Matthew 15: (10-20) 21-28
As we pick up this passage, we find that Jesus is once again addressing hypocrisy. The beginning of Chapter 15 places Jesus, his disciples, and the Pharisees engaged in a heated discussion about the tendency of the disciples to not wash their hands before eating. It is hard to tell the exact context for this, but it seems safe to assume that at least sometimes this is because Jesus and his disciples are given food by those they are serving and they graciously accept it. Not wanting to pass judgment on the gift or the giver, they respectfully eat what they are given. The Pharisees do not like this. We probably do not like this either. How often do we reach for our hand sanitizer and slather it all over ourselves before we accept food offered to us – if we accept it at all? Perhaps the context for this passage, then, is not all that different from our own.
It is important to note that Jesus does not initiate this conversation. He does not confront the Pharisees with their own hypocrisy – Jesus is not that sort of leader. In responding to their accusations, though, Jesus pulls no punches.
“You hypocrites,” Jesus says, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, But their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’” (15:7-9)
These are strong words of critique and judgement. Like any good teacher, though, Jesus’s words are aimed at instruction and guidance, rather than dismissal. In Jesus’s many encounters with the Pharisees, as critical as he may get, he never gives up on them. Jesus knows that as frustrating as the Pharisees are, they are at least trying to faithfully obey God. Typically, their actions at least begin with honorable motives.
In this instance, Jesus takes advantage of the situation to open up one of his most important correctives to the legalistic following of the Old Testament Law. In short, Jesus suggests to the Pharisees, as well as to the disciples, and I believe, to us as well, that what comes out of the mouth is more important than what goes in. He teaches on this in verses 10-20. This teaching comes to a head in v.17-20 when he pointedly declares,
Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defiles a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.
What comes out of the mouth is far more important, it is clear, than what goes in. Notice, this is not to say that what goes in does not matter! Jesus never dismisses the need to heed the Law. He did not come to abolish the Law, remember, but to fulfill it. In fulfilling the Law, Jesus explained it and lived it out in such a way that made fulfilling it possible. As many have said, Jesus tended to emphasize and live out the “heart of the law” rather than the “letter of the law.” He deeply cared about the Law, which is why he never gave up on the Pharisees – blind guides though they were! (15:14) He knew that they knew that God had called Israel to obedience and that God had called them out of the nations to be holy. What they just could not seem to grasp, though, was the purpose for this special status as called-out and holy people. That purpose was to be for the nations they were called out of, not against them. They were called out not in negative judgement against the nations, but to become a beacon of light and hope for them. The purpose for the rules was not to become rule followers but to become people so transformed by God and God’s ways that they embodied the rules in a way that brought life and hope and love to those around them and not judgement and despair. In Jesus’s interactions with the Pharisees you can almost hear the Master say to them, “you are doing the right things, but you do not have any idea why you are doing them!” The reason to check what was coming into the mouth was to be safe, clean, and holy SO THAT they could be loving and life-giving in their speech and actions towards others. God wanted Israel’s obedience so that God could entrust them with the even greater part of God’s plan: to woo and redeem the rest of the Creation.
All of this takes us to the final part of the passage at hand. In verses 21-28 Jesus and the disciples encounter a poor, starving, demon-possessed Canaanite woman. She pleads with the disciples and with Jesus for deliverance. The disciples, who as usual do not seem to really be taking in all of what Jesus has been teaching them, beg Jesus to send her away. Jesus’s response seems almost sarcastic in its truthfulness and yet misdirection. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel,” he says. To the best of my knowledge the word “only” here, renders this as not being a quotation from Old Testament prophecy. Jesus has said many times that he has been sent to the lost sheep of Israel, but never has he added “only.” Jesus has likely spoken the thing that is in the disciples minds, the things that they talk about when he is absent. He even adds, “it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” (It was common for Israelites to refer to Gentiles as dogs.) He speaks this out loud here, almost as a test. The disciples do not rebuke him. Instead, the woman from Canaan humbly responds. She doesn’t rebuke him, but simply begs for crumbs from his table. She recognizes who he is, the power he has, and she believes. Even a crumb from the table of the Master will heal her. Jesus praises her and she is immediately healed.
Are not the disciples guilty of the same mistakes as the Pharisees? Perhaps they are even more culpable in that they are with Jesus all the time. They witness Jesus critique the Pharisees, smile, feel good about themselves, and then go on in the same mistaken ideologies as the Pharisees. I wonder if we might be guilty of the same?
Jesus came to seek and save all lost sheep – Israelite or Gentile Jesus came to seek and save all lost sheep – female and male. Jesus came to seek and save all lost sheep – black and white. Jesus came to seek and save all lost sheep – Republican and Democrat. Jesus came to seek and save all lost sheep. Jesus came to seek and save all.
Jesus does not discount the need to regulate what you take into your mouth. Never does he suggest that we should eat, drink, and be merry in an epicurean fashion. Likewise, I do not think that Jesus would suggest that you not take precautions against the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Hand sanitizer is a good thing. Face masks are good things. Trusted Ca workers compensation lawyers are available at http://www.workerscompensationlawyersla.com. However, Jesus always put people above rules and faith above fear. Is there a way that we can properly clean our hands without making a show of it? Should we eat a meal prepared for us by those we are trying to serve? Is it possible to wear a facemask without shaming everyone else? Surely the answer to all of these questions is “yes.”
The world we live in is very different from the one Jesus lived and died in. And yet, perhaps the underlying issues of our world are pretty similar to those issues that Jesus faced. Let us take caution with what we put into our mouths, and with personal hygiene. Let us be doubly cautious, though, with what we let come out of our mouths and with the way that we treat others. In this passage Jesus makes it clear that, without discounting the former (and this is important), the latter is far more important.