Matthew 15:10-20 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.” Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 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.”
The Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the Law were greatly honored in the Jewish society. They were deferred to when they were in a crowd. They were given the seats of honor at every celebration and gathering. They were not only religious in nature and teaching, they were also considered secularly powerful. They were the ones who came before Pilot with the accusations against Jesus, finally achieving their purpose by having Jesus crucified on a rugged cross. They won because they were able to humiliate Jesus, placing him with the charlatans and criminals of their world. They had gained the voice of the people, having them proclaim, “Crucify him! Crucify him! For Jesus to ignore the religious elite, to contradict them before his apostles or others, was dangerous, for He was not only confronting the religious power in the Jewish society, but also the secular power. When Jesus said, What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them, the crowd and the religious leaders knew He was contesting a part of their way of life. Of course, this tradition of the elders was part of the lifestyle of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. When they asked the question, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” they were trying to classify Jesus and his disciples as worldly frauds, people unworthy to instruct anyone about anything—spiritual or even secular as Jesus did with Caesar’s coin. Jesus challenges their assertions about him and his followers as not being upright by denouncing the leaders’ refusal to hold up the law of honoring father and mother. Jesus was claiming if anyone is not following God rightly, it would be the religious leaders, for they were allowing the violation of God’s law. But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. (Matthew 15:5-6) Jesus’ frontal attack on the religious elite was so strong that He called them blind, and He called anyone who was foolish enough to follow their leadership blind. Of course, the Pharisees and teachers of the law were offended, for their position of deference and favoritism by the people was being challenged. But Jesus tells the disciples that these leaders were so out of line with God that the Father0
. would pull them up by their roots. Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. These insidious leaders will fail to do away with God’s plan for humanity. He will deal with them, for they contain within themselves murderous thoughts and devious intentions for Jesus the Messiah. As Jesus said about them and about people in general, out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Nonetheless, the religious elite will finally achieve their end of murdering Jesus by having individuals give false testimony about Jesus, slandering him before Pilot and others.
God evaluates the heart, not our appearance. But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) People assess others by many things other than what comes from the heart. We determine who people are by their clothing, their material possessions, their cleanliness, their caste, their class, their attractiveness, their education, their religion, their ethnicity, their skin color, and so on. We associate mostly with people who look and act like us, who consider our lifestyle and values as sound, appropriate. We discriminate mostly on the basis of our surrounding cultural standards. This is just who we are! We are closeted and captivated by our societal mores and values. But out of every nation God calls people with a variety of ideas on how we should look or act—our societal norms. God is not concerned about the pretensions of people, their lifestyles, or even what they consider good or bad. God looks at the content of the heart, what is stewing in the heart. Eventually the mouth will expose the contents of the heart. Jesus says, The things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. The expounded words of a man will defile him or expose him by revealing his vile soul. The disciples were breaking a societal norm, an expectation of all good Jewish people: the washing of hands before eating. But Jesus said there are more important things in life than just following acceptable standards. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. (Matthew 23:23-24) The more important matters of the law were matters of the heart: justice, mercy and faithfulness. Those words touch us much more than hand washing. From the innermost part of our beings should come an environment of goodness, uprightness, and justice: the characteristics of God, his basic nature. The law portrays God’s holiness, his righteousness, his perfection. The law compels us to use our strength, our minds, our intentions to be as God in our lifestyles and in our choices. The law will not pass away, for God would have to disown himself, his likeness, his perfection. God cannot look upon unholiness without judgement; consequently, to be acceptable to God, his likeness, his nature of holiness has to be embedded in our lives. The law has to be fulfilled in our lives if we are to receive the gift of eternal life in his presence. Jesus castigates the religious elite because they think their outward efforts to please God, their following of the law and the customs of the Jewish society, will be enough to satisfy the God who examines the heart not the appearance or lifestyle of a human. God will judge the intentions of the heart, not just how people appear outwardly before men. His word of truth, how men really are, is sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12-13) We are naked before God’s consuming fire of judgement. Nothing put on, no pretensions, no customs, or religious fervor can hide us from God’s truth about us. We fall at his feet and cry for mercy. We must be covered in the blood of Jesus.
Of course, Jesus is the merciful one. He has explained the Father’s will for us, his salvation plan. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17) The law condemns us, for the very nature of the law is that we must commit our total energy and will to follow its incessant demands. The law runs contrary to the natural tendencies of people’s rebellious nature to authority. We do not want to follow the will of others, for we have but one life to live; therefore, we desire to live our lives as we wish. God’s will is not necessarily our will. Paul said that something is instilled in him to the point that he rebells against the authority of God in his life. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? (Romans 7:21-24) Of course, who will rescue him from his rebellious nature, who will fulfill the perfect law in him, who will adopt him into the family of a righteous God? Only Jesus the Christ who died for him can accomplish this. Perfection will come to Paul through the blood of Jesus Christ. Rebellion to authority is strong in human beings. We rebelled in the Garden and that hardness to God’s will is strong within us. We need a perfect plan to elevate us beyond our human nature. Jesus came from the heavens to us to fulfill that perfect plan. His will for our will, his life for our lives, his blood for our judgment. He fulfills the plan of God completely. He satisfies the wrath of God on sin. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law could not see this plan clearly. They thought their efforts to please God would be enough for a righteous, perfect God. But even if their intensions were perfect, even if they could fulfill the law completely as they saw it, their nature would still be human rather than godlike. Adam would rest deep inside of them. They needed a new life; they needed Christ and his righteousness to reside in them. This they could not see, for they were blind, sadly leading other blind people unable to see the works of God in Christ. We who sit around this breakfast table have seen a Great Light. Just as Jesus told the people the light had come to them when He quoted the prophet, Isaiah, The people living in darkness have seen a great light. (Matthew 4:16) We rest comfortably in the Light, for it is Christ the Light of the World.
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