Commentary on Matthew 15:1-2,10-14

Scribes, purification rituals and the law make up the surface level content of today’s Gospel passage. At the heart of today’s challenge is a question of religious purification: What defiles a person? Is this a liturgical or moral quandary? When one begins to peel the onion, the context reveals a rich ancient world held together by various traditions that may provide a more nuanced reading of the text.

Scribes and the tradition of the elders
It seems that a controversial argument arises with the Pharisees and scribes on one side and Jesus and his disciples at the opposite end of this debate. It is helpful to remember that there are elements of the pharisaic camp within Jesus himself. For example, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, and that prayer and study could bring you closer to God outside the Temple. Jesus believed the same. Or, the fact that the writer of this particular Gospel from Matthew could also identity as a scribe through a positive lens. Consider last week’s Sunday Gospel (Week 17), with its closing lines:

And he [Jesus] said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matt 13:52)

In this example, Jesus speaks with high regard of the scribe who is able to discern both old traditions and new ones in light of contemporary movements. It is not that one is bad and the other good, it becomes a matter of discernment for the goods needed at the present moment, and to recognize the distortions of faith taking place in the name of tradition. But in today’s Gospel the Pharisees and scribes challenge Jesus and his disciples:

Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.

What tradition of the elders are we talking about here? At this historical period the Pharisees might refer to the law in the sense of Torah (or Pentateuch), the first five books of Moses. There is also the oral tradition believed to be passed down through Moses, but not part of the written word of scripture. This oral tradition is codified through generations and becomes as weighty as the written word. Matthew softens the tone in today’s scene from the same one in Mark’s Gospel (7:1-22 ). Jesus in this scene is one who should be understood as fulfilling the law rather than abolishing it. Jesus does care about ritual purity and the many other traditions within his culture. But in this case his consideration falls to an older tradition found in the Decalogue, the ten commandments.

Then he 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.” 

Blind guides, words and deeds
Jesus’ real confrontation falls upon religious leaders and anyone who leads another person astray. Will not “both fall into the pit?” Unfortunately for us, a key passage was omitted from today’s liturgical reading. Jesus quotes Isaiah, saying:

This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (Matt 15:8; see also Is 29:13)

As is often the case, at the core of the debate is a reconsideration of the disconnect between lips and heart, which is another way to express the disconnect between word and deed. The Pharisees can easily claim to be ritually clean before their community, but they cannot so easily claim to be pure of heart before God who sees what is hidden from the public eye. What is needed is always a greater integration between who comes out of one’s lips, what one holds to be true in the heart and the deeds we perform in the public eye.

The Hebrew term for ‘word’ is dabar, which can mean ‘words’ and ‘deeds’ simultaneously. Thus, when God speaks (also dabar) he also initiates the action of those words. There is no separation between words and deeds in the divine life. It is no accident, therefore, that the next verses after today’s Gospel take Jesus and his disciples into the ‘unclean’ regions of Tyre and Sidon for his public ministry. Jesus’ integration of word and action brings the faith to all places, clean and unclean alike.     

We as readers ought to always pay attention to these telling details.