When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
—For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. —
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.
“From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
The pharisees here are calling out the disciples for not following the tradition of cleaning before eating. But Jesus knew well God’s law, and that this particular rule was a creation of man and not of God. The laws of cleanliness in the book of Leviticus were given to the jews by God to help them to avoid disease and contagion. But they were never meant to subjugate and enslave His people by the law. So how did we get to the point where these church leaders were more concerned with their own laws over God’s?
It started with a sincere desire to not ever transgress God’s Law. The church leaders created rules that would prevent themselves and by proxy, everyone else, from ever getting close to breaking the law…, essentially building fences around the law. But then they became overly legalistic about their own rules, and ended up building even more fences around their fences. For example: In God’s law, if a jew had come into contact with a dead body or blood, or other things that are full of disease, then you were unclean and cannot eat or be around other people until you are clean of potential disease. But in order to protect against offending God in any way, the pharisees extented this “uncleanliness” moniker to every aspect of jewish life…, be it temple access, or participation in daily communal life, or even entering your own home.
The pharisees and scribes were the keepers of the law, and the job that they gave themsleves was to keep track of all the laws and “help” the Jews navigate the legal structure of the vast morass of laws that they themselves had created. But these rules got so numerous that they became burdensome, and the obsession with following their own “man-made” law became more important to them that it ultimately distorted the actual reason for why the law was given in the first place.
While the pharisees probably understood God’s law and the actual logical reason for all the rules, the average jew probably did not. So the pharisees began to think of themselves as parents watching over their children, and believed that their job was ultimately to protect these simple jews from themselves, instead of actually teaching the jewish people God’s actual law and why it is so important to follow. The people, on the other hand only knew the pharisees had many rules, and that if they wanted to practice their faith and gain access to the temple, and basically do anything in their jewish community, that they had to do what the pharisees said. This lead to distrust, and indignation of all parties involved.
And so Jesus is calling them out for not actually doing their jobs…, for not actually teaching the law to the people, and the reason for it, but instead using their knowledge of all of the laws to aggrandize themselves with status, power and wealth. In todays reading we find that Jesus (the actual law incarnate) has taught His disciples the true meaning of the law, and as such these men understood what it is that God truly wants from us and they were following those laws, and not the rules of the rules of the fallen and corrupt men. If that too is your goal in life, then all of the other things will logically follow. St. Augustine once said “Love God and do as you will” and I think that is also what Jesus is saying here as well.
Lastly, Jesus ends this passage by saying:
“Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”
As we discussed above, The jewish leaders had a crazy amount of laws regarding cleanliness, and all of them were related to defilement of the body. Specifically by coming into contact with things from the outside of the body. If you came in contact with things carrying disease, you suddenly became unclean. This type of uncleanliness had nothing to do with the state of your soul. Jesus is trying to help theses pharisees and scribes to understand that this was not what God intended with His law. What Jesus wants us to understand, is that to be truly unclean (in your relationship with God) that your defilement is on the inside. If you think disgusting things, if you pursue evil ends, if you say terrible things, then that is what makes you truly unclean, despite how many times a day you wash your hands.
The only way to wash away these internal defilements is to seek Gods forgiveness, and thus be changed from the inside out. This is what Jesus is teaching us, and this is why, whenever He encountered a person in need of healing, He always started by saying that their sins are forgiven. He always tended to the state of their soul, and to disposition of their heart first, and only after they were healed and cleaned on the inside did He then help them with their physical ailments.
It is still the same today, the illnesses of 2000 years ago have been all but irradicated by modern medicine, and basic sanitation, but the people of today are no less sick they we were 2000 years ago, and I would argue maybe even worse. The answer then is the same as today, we must go to God, confess our sins, and ask for forgiveness. In God’s incredible mercy and forgiveness, we are then made clean. Then and only then, can we partake of the eucharist, and its life-giving sustenance and become one with Him, mind, body and spirit. God wants to heal your heart and then your body comes next. Go to Him and find His healing love.
