Why Washing Your Hands is Unimportant

One time, the Pharisees got mad at Jesus (really, what's new?) because His disciples were being slobs. They were eating bread without washing their hands, which was a tradition of the elders (see Matt. 15:2). I imagine the disciples were a ragtag bunch and following the little customs of the religious probably wasn't on the top of their to-do list. I imagine them being smelly, coarse, stand-offish and a little messy. The fact that Jesus was so well-known and yet so close to these unreligious men probably rubbed the leaders the wrong way.

So Jesus tells them that they really have no business pointing the finger at the disciples, because they had twisted more than a few laws away from what the Lord intended them to be (case in point, honoring your father and mother). What had probably started as a little harmless poking-fun turned into a calling-out that drew a multitude. Jesus probably starts to get worked up a little. I guess I would too if someone was picking on my buddies. He said that they had covered up the law of God with their tradition.  But that's another story.

He then says, "Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man."(vs. 11)

And the Pharisees really get mad then. The New King James says offended. This was utterly against everything they lived for. They had made sure that their lives were full of perfection in this area. And now Jesus was flipping it upside down! But I couldn't help but think that there's a bigger issue here.

"Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”(vs. 17-20)

I was thinking this morning that there is something we can learn from this, despite the fact that we are not first century Pharisees. You see, I think it comes down to trying to control our lives. Let me explain: We obsess. We regulate. We do not touch evil with a ten-foot pole, as if it would taint us. We exercise maniacally and try desperately to control our eating habits, as if having a nice body will make us happy. We attempt to control our thought life. If only we had control over the words and actions of others, for that would make keeping our tempers so much simpler! Even the Christian culture is saturated with self-improvement slogans. Six Biblical Steps to Transforming Your Mind. How to Change Yourself: The Bible Plan for Self Improvement. Saddling Your Emotions: Biblical Counseling. You see, we are just like the Pharisees. Instead of walking with God, we try to frantically control what will eventually leave us dry. We try to control what we put in in order to be pleasing to God with what comes out.

But something about this doesn't sit right with me. If we are responsible for controlling all of this, where does trust come in? Aren't we born again when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Plato in Charmides 157, said, "For all good and evil, whether in the body or in human nature, originates, as he declared, in the soul, and overflows from thence, as from the head into the eyes; and therefore, if the head and body are to be well, you must begin by curing the soul. That is the first thing."

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 2:12

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." (1 Cor. 3:18)

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
So Jesus was the cure. Is the cure. I can control what I put into myself, but all of that is irrelevant if I cannot control what comes out. I am convinced it is only through the power and the Presence of God Himself that we will become transformed from the inside out. By His Spirit. By His Way.

For nothing can satisfy my soul,
Nothing can make me whole,
Nothing but Him.

Walk with Him boldly today,

B