The Parable of a Man's Heart

 

[Jesus said] You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” And he [Jesus] called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matthew 15:7-20 ESV).

 

There are those times when the direct nature of Jesus’ teaching is dramatically intense. Our reading today is one of those times. When Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites, accusing them of honoring God with their lips but not their hearts, He is teaching that true defilement comes from within, from evil thoughts and actions originating in the heart. It certainly did not originate from ritualistically unwashed hands. The passage lists murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander as examples of things that defile a person. These are all the things that the practices of the religious leaders did; and, Jesus is calling them out publicly. It is not surprising Jesus calls them “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (cf. Matthew 7:15-20).

 

All too often, as believers, we focus on cleaning up the outer person, what other people see. But unless we attend to the inner person, seeking holiness of the heart, all the external cleanup in the world will not really change who we are. Later in Matthew’s Gospel we see Jesus accuse the Pharisees of cleaning up on the outside, while the inside is corrupt. He told them instead to clean the inside and then the outside would be clean as well (cf. Matthew 23:25-26).

We must be careful to understand our behavior is determined by what we truly think. Our transformation begins with the renewing of our mind (heart)! This is only accomplished through the development of a consistent relationship with Jesus through a regular ingestion of His words in Scripture.