Clean

Matthew 15:17 - "Do you not understand that every thing that goes into the mouth and into the stomach passes and is cast out into the sewer?"

Here Jesus is redefining cleanliness. The Jewish idea was ritual purity, meant to remind them that food was God's gift and they were to be pure while eating. Jesus flips this idea and states that food is not unclean. What is put into the mouth is not unclean. Tomorrow he will state that it is our attitudes - shot through with original sin - that are unclean. We may get sick from not washing our hands before we eat, but not washing our hands does not make us unclean.
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Understanding

Matthew 15:15-16 - But Peter answered and said to him, "Explain this parable to us." And he answered him, "Are you also still without understanding?"

It is the also thrown in there that is important to me. Jesus, in adding that word, that also, places Peter on the same level with the Pharisees. Here is a man who several chapters/verses ago walked on water by Jesus' command and yet, he too, cannot understand what Jesus has been saying.

I am not ragging on Peter, only pointing out how difficult it is for us to understand that which will radically change our lives. I went to a film about climate change recently and was struck by how putting the deniers - not the businesses but the individual people they pay - in context made them somewhat sympathetic. They are afraid of the word socialist because they are cold-war warriors who are still concerned with the bogeyman of communism. They have been told that socialism and communism are the same. Spoiler alert; they're not. They are still objectively wrong about climate change. They know this - however, they cannot countenance communism or anything close to it. Therefore anything that involves regulation is right out.

The problem is that, like the Pharisees in Jesus' time, they are abetting the duping of ordinary Americans and the (now) Republican desire to get rid of regulation on things they don't want regulated - they're fine regulating being gay or transgender and abortion. They lie to people who have very few means of researching the truth. And because they have cast into doubt the media - any news that actually gets reported is not believed. They have taken an issue that is 100% true and by casting doubt have created teams. It is the same with the Pharisees. Both groups are all about winning. They don't care about anything else, even human lives or hardship. They just want to win. It is just as dangerous an attitude now as it was then.

So today my prayer is for better understanding - not just of Jesus' parables but also of those who would use lies and distortions to get what they want. They are just as much loved by God as I am. I pray for ways to find the common ground.
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Blind leaders

Matthew 15:14  - "Let them go; they are blind leaders of the blind, and when a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a pit."

Let them go - think no more of them or their feelings on this matter. It seems the disciples are still set on making the Pharisees and scribes authorities. Jesus advises them against it. I feel the disciples here. All their lives they have looked up to the Pharisees as authorities. Giving that up isn't easy. It must be somewhat like finding out my parents did not know everything ... It shook my world as this must have shaken the disciples's world. Jesus is telling them that everything they thought they knew must be examined again. Who wants to do that much work? And it is work, necessary work for each of us to separate ourselves from parental authority in order to gain our own. IN the same way, we need to separate from religious authority (and rules) in order to struggle with what we believe. It is work and in the end it is worth it because that is the only way our faith can be authentic and grow.

Jesus says that much more succinctly of course - "they are blind." They have not done their work and are hanging on to the artificial tradition they inherited rather than struggling with God's word. Jesus then tells us the end of that endeavor - falling into a pit or a ditch. If they're lucky it will be a wake up call.

So letting them go, let us look at our own lives and ask, 'Where am I blind?" Now, we cannot answer this question on our own, of course. If we knew where we were blind, we wouldn't be blind. So, how do we find the answer? We could ask our friends and family. However, they may not tell us or they may tell us too much! We could seek therapy but that might get expensive and may not be the answer for everyone. We could also seek spiritual direction. That would be a good start as well. In fact any of these approaches might work as long as we don't forget to ask God. In my experience, asking God about these things gets results. Usually results I don't like. I asked for patience once, thinking I needed peace in my life. What I got was opportunities to practice patience. So be warned! When we ask God where we are blind, the lessons are not automatically pain free. If they were we wouldn't hesitate to do the work. But without lessons, pain-free or not, we cannot grow our faith. Their must be struggle, even a short one as we adjust our eyesight.
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Offended

Matthew 15:12-13 - The disciples came to him and said, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended by your words?" And he answered them and said, "Every tree that is not planted by my father in heaven will be rooted up."

Offended. The Pharisees were offended I get  offended when people tell me the truth about how they perceive me and I don't want to face it. The Pharisees knew that Jesus, in talking about uncleanliness coming from within was talking about them and their traditions. They were offended and angry! Angry because they were caught. The word used is skandalizo, which means to cause to stumble but has the idea of being caught, being offended or becoming angry in the tense used. The Pharisees were probably all three: Caught, offended, and angry. They were trying to follow as best they knew and Jesus showed them, over and over, how hollow that way had become.

Then Jesus tells his disciples that every tree not planted in the good soil of God, the father, will be uprooted. Unless we, too, are rooted in the word and root our actions in GOd's love and mercy, we will feel uprooted. Our actions become willy-nilly rather than thoughtful. Our hearts become greedy and envious rather than grateful and joyful. We lose our strength, the living water is rejected for the stagnant water of our own wills. I am reminded of the tree that the gardener pleads for. The owner wants it cut, but the gardener has faith and nourishes the tree. The story doesn't say what the end result is and i believe that the tree lives - because Jesus' love gives life rather than death. Which brings us back to the origin of the offense - Connecting with God rather than performing rituals without thinking or feeling is what brings us life. Mindless rituals bring only death of love.
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Unclean Mouths

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.
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Hypocrisy

Matthew 15:7 - "Hypocrits! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you when he said, 'This people praises me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.'"

Ouch. I know in my own life I am as often as not far from God. It is we who turn away however, not God. It is we who praise with our lips and our actions show the true desires of our hearts. Yet, God accommodates us. He comes to us where we are and gives us grace in the struggle. Here Jesus is confronting the Pharisees and scribes with their behavior, showing how it is not a reflection of their words. Their behavior says they (we!) are far from God, but their lips say otherwise.

Today my prayer is to have my thoughts match my words and both be oriented toward following Christ. I know I will fail, yet I know I will have grace anyway. Grace to try again. Grace to make amends.

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Dishonoring God's word

Matthew 15:5-6 - But you say, "Whoever says to his father or his mother, 'Whatever profit you might have had from me is given to God' need not honor his father." For the sake of your tradition you invalidate the word of God.

Here we have a clue as to how we honor our father and our mother - supporting them as they get older and can no longer work. However, for some of us this is not an issue yet. How do we support them when they need no financial support? Again, what about those of us whose parents are toxic and dangerous to our welfare? How do we honor them? These are questions that each of us must answer for ourselves. It might be a daily struggle or one we have already answered. Yet this passage makes clear that no matter how bad our parents were, we must come to some way to honor them as our parents.

And, if we can help them and it is not dangerous for us physically, mentally or spiritually to do so, helping them out financially and with other things as they age is what God and Christ call us to do.

Obligatory reminder: it does not say we must love them. For many of us that is not a realistic goal.
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