Disciples Don't Judge/ Watch Your Mouth and Examine Your Heart - Matthew 15: 10-28

The passage that we are presented with today is hard to read and difficult to hear because it doesn’t present the Jesus most of us like. Jesus is not gently hold a lamb or ushering children onto his lap. He speaks words that cut like a knife into the hearts of those around him. His tongue is sharp and he seems to lack compassion. And yet, this is the Jesus in today’s passage.

What are we to make of this Jesus? What does he have to teach us about who we are called to be as his disciples?

Sometimes I think that we have made the Bible a much harder book to understand then perhaps it needs to be. We’ve complicated it because we’ve taken what is essentially a book of stories and have dissected it. We take pieces out of context and try to make them applicable to our lives. And this is not to say that they don’t have meaning for us today – but we can’t just lift a passage out of scripture before looking at what precedes it in the story.

Last week we heard of Jesus walking on the water to the disciples in the midst of a storm after retreating to be by himself to grieve the death of his cousin, John. The story continues that the disciples and Jesus made it across the lake and made it to their destination, Geennesart. Here they were greeted by people from all over the region who begged to just touch a piece of Jesus garments and be healed. In the midst of all of these people believing and being healed, a group of Pharisees from Jerusalem approached Jesus and asked why the disciples disobeyed the laws that Moses had clearly laid out for them and that generations of their ancestors have followed. They cited specifically that the disciples did not properly wash their hands. But Jesus flipped the tables on these teachers of the law and accused them of not holding other people accountable to some of the most vital laws about human relationships, further he accused the Pharisees of not following these laws themselves. Rather they flaunted their own knowledge of the law instead of responding to the law out of love for the Lord.

And in this context our story today is placed. What Jesus is teaching those he called and gathered around him is directly related to his encounter with the Pharisees. They had accused his disciples of not washing their hands, thus defiling everything they touch, including the food that enters their body. But Jesus teaches that those words that exit our mouth make us unclean, and unfit to worship God. Those who are teaching about this like uncleanliness of the body, instead of the state of the heart and soul, are nothing more then the blind leading the blind until they fall into a ditch they cannot perceive or weeds that will be plucked by God.

What is Jesus really saying here? What are those things that truly make people unclean? I think Jesus is telling us to guard our human relationships. What are the things that you and I say that hurt others the most? Lies. Gossip. Speaking before thinking. Unfounded accusations. Our tongue can be the biggest enemy to our relationship with others and our relationship with God. For we cannot have one in order and not the other. We cannot have a good relationship with God while speaking ill of our neighbor, and we cannot be in good relationship with our neighbor if we do not know God. The heart and the soul and the mouth are linked. Jesus is asking us to examine what is exiting our mouths and to look even deeper into where it is coming from in our hearts – greed, envy, jealously, lust, pride, and wrath have a way of creeping into our hearts and damaging our relationships with others. And those words that we speak from the overflow of our hearts, linger with their sting far longer then any unclean thing we place into our body will.

See, the Pharisees were so concerned with following the letter of the law, that they forgot why it existed – to lead to deeper relationship with God and neighbor. We become unclean when we forget who is at the center of all of our relationships. Would we speak of God the way that we speak about others? Would we judge God the way that we judge other – labeling them as being unfit or unclean, when God calls them primarily, “my child!” The Pharisees quick judgments that passed their lips spoke of a much deeper heart issue – one that Jesus was calling them, and us, to address.

But what makes this passage so difficult is what happens in the story right after Jesus taught so sharply about watching our mouths – Jesus is approached by a woman from Canaan as he was traveling through cities bear Tyre and Sidon. This woman came up to Jesus frantically begging that Jesus have mercy on her and her daughter, who is plagued by demons. And Jesus ignored her. But she was persistent to the point where she was bothering the disciples and they wanted to send her away. The words that came out of Jesus’ mouth next were hurtful – “I was not sent to you. I was only sent to Israel”. He was effectively saying, you are not mine. Go away. But the woman inched closer and said, help me, have mercy on me. And Jesus replied, “It isn’t right to take food away from children and feed it to the dogs.” Jesus was effectively calling her a dog, an unclean one. A name the Jews used for Gentile pagans.

Can you imagine being told by Jesus to go away. That you weren’t his. That you weren’t worthy of what he had to offer and that you were no better then a dog? This was not one of Jesus’ finer moments. Yet, the woman did not give up. Her reply was one of dignity, grace, and respect as she replied, “Yes, but even the dogs get the scraps that fall from their owners table.”

Jesus spoke to the Pharisees not so long ago about how their words come from their judging hearts, and yet, here Jesus seems to be judging this woman. At first, he does not even show enough mercy towards her to acknowledge her humanity and speak to her. He ignored her. Then Jesus had to seemingly face his own prejudices towards Canaanites. He was forced by her to examine his own heart in this matter.

This woman understood something that Jesus had previously spoke to the Pharisees about – it wasn’t so much about following the law as it was about seeking mercy. And this woman understood that with an unshakable clarity. She believed that Jesus was the one who could have mercy on her, even if he just needed to be persuaded to remember. She wasn’t judging what Jesus had given to others or trying to say that he should take away from others in order to give to her. She wasn’t filled with greed or jealously. She simply believed in her heart that this was the one who could have mercy on her and her daughter. And that sentiment was echoed by the cry that crossed her lips.

Why do we need such a portrayal of Jesus in our scriptures? Because when we seek to follow Jesus we need someone who can hold us to lofty ideals but also someone we can relate to, and this is something the author of today’s gospel lesson understood well. Matthew was writing to an audience that was increasingly both Jew and Gentile coming together to be something new, a group of Christ followers. There were arguments about what was the right way to do things and who was better at following Christ – people were staking their claims and lines were being drawn. But when we look at today’s passage in its entirety, no matter how painful it may seem, it reminds us, and Matthew’s audience, that at the root of these claims and lines was a matter of the heart – a matter that needed to be examined because it can keep us from being the church, the ones who are to see the humanity of others and respond with compassion. When we get so caught up in people’s past labels and our quick judgments, we cannot extended the hand of mercy that is required to be relationship with others – the mercy that is a mark of our relationship with the God who has shown mercy to us.

Friends, at the end of the day this passage is difficult, but it reminds us that life, and the relationships in it, are messy. We aren’t always as careful with examining our hearts and our words, as we should be. We do not always extend mercy and grace. And more difficult, Jesus does not always give us the example to follow that we hope for and have come to expect. At least not in his words, which in this particular passage are harsh and have a tone of judgment. How are we going to respond to these difficulties?

I think a lot of our uncomfortableness with how Jesus responds to her is because we know that it isn’t right. We know that it isn’t right for us to treat other people that ways – ignoring them, judging them, and creating excuses for our lack of mercy – and it certainly isn’t right for the Son of God. Yet, in that uncomfortableness, can’t we see a bit of ourselves? How we’ve responded to others in the past. The deep heart issues that we still wrestle with. Our lack of control over the words we speak that overflow from and unchecked heart.

I have to wonder what the disciples learned at the end of the day from these two times of teaching – the words that Jesus spoke to the Pharisees about unclean hearts and then Jesus’ action and words towards this mother begging for mercy. Did they feel uncomfortable as well? They must of, because they begged him to send her away, so their situation could be comfortable again. The same disciples who had stood by and told Jesus that he was offending the Pharisees did not defend the honor of the woman before them. Yet, they had to have learned something. Maybe it took them years to understand, or maybe it was only moments before clarity struck, but I believe out of their uncomfortablness dawned an understanding of what ministry is really about – its about relationships. Not just the relationships that society says deserve our respect, but those relationships that make us feel the most uncomfortable. Because those are the ones that are going to speak the most about what’s in our heart and how our relationship with God is at that moment in time.

Brothers and Sisters, words come as quickly as passing moments. Do you think that Jesus wished that this story was never recorded? Did he see his words as a mistake that he could not take back? How often to we say things that we wish we could take back, especially in the uncomfortable moments. I don’t know about you, but the words that linger with me the most are the ones that others have spoken over me that were damaging and untrue. And the memories that bother me the most are the ones when I have done the same to others. Jesus may not be our perfect example in this passage of scripture, but he reminds us why we need to watch our words and make sure our heart is clean of judgments. What are your words saying about the state of your heart today and every day? Amen.