Matthew 15:10-11 - And he called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth."
Jesus is turning the Jewish Purity Laws regarding cleanliness on their head. Ritual purity is not enough is a good encapsulation of this passage. However, it also seems to imply that other forms of uncleanness - sickness, bleeding, being near death - are also not defiling to people. I'm not sure if one could look at it like that though. He is expressly talking about not washing hands before eating. How far does he take this idea? How far can we in the 21st Century take this idea?
Here I am reminded of the Good Samaritan. Jesus clearly advocates following that example and helping even though one will be ritually unpure. In fact, the actions of the priest and the levite are denigrated rather than being held up. So, there is some chance that uncleanness in other ways falls under this rubric.
I'll have to think about this in relation to disabilities. So only men who were perfect in body were allowed to be priests in Israel. I do not think they thought of those not perfect as unclean.
B
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