Words from our gospel reading this morning: ‘Jesus said: What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.’

Jesus says this when he is in conflict with the Pharisees and scribes, the people who were the religious teachers of Jesus’ own day. In the Gospels Jesus is often in conflict with the scribes and Pharisees as is here. The issue is whether meals should be eaten with washed hands or not. The issue is not so much to do with hygiene (we can just hear the cry to the children, ‘Have you washed your hands?) – the issue here is not about hygiene but about being faithful to what God wants, what God has prescribed.

The scribes were the experts in the Jewish Law- all the regulations, set out in the first five books of the Bible, headed up by the Ten Commandments. The Pharisees were those who sought to put these God-given regulations into practice in daily life.  Both scribes and Pharisees were trying to be faithful to what God had taught his people. Israel understood itself to be God’s own people. As we heard in our first reading: ‘All who keep the sabbath … and hold fast my covenant – these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.’ God had made a covenant with Israel, his very own people, and taught them how to live.

But …. Jesus finds himself opposing the scribes and Pharisees.  Indeed, he calls them ‘blind guides’. We might think that Jesus is just being rude. But in Jesus’ day Jews argued pretty ferociously with each other. There’s a vigorous debate going on here. It about something really important: How can we be faithful to God?

Typically, Jesus points us to what is going on in our hearts: ‘What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart  come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander, These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.’

Jesus has already spoken about the importance of what goes on inside us. In the Sermon on the Mount, earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, he talked about the eye being the lamp of the body. What he means is that inside we can be light or dark and this will shine out through our whole being. He also talks about good trees producing good fruit and bad trees producing bad fruit. It’s same idea: It’s what goes on inside that determines what you’re like and what is pleasing to God.

Being human means that we have a strong tendency to avoid looking at what goes on inside. The famous Christian writer, C. S. Lewis admitted, and wrote, that his mind was a veritable zoo of unpleasant thoughts. If there’s any truth in that for us, then it’s no wonder we’re going to find it difficult to look inside, to do anything that might merit the title, ‘self-examination’ – one of the things we’re urged to do in Lent. Another thing we have strong tendency to do is to compare ourselves with other people.  The train of thought goes something like this: ‘ Well, I might have done a few things wrong, but I’m not like so and so.  They’re really awful!’ This is an avoidance strategy, avoiding looking at ourselves.

If Jesus’ diagnosis of our situation is right that the human heart is a seed bed of evil intentions, how are we going to live in a way that is both truthful and good? Can we be like good trees bringing forth good fruit? As Christians we believe we are joined to Jesus. We are not alone in our situation. We were joined to Christ at our baptism. We are joined to the one who is the light of the world. This means that his light shines within us. It shines on both what is dark within us – which we need to be truthful about – and provides a light that guides us in the ways of goodness.

At our baptism and confirmation we received the Holy Spirit and re-receive that Spirit at each eucharist. The Holy Spirit is God, present and active in our lives. God is neither absent nor dormant in our lives. We may be absent and dormant in our lives, but not God. The Holy Spirit activates our consciences so that we can grow in self-understanding and become more truthful about ourselves, turning to what is good and life-giving. I’m reminded of the song The Spirit lives to set us free, walk, walk in the light. The Spirit lives in you and me, walk, walk in the light.

We might think that Jesus’ diagnosis of the state of the human heart is too gloomy. But it does account for why the human race is so clever that it can land someone on the moon, but can’t seem to make peace. Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Ukraine, Sudan: these theatres of war and violence are just the modern examples of our tragic human history, addicted to bearing rotten fruit. But Jesus brings a gospel, the gospel that God so loves the world that Jesus has come and his Spirit is with us. The One Church of Jesus Christ holds this precious reality within itself for the sake of the world.

Individual Christians do not think of themselves as separate from the rest of the world however dark it may have become. Our own darkness is that of the world.  The Christian Church does not think of itself as the perfect institution. The safeguarding failures of the Church bear witness to that. Individually and corporately we share in a common humanity whose heart is so prone to the defiling thoughts urges and attitudes which Jesus so plainly identifies in his controversy with the Pharisees and scribes.

But as Christians our vocation is to confess our failures, our sins. The Spirit, given to us, encourages us not to be afraid of this, strengthening us to do the right thing not the easy thing. We are not afraid because, if we are truthful about what goes on in our hearts, and what seeps out from there into our outward lives, – if we are truthful about ourselves before God, then we receive forgiveness for the past, healing for the present and strength for the future. We are renewed in our relationship with Jesus, the Son of the Father, bearer of the Spirit. That is Good news, Gospel. Good news for each one of us, good news for the Church, and good news for the world.

Reading: Matthew 15.10-28

Preacher: Canon Bill Croft

Location: St John’s Church Peterborough UK