Education in Faith
Today's gospel is all about obeying the purity rites of the Jewish people. No matter how good the intention, sometimes misguided principles can lead to false action. This is what Jesus chastised the Pharisees about. The traditions that had been established based on the Law as stated in the Torah had become practices to try to help people honour the Torah, but effectively they now replaced the Law. In order to maintain spiritual cleanliness, a tradition of physical cleanliness had emerged – particularly around interaction with Gentiles and around eating. However, the purpose of the tradition had become lost. The need for physical cleanliness had replaced the maintenance of spiritual cleanliness.
When the Pharisees observed some of the disciples eating without properly washing their hands, they challenged Jesus about it. Jesus reminds them – somewhat forcefully – that these external practices are not the Law; rather the Law is observed internally. Jesus points out that no amount of ritual cleansing will make a person clean within. Similarly, evil and uncleanliness come from within a person – one doesn’t ‘catch it’ from contact with strangers.
We live in a culture that is very quick to lay blame on external factors; some people are very reluctant to accept responsibility for their own actions and look for opportunities to distance themselves from feelings of guilt or even regret. Jesus makes it very clear that evil intentions – the things that make a person ‘unclean’ – actually come from within. In our culture of no personal responsibility, Jesus challenges us to rethink “where does the buck stop?”