School of the Word
Jesus, the Master Teacher 3/4: Jesus and the importance of the heart
by Sr. Monika
Passages:
Some Pharisees noticed that some of Jesus’ disciples were eating their food with hands that were ritually unclean—they had not washed them in the way the Pharisees said people should. For the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in the proper way. So they asked Jesus, “Why is it that your disciples do not follow the teaching handed down by our ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?” Jesus answered them, “You are hypocrites, just as Isaiah wrote: ‘These people honour Me with their words, but their heart is really far away from Me.’ You put aside God's command and obey human teachings. You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching. For Moses commanded, ‘Respect your father and your mother,’ but you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, ‘This is Corban’ (which means, it is dedicated to God), they are excused from helping their father or mother. In this way the teaching you pass on to others cancels out the word of God.”
Then Jesus said to the crowd, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing that goes into you from the outside which can make you ritually unclean. Rather, it is what comes out of you that makes you unclean.” Then His disciples asked Him to explain this saying. Jesus said to them, “Don't you understand? Nothing that goes into you from the outside can really make you unclean…It is what comes out of you that makes you unclean. For from the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead you to do immoral things, to rob, kill, commit adultery, be greedy, and do all sorts of evil things; deceit, indecency, jealousy, slander, pride, and folly—all these evil things come from inside you and make you unclean.” (cf. Mk 7:1-23)
Reflections:
- Prayerfully read God’s word; what strikes you from the passages and why? Enter into conversation with Jesus.
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