Since Jesus has removed himself from the harassment he we was getting in Jerusalem from the scribes and Pharisees, he is now teaching in Capernaum. The Jewish leaders have no intention of letting Jesus off the straight and narrow of Jewish law (so that they can convict him of some spurious crime). So if Jesus will avoid them in Jerusalem, they will go to Jesus and keep up the pressure on him.
Sure enough, they spot something which to them is very serious. They challenge him:
“’Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat’” (Mt 15:2; Mk 7:5)?
Jesus responds by observing that the leaders themselves break something more important that the tradition of the elders:
“’And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, “Honor your father and your mother,” and “Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.” But you say, “If anyone tells his father or his mother, ‘What you would have gained from me is given to God,’ he need not honor his father.” So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God’” (Mt 15:3-6; Mk 7:8-13).
In my experience, we still have this problem in some, but not all, local churches today, and it discourages perfect unity. The more there are regulations within a church that are in addition to the word and commandments of God and Jesus, the greater the chance of disunity unleashed by false judgment.
This is something to think about.
Jesus proceeds to expose the leaders’ hypocrisy by calling all the people whom he has been teaching:
“’Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him’” (Mk 7:14-15; Mt 15:10-11).
Uh-oh. The disciples do not understand him, either! But they are prudent enough to wait and ask him when they are alone inside the house. Jesus wonders, once again, whether his disciples can actually grasp what they will need to know very soon. But of course, they are hand-chosen by the Son of God, so patient teaching is very much part of God’s master plan.
The same is true in churches today – there are those in authority who create disunity by dismissing honest disciples because they cannot quote the Bible word for word. Yet just a bit of patience and a kind demeanor can change that person’s life when the lights come on in love:
“’…whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?’” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “’What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person’” (Mk 7:18-23; Mt 15:15-20).
Matthew adds that to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.
But lest this blog be accused of damaging the stock prices of all the companies who make hand sanitizer in our germophobic culture, we note that Jesus is not talking about germs.
Ritual defilement as defined by the Jewish leaders means damnation, and is severely punishable by the leaders. For this purpose, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah:
“’”This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”’” (Isaiah 29:13).
If we desire to bring all Christian churches together in perfect unity with Jesus, we would do well to launch a sincere effort to find the policies of the denominations in disunity that have usurped the commandments of the New Testament spoken by Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, and the Apostles!
Streamside hopes to lead that effort.