A PRAYER TO START
A life of faith often requires us to ask, seek and knock; to let our belief that God is good and that he saves and heals be what compels us to strive after life in the way he shows us. The psalmist of Psalm 119 prays his faith before his Father and for you and I. Begin your time today praying this prayer adapted from a section of the psalm 3xs…
Father, let my prayers come before you, and give me an understanding of you and your way that allows me to live well! Father, let my pleas come before you; and deliver me from the sin of my own heart, the temptations around me and the evil one after me, just as you have promised. From my mouth will pour forth the praises of a heart fed by your word. My tongue will sing of your ways, for all your commandments are the best way and I know it! Father, let your hand be ready to help me, for you know I have chosen to live by faith in the way of your Son. I long for your salvation, and I follow you with joy. Let my soul live! Let my soul praise you! And, let your rules help me! Father, though I go astray like a lost sheep, my heart after something other than you; seek after me for I do not forget that that is what you do. Amen.
DIVING INTO THE DETAILS
We must not forget that Matthew is writing an “ecomium”. That is, Matthew writes his gospel in a very particular manner so that his readers will not miss his intent: to praise the honor of Jesus’ life and death. This gospel is no mere biographical account of the life of Jesus, simply telling stories so we can get to know the details of Jesus’ historical life; rather, the intent is to distinguish the person, the teaching, and the actions of Jesus as honorable above all other honorable things.
One particular component of an ecomium is the differentiating of honor through the challenging of opposing arguments. Throughout Matthew’s story the authority of Jesus has been a prominent theme: the authority of his teaching (7:28-29), his authority over disease, death, demons, the weather, broken bodies and broken relationships (chapters 8-9), and even his ability to impart authority to others (10:1). In chapter 15:1-20, Jesus is confronted by the religious authority, challenging the “loose” behavior of his disciples, and subsequently, the authority of Jesus to set a way of holy living. Take a moment to read 15:1-20.
Holy living, or “religious purity”, may not be common language for you and I today, but we nevertheless have written and unwritten expectations of behaviors, attitudes, and associations that make a person more or less acceptable in religious settings, and even as “church” people themselves. Whether the separating expectations be as vain as type of clothing worn into a church building or as degrading as avoiding “those people” or as cultural as abstaining from certain beverages or as burdensome as feigning always being happy; religious expression in every time and place in history (including ours) has determined manners of living meant to distinguish themselves from the world in which they existed. Can you think of a few you hold or have observed in your own story?
There is an assumption in most religious expectations that is the same made by the Pharisees and scribes accusatory questioning of Jesus in 15:1-2: that something outside of us, around us, or near us, makes us un-holy, unclean, un-relatable to God (and sometimes others). In turn, we assume that people are primarily defiled by what they do and who they associate with, and that our befoulment is contagious thus we must continuously do certain acts, maintain particular attitudes, and guard specific associations so as to remain set-apart. In other words, we are in a constant state of defilement, like living in a trash heap really, and thus not only should every precaution be taken to refrain from further polluting, every effort should be made to clean yourself up. And yet, the desire for holiness is not the issue. After all, we are to be holy has our Father is holy.
The “commandments” passed on to us in the traditions of our elders, whether from the Jews of Jesus’ day or generation or two of pious leaders before us, where, I would assume, established with a desire for holiness. Rules set up to ensure that we remain as “clean”, religiously and spiritually, as we can be; unpolluted by the avoidance of what is deemed as unholy or unhealthy. And yet, our tendency as humans is to take religion and twist it like thorns around one another (7:15-20). Entangling us more and more as every movement pricks at our souls, minds, and hearts.
Jesus recognized this tendency in the leadership of the Jewish faith community. He saw in them an old habit of honoring “God with their lips” while “their heart is far from” him. “Vain”, literally unproductive or fruitless, is such a life of perceived obedience when the commandments of men become the fundamental means by which we live and judge our own and other’s faithfulness. Such a life is one acted out in a fantasy world, a stage set in the theater of life in which God becomes subjected to our patterns of living rather than we to his—thus Jesus calls them “hypocrites”, actors! So Jesus rebukes, confronts directly, the issue behind their accusations. He goes after their hearts.
Again, the assumption by the religious leaders is that what they do externally and what they associate with throughout the day is what determines their level of holiness. Again, like their forefathers, they have missed the point of the commands of God. Jesus enlightens them and the disciples to how the world, God’s world, really works,
“Hear and understand [that same word from 13:51-52]: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
The world around us does not pollute us. What desecrates the sacred temple of our bodies and fellowship with one another and God is our own hearts. God is not concerned with the rituals of purity. He is concerned however with your affections and relations. Jesus points out the irony of the religious piety shaped by the traditions of even honorable men when those traditions call us to forsake the most fundamental relation God has given us…our families (v. 4-6). How can we be holy when we care not for those God has ordained for us to share life with? Do not our actions and attitudes betray our selfish heart? Revealing that we long to receive from God but not to live as God has created us to live?
That’s the point of the “offensive” saying of Jesus above, his rebuke of the blind leading the blind into a hole of a mess. The disciples, Peter in particular, don’t understand (there is that word again!), so Jesus makes it explicit what he means,
“Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
In other words,
“You don’t catch sin like a cold. Otherwise your religious pills would work. Nor do you ingest sin like you ingest your dinner. Otherwise it passes right through you to the toilet same as your food does. No, it’s not what you put in or rub up against that makes you unholy, it is what comes from within that really messes us up. It if from the heart that we ‘vomit up’ all the evil that causes relationships to tear apart physically, emotionally, spiritually. That’s what pollutes us.”
The good news is that Jesus has already demonstrated that he has the authority to forgive sin and heal our broken hearts (remember 9:1-8, and Week 9 | Learning), thus what we need is not traditions that do little for what we love and how we relate to one another and God, but ridiculous faith. Faith that knows that what we love, what we long for, and what we need, is found in Jesus. Faith that seeks him out regardless of the perceived worthiness of our affections and clings to him despite the opposition it encounters. Such a faith is what is truly honorable, truly holy, truly unique or set-apart. For when we seek, we find (7:7-8). And a faith that is demonstrated by the least likely to be considered holy in the verses that follow (15:21-28).
DEVELOPING DISCERNMENT
In chapter 15, Jesus continues to bring out what is both new and old of the treasure of the kingdom (13:52), demonstrating that what we honor in our religious life is not the traditions of human created religiosity (as helpful as they may have been intended), but a faith that desperately strives after what only God can give us through Jesus. To hunger and thirst after relating to God and others in this way will certainly leave us satisfied in our faith (5:6).
Don’t skip this part. Information is of little use in quickening a transformed life if we are undiscerning people. Take the time to thoughtfully answer these questions, and maybe use them as conversation starters in Gospel Community, at work or in your home. Doing so will pay dividends in the long run!
What “traditions” in your own history of religion have been elevated and honored as fundamental to being “faithful”?
In what ways have those traditions kept you, and perhaps your neighbors or friends, from your hearts being healed by Jesus?
Based on what we have heard Jesus teach and seen Jesus do in Matthew’s gospel story thus far, how would you describe a “holy life”?
In what ways does your description differ from religion as our culture understands it?
How could describing the differences help your co-worker recognize the good news of Jesus?
In what ways are you living the life you described? What might be keeping you from doing so, or more so?
A PRAYER TO CLOSE
Matthew concludes chapter 15 with more stories of Jesus giving voice to the mute, movement to crippled, wholeness to the broken, sight to blind, and compassion to all who sought after him. As you conclude your time today, seek after him believing he will do the same for you, praying...
Jesus, I come before you seeking your _______ (healing, rescue, presence, love, direction, etc.). I know that you have compassion upon me. Let me find in you what I need, and let my soul live! Amen.