48. Hypocritical Hearts (Mt 15:1-20)

“The humble resemble a rock. Even though the rock lies downward, it is nevertheless firm. The proud are like smoke. Even though the smoke is lofty, eventually it disappears.”

- St Augustine

Matthew 15:1-20

Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem then came to Jesus and said, ‘Why do your disciples break away from the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat food.’ ‘And why do you’ he answered ‘break away from the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said: Do your duty to your father and mother and: Anyone who curses father or mother must be put to death. But you say, If anyone says to his father or mother: Anything I have that I might have used to help you is dedicated to God, he is rid of his duty to father or mother. In this way you have made God’s word null and void by means of your tradition. Hypocrites! It was you Isaiah meant when he so rightly prophesied: This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me. The worship they offer me is worthless; the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.’ He called the people to him and said, ‘Listen, and understand. What goes into the mouth does not make a man unclean; it is what comes out of the mouth that makes him unclean.’

Then the disciples came to him and said, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were shocked when they heard what you said?’ He replied, ‘Any plant my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them alone. They are blind men leading blind men; and if one blind man leads another, both will fall into a pit.’ At this, Peter said to him, ‘Explain the parable for us’. Jesus replied, ‘Do even you not yet understand? Can you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes through the stomach and is discharged into the sewer? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and it is these that make a man unclean. For from the heart come evil intentions: murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, slander. These are the things that make a man unclean. But to eat with unwashed hands does not make a man unclean.’

Christ the Lord

Jesus shows once again that he is a merciful Lord. Instead of ignoring his Pharisaic interlocutors, he instructs them, hoping that maybe this time some light will penetrate their self-imposed, self-righteous blindness.

In the first place, he does for them what they can no longer do on their own: an examination of conscience. He points out that in their pursuit of legalistic and ritualistic exactitude, they have let selfishness run wild. Many religious leaders at the time had taken to dedicating their property and their wealth to the Temple, supposedly as sign of devotion. This gave them continued use of their possessions for the time being (until death, when it would revert to the Temple treasurers). It also meant that they had a good excuse not to use their wealth to support their aging parents – that would be an illicit profanation of sacred property. It was a convenient loophole that saved them a lot of trouble and inconvenience, while looking to all the world like a pious and commendable sacrifice. Jesus exposes their hypocrisy: they have preferred their own rabbinical practices (human tradition) to a clear precept of the Mosaic Law (divine revelation) purely out of self-interest.

Jesus always exposes our hypocrisy. We may ignore or dim or try to drown out the voice of conscience, but as long as we walk this earth, God continues to speak to our hearts in one way or another. It is the voice of the Lord, who knows us through and through, and longs for us to submit to his wise and redeeming lordship now, so we can enjoy eternal life in his Kingdom later.

Christ the Teacher

For the ancient Jews, there were two types of realities, the sacred and the profane. The Chosen People, because of the special privileges granted them by the one true God, had unique access to the sacred, that which belonged to God, the Holy One of Israel. They had his sacred Temple, a sacred priesthood, the sacred scriptures, and the Law, which governed both worship and behavior. At the same time, they lived in the midst of a fallen, profane world. As a result, they were constantly moving back and forth between the sacred and the profane. To help keep the proper attitudes amid this transit, the rabbinical schools had developed thousands of small traditions, related to but not stipulated by the divinely revealed Mosaic Law. Palestine’s religious leaders at the time of Jesus followed all of these traditions minutely, and were therefore called Pharisees, or “the perfect.” Among these traditions were many that had to do with ritual washings before eating. These were the ones the Pharisees accuse Jesus and his disciples of neglecting.

Jesus’ response elevates the argument. He points out, once again, that the Pharisees have inverted real religion. Religion is not about rituals, it’s about a relationship with God – friendship with and fidelity to the Lord and Creator lived out through obedience to his will. External, physical realities don’t determine whether someone is in communion with the sacred – rather, the attitude and decisions of the heart do. The Pharisees don’t love God; they love themselves and their pious prowess. Jesus invites them to take care of their souls by loving God and deciding to do what is right and pleasing to him, not by worrying over empty, man-made traditions.

Christ the Friend

Jesus seeks our hearts. What pains him about the Pharisees is that their hearts are far from him. The heart – the place where we decide if we will be self-indulgent or self-giving, where we decide to accept or reject Christ’s offer of friendship – the heart is the stage of the human drama. When Christ looks at us, he looks with love, but also with a smattering of anxiety: will we opt for him? Will we let his saving love guide us through life? It’s a decision he cares about more than any other, and it’s the only one that he can never make.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC

PS: To learn more about The Better Part – A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer, click HERE.