
Thank you, Jesus, for coming to heal our marred, broken
hearts. Thank you, Father, for pouring your love into our hearts through the
Holy Spirit. Thank you, Spirit, for your ability to transform and purify our
hearts through your powerful workings. Triune God, take my heart and make it a
fit dwelling place. Protect me from my natural, fleshly inclinations to fall
back on traditions and man-made rules. I renounce these things in the name of
Christ and cry out for your relational grace to lead me into a deeper, more
naturally personal relationship with you.
WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom and I'm ready to go to bed.
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