“Cutting to the chase”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, November 13, 2023
Matthew 15:1-20 (Forward, p. 15) CEV p. 1002
Jesus has a wonderful—and disturbing—way of eliminating the non-essentials and ‘cutting to the chase’, getting to the root of the matter. Some Pharisees and teachers of the Law come to Jesus with a thinly disguised complaint about His disciples, namely over their non-compliance with certain of the Jewish customs or regulations. It is to do with the dictating how they are to practice hand-washing, especially after any contact with ‘foreigners’ or indeed any exposure to the marketplace or any public place. The prescribed procedures were very elaborate, such that even the hand-washing practiced by surgeons prior to operations pales in comparison. All of this had to do with what might be described as ‘ritual uncleanness’, which, at its root, was an attempt to be acceptable to God. And, it wasn’t just about cleanliness per se, but also about the food they ate and a myriad of other things—like what occupations were acceptable and what were not. But, of course, today’s criticism on the part of the Pharisee and their crew was not just of the disciples but of Jesus Himself, for they considered Him to be very lax.
Jesus, however, cuts to the chase and tells the crowd that is listening in what really renders a person unclean, what really makes a person unfit to worship God. He says that it is their words, what comes out of their mouths. It is our words that truly pollute us! And, don’t we know this all too well today: words shared in the social media, or in public forums or speeches, can do widespread and terrible damage, not only to the person him or herself but to the wider public as well.
And where does this come from? It is from the heart, from our innermost beings, from the root of who we are. As Jesus puts it, “Out of your heart come evil thoughts, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, vulgar deeds, stealing, telling lies, and insulting others. These are what make you unclean” (verses19-20a). And, so it is to the heart, our inner beings, our inner intentions and needs and aspirations, that we must pay our most attention, for from it come all else. Nothing else really matters. So, here Jesus ‘cuts to the chase’ of what really matters. It would be good for us to do the same.
Forward notes: “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they ate.’ He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?’” (verses 2-3).
“This debate between Jesus and the legalists has always given me—a former healthcare worker and the son of a microbiologist—the heebie-jeebies. Of course, you should wash your hands before you eat! You may have seen those disgusting pictures of someone’s fifth-grade science project in which slices of bread, last handled by washed and unwashed hands, were photographed in stages of ever-increasing nastiness. Washing your hands just makes sense: once you learn that most stomach bugs are transmitted by what physicians call the ‘fecal-oral route,’ you will not need reminding.
“I think Jesus is calling attention here to human traditions that, as practical as they are, simply do not have the moral force of God’s commandments. Eating with unwashed hands may be gross, but neglecting the needy is wicked.”
Moving Forward: “What traditions do you practice that may be at odds with God’s commandments?”
A concluding note or two: From my reading of commentaries, it would seem that the criticism of Jesus’ disciples over the matter of hand-washing is not over them not washing their hands, but not washing them in the prescribed way, which was unduly elaborate and time-consuming, and not something that could be easily performed, especially in a casual or public setting. And so, yes, these ‘man-made’, human ‘inventions’, should not be seen as having the same validity or force as God’s laws. But then God’s laws, God’s commandments, as outlined by Jesus’ in this passage, do not have to do with looking after the needy—though this may stem from this—but with attending to the condition of our souls, attending to the things that really motivate us deep down inside, which may, of course, may tide over into how we treat others. But it all starts, Jesus says, with who we are deep inside.