Wash Your Hearts and Wash Your Hands
REFLECTION to - Reading: Matthew 15:10-12" 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.' Then the disciples approached and said to him, 'Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?'"
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Jesus was many times accused by the scribes of this and that, occasionally also of breaking the Jewish Law, such as breaking the Shabbat rules or breaking some traditions, and in this story particularly he was accused of not washing his hands according to the rules of the tradition of the elders and of making his disciples do the same.
As it is written at the beginning of chapter 15 in the Gospel of Matthew: Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
One thing should be made clear:
Sometimes in the Gospels, it looks as though Jesus did not care much about the rules, and he just acted quite randomly as he wished.
Actually it must be obvious that although Jesus elevated the corresponding rules to the prophetic level, he was still a Torah-observant Jew.
As he said in the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter five regarding the Law of Moses the disciples must take heed:
“ For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished.”
Nonetheless, Jesus acted here on a prophetic level, saying that not washing your hands will not defile anyone. Being defiled means being ritually unclean. His point is not a medical one, because the arguments were not about health and public safety, but ritual or spiritual cleanliness.
That is why “He summoned the multitude, and said to them, ‘Hear, and understand. That which enters into the mouth doesn’t defile the man; but that which proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles a man.’”
This point had to be explained even to his own disciples, because occasionally even they had a hard time understanding the depth of his sayings.
As it is written: “Then the disciples came, and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’”
He had to rebuke his own disciples so Jesus said, “Do you also still not understand? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the belly and then out of the body? But the things which proceed out of the mouth come out of the heart, and they defile the man.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man; but to eat with unwashed hands doesn’t defile a man.”
Ironically, we can state that washing hands is very important for proper Hygiene, thus the Pharisees inadvertently had a valid point too, even if it can be understood only in the modern era. However, having a valid point is not enough, when one misses the essence.
Nonetheless, on the part of Jesus, it was a prophetic action through an extreme method to share the message of God. The major rule explains it: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
So if we discipline our thoughts and our hearts and our deeds according to the written word of God, then as an extra, certainly we are allowed to wash our hands. And washing hands will definitely help fight germs.
However, in the spiritual world, keeping only the hand-washing rules to abide by the tradition will not help us, if at the same time, we keep breaking the Ten Commandments.
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “ Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
As the Gospels are silent or at least vague about the very core issue of this dispute, there is a little clarification needed. At first glance it looks as though the hand-washing-demanding Pharisees are in the conventional right, and Jesus’ behavior is extreme.
However, it is worth paying attention to the wider context, as Jesus was accusing the Pharisees of a major scandal, when he answered them: “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?
Jesus added and doubled down: “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.”
And this is exactly the cornerstone of the debate:
"Their teachings are merely human rules."
Because there is nowhere in the Law of Moses that says anybody should regularly wash their hands for ritual purity. Not hygiene, but ritual purity.
The only exception was the priestly class, as it is written in the book of Exodus, which explicitly commands hand and foot washing only for the Kohanim priests before performing service in the Tabernacle or Temple (Exodus 30:17–21).
And it is written, regarding religious rules and regulations:
"You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you."
However, the daily ritual hand-washing for everyone, introduced by the Pharisees and practiced by all Jews today —such as before eating bread or waking up— is a later enactment established by the Rabbinic Sages.
Regardless of germs, Jesus was completely right that ritual hand-washing for common people was NOT Biblically mandated. The Pharisees made it a rule, and they made it binding.
The lack of ritual hand-washing by Jesus and his disciples meant exactly that Jesus did not acknowledge the Pharisees’ right to create new, non-Biblical rules.
And the Pharisees got offended for that exact reason, because Jesus questioned their ruling authority.
It was not about the cleanliness of the hands before eating, it was not about germs or no-germs hygiene, it was about ritual washing policy, rules and regulations, which were clearly defined in the Law of Moses.
In summary, Jesus insisted that we should not confuse the Biblical Commandments with the additional rules; we must focus on the Heavenly Kingdom.
Abiding by thousands of pages of invented rules as a binding cultural code from the Pharisees, detailed at the fine-print level, will not help us on Judgment Day if we continue to sin against love and compassion, mercy and equity.
Casuistry will not help us to enter Heaven if we helplessly lose our focus.
Thus, we have to pay attention to weed the wrong thoughts and the bad desires out of our hearts, in order to worship God by keeping the Ten Commandments.
May we bless God from the center of our hearts, with our thoughts, words and deeds, always.
AMEN
