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Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’” 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?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But 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.”
- Matthew 15:1-20
I.
One of the great cultural projects around the time Jesus walked the earth,
was the construction of several theaters and amphitheaters
throughout the Roman empire (there’s one on the cover of your bulletin, for example).
This project
(like many architectural projects of that time)
was commissioned and carried out by Herod the Great.
He is the Herod who ruled as the Roman King of Judea
(or the King of the Jews)
from 37 until 4 BC,
and who, incidentally,
was the father of Herod Antipas -
the Herod who ruled as tetrarch of Galilee
throughout the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry there.
Now,
these theaters
were somewhat controversial among the Jewish people,
(such as Jesus and his disciples).
This is because these theaters,
planted strategically for the entertainment of the various peoples that Rome had conquered,
had a mission.
You see,
these theaters were planted there
to push Greek and Roman culture onto these new Roman subjects
with the goal that these subjects would become more like the Romans
and less like the tribes and customs that they were affiliated with
prior to Roman rule.
That is, the theaters were planted with the mission of pushing the conquered peoples to assimilate, and therefore to “become Roman,”
so that the people would “lose their accents”
so to speak.
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For this reason, many Jewish leaders opposed the theater, seeing it as a weapon of their oppressor, and as something of an ugly symbol of a culture they wished to reject in order to maintain their own.
Others reportedly seemed to embrace the theater. They saw it as harmless entertainment and something fun that broke up life’s monotony. “With all the hardships and trials in life, why cut out something fun in the name of holiness?” they reasoned.
There was also a generational gap. One can imagine youth sneaking out at night to the theater--or perhaps telling their folks they were going to the library or the synagogue when, in reality, they were checking out the latest play with their friends.
However it was received from household to household, the theater was a presence physically (as they were huge), as well as culturally (the latest production often being the subject of conversation around the coffee pot on Monday morning).
Though not mentioned in every chapter of the gospels,
the theater was never too far away from the scenes described there.
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One place the theater does show up in the Gospels (13 times, as a matter of fact, in the Gospel of Matthew), is in this Greek word that Jesus likes to throw at the religious people that he meets from time to time.
This word: ὑποκριτής, or
(as he uses it to accuse them) “YOU HYPOCRITES!”
ὑποκριτής, or “YOU HYPOCRITES!”
There is no Hebrew or Aramaic equivalent to this word.
That’s because it is technical term--a theater term. A Greek theater term. A hypocrite, in 1st century Greek,
and in Jesus’ own context,
was a stage actor--someone who wore a mask, who covered their own identity and performed at the amphitheater for the applause of the audience.
Someone who wore a mask, covered their own identity and performed at the amphitheater for the applause of the audience.
This is the meaning of the word hypocrite--and (in turn) it became for Jesus something a favorite criticism of his opponents, as well.
II.
Today in the Gospel reading,
we witness a confrontation with those opponents.
Jesus and his disciples,
traveling through the countryside
and from town to town,
have grown hungry.
Moved by their hunger to get straight to the meal,
they skip some of the formalities--
perhaps they forgot to say grace and,
it seems apparent from the criticism they receive,
they did not participate in the religious tradition
of dipping their hands in water,
a tradition that would have shown to everyone around them that they try extra hard to be religious and faithful--
that is, a tradition that (if practiced)
would have better displayed their faithfulness to others--put them on a stage.
+++
“How do we know that your disciples really care about religion if they don’t show that religion off?” the accusers ask Jesus.
Today we might ask: How do we know you’re really on our team if you’re not wearing our tee-shirt--or--if your Facebook posts have not indicated it clearly?
Show us who you are. Show it off! “Put it on” so that the world can see you are one of us. Act it out! On stage.
There’s no room here for ambiguity.
Put on the uniform or get off the team!
How else will we know that you are with us?
If you are,
act like it:
say your prayers and wash your hands.
Practice your piety.
Let us see.
This seems to be what they (at least in part) are saying.
III.
But Jesus challenges their “prove-you-are-one-of-us” mentality.
It is not a uniform (he indicates) that makes one a part of God’s team.
And it’s not any outward ritual
that “proves”
that our will is aligned with God’s will
that the last become first and that the hungry become fed.
Many claim that they love God’s justice in worship on any given day,
praying and praising out loud,
posting memes and saying “God bless you” to all they meet,
and yet go home to oppress their families and neighbors,
their tenants or co-workers,
with an iron fist.
No - Faith is deeper than an outward display of religious piety
or emotion
or even practice,
Jesus says.
A life committed to God’s justice and love runs deeper than a yard sign or a bumper sticker or post on an electronic wall.
Indeed, some of the most faithful and transformative acts, some of the deepest gestures of solidarity and love, some of the most radical acts of Christian solidarity, nobody ever hears about.
That’s ‘cause
they don’t happen on a stage.
They happen
in late-night emergency phone-calls,
or in 800 miles of underground railroads.
They happen in attics where refugees hide when the authorities come to abuse.
They happen in deep relationships unspoken,
in recovery circles, and circles of friends.
They happen in the presence of a stranger who lends a hand to a man beaten and left on the side of the road.
And when one plants water in the desert where it seemed that the journey was going to end by dying of thirst.
Some of the most faithful and transformative acts don’t happen on a stage. Their stories are never told.
There’s no stage actor with a mask, performing for applause.
Perhaps nothing is ever even said out loud.
Rather, faith comes to fruition in love.
From the heart.
Faith comes to fruition in love.
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We can pray loudly, worship boldly, fill our yard with signs and statements, wear a cross everywhere we go,
but if we do not LOVE,
it is possible, that we might simply be wearing a mask.
It is possible that we are simply performing for the approval and applause of an audience.
Jesus calls us, rather, to the deeper work, even when no applause is offered--and even when the work instigates ridicule.
+++
Why don’t you do the rituals? Why don’t you wear the uniform? Jesus’ critics ask him in the Gospel today.
Why don’t you perform your faithfulness to us?
Because that’s not the point, Jesus says.
I care not for the faith that you perform for applause,
but for the love that proceeds from the deep silences of the heart.
I care not for the faith that you perform for applause,
but for the love that proceeds from your heart.
May that love fill our hearts today.
May it guide our actions.
May it push us into acts of love in the world.
Whether those acts or seen
or whether they are done when no one is around to witness the radical love that transforms our lives and transforms the world
nonetheless.
Amen.
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