The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.
Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand:
it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”
But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”
Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding?
Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out 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 defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.” (Matthew 15: 10-20.)
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A priest visited another church during his vacation, and was impressed that at the very beginning of the service everyone turned around in their seats and greeted other worshippers seated nearby. He liked this. And thinking about it, he decided that his own church was a bit stuffy, and that he would introduce the practice there.
The first Sunday he was back, he told the congregation that the following Sunday they were going to initiate this custom.
At the close of the service, a man turned around to the lady behind him and said, Good Morning.” She looked at him with shock at his boldness, and said, “I beg your pardon! That friendliness business doesn’t start until next Sunday!”
Now next week she was going to be real friendly, as her priest requested, and no-one – except the unlucky fellow who had started too soon, would know the difference.
This woman from next week on, would greet someone sitting nearby with a lovely smile, and a cheery good morning, but in her heart of hearts wasn’t nearly so friendly as she would appear to be.
In fact in her heart she could be just poison.
Jesus in his discourse in today’s Gospel is making a point about the same stuff – what’s on the surface, as good as it may seem, isn’t nearly as important as what’s in the heart.
The example he chose to make this point was the food laws. And he held up to ridicule, Pharisees because of their devotion to the food laws.
In the statement he makes – “The food that you put into your mouth doesn’t make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean.” – this statement attacks the way then Pharisees parade their righteousness, and cancels all the food laws in the Old Testament.
Some of the laws could still be valid in terms of health and hygiene, and common-sense and medical wisdom, but they could never again be valid as part of religion.
No wonder the Scribes and Pharisees were shocked. He was undermining their whole theological rationale, the whole way in which they lived their lives.
They identified pleasing God with the observing of rules and regulations which had to do with cleanness and with uncleanness, with what a person ate and with how they washed their hands before they ate. Jesus tells them these rules have nothing to do with religion.
In fact he says, that Pharisees and the people who followed them were like the blind leading the blind and they could expect to fall into a ditch.
Their way – the way of the Pharisees – was too easy. It was much easier to refrain from eating certain foods, and to remember to wash their hands before meals, than it was to love the unlovable, and to help the needy at the cost of one’s own time and money and comfort.
For us, the lesson is that coming to church, and giving liberally, and attending Bible study, are all essential as a path toward religion. But they are not religion. Religion consists in personal relationships and in our attitude toward God and our neighbour.
Like you don’t want to confuse the externals with the internals.
There are lots of people who have faultless lives – externally – but whose hearts are filled with evil thoughts.
Jesus was telling his listeners that all the observances in the world cannot make up for a heart that is dominated by pride and bitterness.
We can all put up a good front, but there has to be substance behind it.
I am reminded of the story of two Texans who were trying to impress each other with the size of their ranches.
One asked the other, “What’s the name of your ranch?”
The other replied, “The Rockin R, ABC, Flying W, Circle C, Staple Four, Rolling M, Rainbow’s End, Silver Spur Ranch.”
The other guy was really impressed with this, and said, “Wow, that’s sure some name. How many head of cattle do you run?”
The rancher answered, “Well, not too many. Very few survive the branding.”
Putting up a good front is alright, but if there is nothing real behind it, then you might as well give up trying.
It is clear from what Jesus is saying that what matters most in our relationship with God is what is in our hearts.
What matters to God isn’t what we do so much as why we do it.
Thomas Aquinas explained it this way, “Man sees the deed, but God sees the intention.”
Here’s the scary thing. We can’t declare ourselves good because of the external things we do – obeying the rules – careful about regulations – making sure that we look right – look good to everyone – we can only call ourselves good when our heart is pure.
That’s the end of all pride, isn’t it?
That’s why God has to live in our hearts.
It means being vigilant about the attitudes of this world, and the demands of living in a consumer society, and the effects of less than wholesome media messages that are aimed at us daily.
It means knowing that there are influences in society that gradually and insidiously work to lessen our awareness of what is evil.
It means being aware of being under attack by the dark forces of this world.
You know, I don’t think we are alert to how much things around us gradually erode our sense of what is right and what is wrong.
I don’t think that most of us are aware of how our mind-sets may have changed. We don’t know how much we have absorbed of this world’s foolish ways. How much do we tolerate now compared with some years ago? And is that right?
The way to know this is to examine your heart, your beliefs, the way you are in the world, and ask, “ Is the way I am, OK with Jesus?”
“If I were to face Jesus right now, would I be comfortable with who I am?”
Is there room in my life for Jesus?
Because if I allow things in my heart, and in my life that I just can’t reconcile with following Jesus; – even if no-one else knows about them – then just maybe I have allowed those things to crowd God out.
It is infinitely easier to obey a few rules than to make drastic changes in the way my heart works.
It is easier to go through the motions, than to actually open myself fully to God’s will.
It is easier to look good than to be good.
That’s why each and every one of us can say only, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
It’s when we make that plea that false pride falls away, and our heart can be emptied of all that distracts us from knowing God.
It’s when we can begin to be humble, and genuine, and have room in our hearts only for God.
There is a time in the marriage service when rings are exchanged. First the husband, places the ring on his bride’s finger, and says these words, and then the wife places a ring on her husband’s finger and says the same words, “ With all that I am, and all that I have, I honour you in the name of God.”
That is a holy moment. It is when the couple give themselves wholeheartedly to each other.
With all that I am and all that I have. Those are beautiful words aren’t they?
That’s how we need to come to our Lord. With a heart and a life completely open to his will.
“Lord Jesus, with all that I am and all that I have, I come to you, a poor sinner, and accept your gracious love. Live in me and make me wholly yours,”
Amen.