Matthew 15:10-20
The news recently has had a lot of
stories about anti-Jewish riots and attacks across Europe, and sometimes there
are similar hate-crimes committed in this country as well. We should own up to and confess that for
centuries the Church kept silent when this happened or, even worse, spurred the
hatred on. We cannot let that happen
anymore. It is no different than what
goes on when our own Christian sisters and brothers in Syria and Iraq and
Nigeria are attacked by people calling themselves Muslims (who also attack
their own sisters and brothers) and they, in justifiable fear, remain
silent. We have no excuse. What comes out of our mouths may be hate, or
may be love, and that is a sign of what lies deep in our hearts.
It’s always important that we
remember that Jesus was not, in our terms, a Christian. He did not celebrate Christmas (and the Bible
never says his birthday was in December); he was not baptized in the name of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (although all three were there when John the
Baptist did baptize him in the Jordan River); and though I expect he celebrated
his resurrection more than anyone else ever has, it probably came with as much
sense of relief as anything – as much a physical reaction as a spiritual one,
for him. Jesus was, as the Bible clearly
tells us, a good, God-fearing Jew. He
was welcomed into the world with the proper sacrifices in the Temple, where his
family returned on a regular basis as they could. He went to synagogue on the Sabbath, our
Saturday. He observed the Passover, and
transformed it into the meal that we share at the Lord’s Table.
He knew the Law of Moses. He respected the Law of Moses. That is why it strikes such an odd chord when
he says,
“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.” [Matthew 15:10-11]
After all, isn’t so much of the Hebrew Bible
about what you should or should not eat?
Kosher laws are more than just not eating pork. To this day an observant Jew who reads Deuteronomy
14:21, “You shall not boil a kid in its
mother’s milk”, knows that means that veal parmesan and cheeseburgers are
also out of line. Likewise, based on
other passages, you can forget about the clams casino and the shrimp cocktail. Jesus knew all of that. He also knew not to work on the Sabbath, not
to mix different fibers in his clothing, and to avoid touching or getting too
close to lepers. Jesus, however, cared
far more about the purpose of the Law than for the details.
Have
you ever had a broken arm and had to wear a cast? You know it’s for your own good but it’s also
burdensome. Every moment of the day you
have to think about this big, clunky thing at your side. You wake up at night with an unaccustomed
weight pulling your shoulder to the side.
It makes you very much aware of the very existence of your appendages in
a way that you aren’t most of the time.
The
Law can be a bit like that. It provided
for a lot of good. Pork, after all, was
a great source of trichinosis when it isn’t properly cooked. Unrefrigerated shellfish are not a good thing
to eat anytime, but especially in hot climates.
Keeping the Sabbath is important for physical as well as spiritual
well-being. Above all, though, the many
requirements of the Law served as a reminder of God’s involvement in every
aspect of human life.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is
our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your might. Keep
these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk
about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and
when you rise. Bind them as a sign on
your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of
your house and on your gates.” [Deuteronomy 6:4-9]
As
Stanley Hauerwas, who writes about Christian ethics, has been known to say, “A
God who cares what you do with your pots and pans obviously cares what you do
about the big stuff.”
Jesus knew that. He knew it better than anyone. He knew how human beings can get caught up in
the small stuff so easily that we forget why it was ever put into place. He knew that we could – and do – observe the
smaller points to such a degree that we miss the big picture. It isn’t what goes into us, but what comes
out of our hearts, that matters.
“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 15:19-20]
It
is good to keep the rules. It is not
good to break them. But keeping the
rules in and of itself is nothing, and can, in fact, be done is such a
heartless way that the greater good is denied.
Once I heard about a teenage girl
who was very active in her church, a major leader in the youth fellowship, and
someone that a lot of the younger kids looked up to. When she was a senior in high school she
became pregnant. One of the older church
members, a man who was also very well-respected and honorable, who had a highly
developed sense of right and wrong, felt like he should reach out to her
somehow. Very awkwardly, right after her
situation became public, he went up to her at the end of choir practice and put
his arm around her shoulder and said, “This means you and the young man will be
getting married soon, won’t you?” She
leaned her head up against his shoulder and said, very calmly, “I made one
mistake. I’m not about to make a bigger
one.” The old man wrapped his other arm
around her, and they both began laughing and crying at the same time.
It was Jesus’ own brother, James,
who wrote to the church, reminding us,
“From the same mouth come blessing and
cursing. My brothers and sisters, this
ought not to be so. Does a spring
pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and
sisters, yield olives, or a
grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.” [James
3:10-12]
Listen,
some time, to what you say when you speak without thinking. Ask yourself what kind of thoughts or
attitudes are going out into the world through you. This is what matters. For just as surely as harm can come about, so
can good. The old advice about counting
to ten before saying anything when you are angry is good advice. You can update it to waiting an hour before
you hit the “send” button or post your comment or tweet your thoughts. Don’t ignore the “delete” button.
And if there is anything good that
you can say from your heart, even if you put it awkwardly, don’t be afraid to
say it. Sincerity is the highest form of
eloquence. Besides, even if you speak in
human and angelic tongues and don’t have love, you’d only be a noisy gong or
clanging cymbal. But if you do have
love, there will be grace in even poorly-chosen words, if they come from the
heart.
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