Slices
Prepare
Take some time to pray this prayer: ‘Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me’ (Psalm 51:10).
Bible passage
That which defiles
7 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the market-place they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, ‘Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?’
6 He replied, ‘Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
‘“These people honour me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.”
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.’
9 And he continued, ‘You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, “Honour your father and mother,” and, “Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.” 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God) – 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.’
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.’
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 ‘Are you so dull?’ he asked. ‘Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.’ (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 He went on: ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.’
Explore
Most parents teach their children to wash their hands before eating. This is because science tells us that certain bacteria we come into contact with can be dangerous if consumed. For the Pharisees, the washing of hands before meals was for a different reason. They wanted to live as people set apart for God, to be ‘clean’ in a ceremonial, not hygienic, way. They even adopted some rituals prescribed for priests in the Temple (see Exodus 30:19–21).
As their world was increasingly threatened by an alien (Hellenistic) culture, it was important to live out their distinctiveness in everyday life. So why would Jesus allow his disciples to adopt lower standards?
Jesus makes it clear that ‘cleanliness’ is a matter of the heart (v 21). The actions he cites (vs 21,22) can be avoided, but the attitudes he lists easily contaminate. It’s relatively easy to keep yourself clean of adultery and murder, but greed, malice, deceit and arrogance tend to get under the fingernails.
So what does it mean for us to be ‘distinctive’ as Christians today? Do we focus on the right things? Are we different from society in ways that are attractive and point to God, or are we open to the accusation of being prudish, petty and irrelevant?
Respond
Have you noticed anything ‘coming out of you’ (words, reactions) that suggest that there are things inside that need cleaning?
Deeper Bible study
‘Not the labours of my hands / can fulfil thy law’s demands; / could my zeal no respite know, could my tears for ever flow, / all for sin could not atone’.1
The origin of sin in a universe created by a good and holy God is an enigma. We can only know, from Scripture’s great poem of creation, that the first human beings, created in the image of God, had the power to choose their own way over God’s way. Theorising about evil in the world intrigues people like me but we only see dimly, until, one day in God’s eternity, we will know as we are known.2 In the meantime, however, we face the inescapable reality of evil in the world. Everyone reading these words knows what sin is! We know, too, from our lived experience, that sin comes to us in two ways. It comes, all unbidden, from outside us, as it did to Eve and to Jesus, and it comes from inside us, polluting us from within. ‘The Devil made me do it’ is usually the lamest – and most dishonest – of excuses! Here, the Pharisees’ fixation with ritual cleanliness impels Jesus into a vehement denunciation of their obsessive insistence on minor artificial rules of behaviour. These are rules which humans had invented, while deceitfully twisting the letter of the real Law to their own financial advantage. We are well aware of such practices today, tax avoidance and other financial malpractices based on smart but devious interpretations of the law.
Jesus certainly chose a striking and memorable metaphor. We all understand the difference between an overlooked particle in our saucepan and the uncleanliness of bodily waste. Later, Jesus explains his parable to his disciples. Jesus is not being medical or scientific. He was not against cleanliness, and we would be wrong to push this parable, or any other parable, too far. He was simply using human excreta as a metaphor for evil. Both physical filth and spiritual filth originate within us.
Cleanse our hearts and minds, Lord, of all that is false or unclean, all that is unworthy, so that our lives reflect only you. Make us more like you.
1 Augustus Toplady, 1740–78, ‘Rock of Ages’ 2 1 Cor 13:12
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Ezekiel 1; John 21
Pray for Scripture Union
Join Mission Events Coordinator Susannah Quinn in thanking God for the summer programme and all the children and young people who heard the good news of Jesus. Please pray that the seeds sown would continue to grow in them and for continued connections to church or Christian influence in their lives.
