Matters of the heart and mouth (Sacred and Ordinary)
Matt 15:1-2 The scene starts with the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus on an issue of legalism.
- The Pharisees notice that Jesus’ disciples did not participate in ceremonial hand washing.
- This was not hygiene washing, this was ceremonial washing.
- Now this hand washing was not required by the Old Testament law. Nor was it required by the Mishnah.
- Rather this was part of the oral tradition of the pharisees.
Matt 15:3-7 Jesus starts out with an actual command of God, “to honor your mother and Father.”
- The biggest thing to note here is that Jesus used the ten commandments and not just man-made rules.
Matt 15:8 This is a quote from Isaiah 29:13.
Matt 15:10 Nothing that goes into the Body through the mouth will make a person unclean.
Matt 15: 13-14 Jesus does not hold any punches here. He flat out says, that the pharisees are not from God the father. And that if you follow them, you will fall into a pit.
Matt 15:15 The culture of the Pharisees was so strong, they couldn’t see any other way to understand this.
Verse 16. Jesus holds no punches with his disciples either. Are you dump? Why don’t you get this?
Verse 17 Whatever unclean things enter your body, just pass through your body.
Verse 18 The Greek word used here as defiled has as a lexicon definition: defile, pollute, unclean.
- A deeper study of the word shows that the concept means: defile, by treating what is sacred as common or ordinary.
- Jesus is saying that what makes us unclean or defiled is treating the sacred as common or ordinary.
Verse 19 As we look at this list, we will notice a close connection to the Ten Commandments again.
- After the first one, (evil thought), they follow in order of the sixth through the tenth Commandment.
- The first one is evil thought: The Greek word translated as thoughts means: imagination, reasoning, thought
- So, these are not casual passing thoughts.
- Then the Greek word translated here as evil can mean: morally culpable, i.e. derelict, vicious, atrociously wicked.
- This seems to speak of a serious level of wicked in terms of morals.
- The second one is murder. This is the sixth of the Ten Commandments.
- The Greek word used here simply means murder or slaughter.
- Again, Jesus is talking about what comes out of our mouth.
- This is reminiscent of Jesus saying in the Beatitudes that if you are angry with your brother, it is the same as murder.
- The third one is adultery This is the seventh of the Ten Commandments.
- The Greek word used here simply means adultery, but it is in the plural.
- How does adultery come out of our mouth?
- In a very real sense, adultery is taking something that is not yours.
- This could refer to speaking in a way as to take what is not ours.
- If we again look to the beatitudes this could refer to the lust in our hearts for those things that are not ours.
- Taking into consideration verse 18 this could mean Treating sex as common or ordinary rather than as sacred.
- Then the fourth one is sexual immorality
- One of the ranges of meanings is: “unwedded stimulation or fulfillment of sexual desire.”
- Another range of meaning for this word is And the third range of meaning is prostitution.
- In the Old Testament God was constantly accusing the Hebrews of prostitution and idolatry.
- Given the total of the context and the full range of the words’ meanings, I think Jesus probably had in mind idolatry.
- In following the order of the Ten Commandments, this one would be “thou shall not steal.”
- Then the fifth one is theft It is the Greek word Klope From where we would get the word kleptomaniac.
- The word means simply to steal or theft.
- The last one is false testimony, slander. The second to last of the Ten Commandments
- This whole list here in Matthew 15 is the Ten Commandments. 6 through 10.
- The condition of our heart is tied to obedience to the Ten Commandments.
- But here is what I thought was really interesting. The words and grammar Jesus chose.
- At the root level of all of these words is thievery, taking what is not yours.
- What do we do? 1. Repent. 2. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. 3. Treat the ordinary as sacred.