Nov 11 2019 Matthew 15: 1-20

What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.

Jesus is refuting the Pharisee’s charge that to eat with unclean hands defiles a person. It’s not what goes in the mouth, but what comes out that defiles.

This is another example where the Pharisees are used to illustrate dogmatic religious practices. Unfortunately, anyone participating in an organized religion – particularly clergy – fall prey to the same thing. We go to church, we sit, we stand, we kneel, we say certain prayers, we raise our hands, we cross ourselves. All of these actions have deep meaning, and if done intentionally, their actions carry those deep meaning.

Our bodies moving in particular ways signal our brains for that underlying truth – we kneel when we are acknowledging are praise or honor or penitence. . When I’m about to read the Gospel, I make the sign of the cross on my forehead, lips and heart – to signify that I want to believe in my head, profess with my words, and feel in my heart – everything I’m about to say. Muscle memory makes me start doing that action before I read, and then once I start, I genuinely think about my head, lips and heart.

But there are plenty if instances where I go through motions without understanding or embodying them. In those instances, I’m no better than the Pharisees. In most of Jesus’ stories about the Pharisees, it’s not so much that they’re bad, but they’ve lost the underlying meaning of the things they do. They care more about going through the motions because they’re supposed to, and less about why. As a liturgical Christian, I always take heed when Jesus challenges the Pharisees; that seems to me to be a risk of my tradition.

Specifically, in today’s reading, Jesus is saying that it’s not what goes in the mouth, but rather what comes out. The Pharisees care about eating with clean hands. At that time, it was imperative to do so; there were plenty of disease and filth, and not a lot of food safety. The Pharisees made that practical practice into a practice affirming their faith – similar to many of the ancient rituals and rules about keeping Kosher. I have an orthodox Rabbi friend, who has a very Kosher kitchen; it would be impossible to not think about God when you’re pulling out your two sets of pots and pans, and cooking in a certain way. In her kitchen, it was clear God was present in all she did. 

But Jesus is challenging them to think bigger than food safety. If you’re trying to keep your body pure with rules about what goes in to it, think about what comes out of it too. As illustration to his point, Jesus explains that what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, things like evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.

This is another example of that idea that what happens to us does not have to define who we are to other people. What comes in to my body, or what I hear, or what I experience will clearly affect and inform me. But it’s entirely my choice, whether I let that define how I relate to someone else. It does not need to inform what I say, or how I act. 

This morning, I’m thinking about those times when what comes in to my body – negative experiences and spoken words – seem to define who I am, because I feel captive to the generally surly view of the world which will frame every subsequent encounter. I want to figure out how to acknowledge what comes in, while still governing what comes out. I intend to always speak truth and love. Maybe with an acknowledgement that what comes out of the mouth is what defiles I can pause long enough to actually disconnect what comes in, from what comes out.