Hope Ambassadors: Matthew 15:10-20 - 11th Sunday after Pentecost

Then [Jesus] called the crowd to him and said to them, "Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles." Then the disciples approached and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?" He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit." But Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us." Then he said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile." (NRSV)

Washing hands before entering the temple by gwaar on flickr. CC BY 2.0

 Recently, some employees from a national big-box store chain came to work to find that they had been “promoted” into a brand-new position: that of health ambassador.

 

This was a polite name for the job of enforcing the facemask mandate. Any customer without a facemask is offered one free of charge. By now, you can probably guess how well this has been working out…

 

It may appear that a similar situation is playing out in today’s Gospel…

 

The Pharisees and scribes have accused Jesus of not washing their hands before they eat. 

 

Let me be very clear here that this has nothing to do with personal hygiene. People in Jesus’s day washed their hands for the same reasons we do. 

 

So this isn’t a question of if Jesus and his disciples washed their hands—but how. According to the Pharisees and scribes, they didn’t wash “according to the tradition.” Therefore, their hands were defiled—so were their bodies. And their refusal to adhere to sacred tradition meant that they were defiling everything sacred. To them, Jesus and his disciples were lawless, godless, and demonic. 

 

But Jesus sets the record straight—holiness does not function on the same level as hygiene. 

 

Washing your hands has always helped to prevent the transmission of germs and bacteria into the human body. But it is not what goes into your mouth that makes you unholy. It is what comes out of you—out of your mouth—that defiles. Evil comes out of the heart. 

 

This is an important truth to consider as we enter the seventh month of this pandemic, and embark upon our country’s most contentious presidential election since the Civil War. 

 

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of believing that all the world’s troubles would go away if everyone would just change and become like you: to live like you, believe like you, work hard like you…vote like you. It is the sinner who sees sin only in other people—but never in themselves and their own kind. This self-righteous attitude fuels all kinds of evils that you cannot blame on other people…

 

Out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These sins not only defile the person; they visit destruction and death upon the neighbor. And the name of God is blasphemed every time these evils are committed by those who proudly claim the identity of a Christian.

 

Far too often during this pandemic, the response of many has been to fight for freedom of choice and personal responsibility. But the Coronavirus is not going to go away without sacrifice on everyone’s part. The cure we must seek begins inside every human heart.

 

This gives me hope—because God makes you clean from the inside to the outside. God’s forgiveness is what cleanses your sinful heart and heals your sin-sick soul. It goes straight to the heart to destroy sin and sow the seeds of love and new life. Baptism cleanses both the body and the soul of sin’s defilement. In the water, we become one people—empowered by the Holy Spirit to use our hands, our voices, our gifts, our strength—to transform this world on God’s terms, rather than our own. God sows courage in your heart to confront evil in the spirit of Christian love. Righteousness is what happens when faith works out what God has worked in. The strength and the willpower to defeat Covid; to enact justice and peace among peoples; to rebuild what has been thrown down—it all begins in your heart. 

 

The beauty of this promise is that there is not a person anywhere who cannot stand before the throne of grace to receive a clean heart from the Lord. Jesus does not turn away anyone who comes before him for forgiveness and healing. As God’s people, we are made to stand strong in the places where God’s children suffer evil—and we become ambassadors of hope. We are the ones who welcome wearied souls into God’s love. We are the ones who show the world, in grace and humility, that life and love will prevail in these evil days.