Fresh off another argument with the Pharisees and scribes in the previous ten verses of Matthew 15, Jesus teaches a crowd of people on matters of the ‘heart’. The pharisees and scribes traveled 90 miles to accuse him of transgressing the ‘Tradition of the Elders’ regarding hand washing. Rather than argue with them about the handwashing, He accuses them of placing their own religious traditions over God’s law.
“HEAR AND UNDERSTAND”
Jesus corrects the Sanhedrin on their traditions that they have set above God’s law. He uses Isaiah 29:13 to condemn their outward religion. This people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. (Matt. 15:8, Isaiah 29:13). Immediately after saying this to them, Jesus calls a crowd who are near.
Matthew 15:10- After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, “Hear and understand…”
Jesus is drawing their attention with urgency. This is a point of emphasis. It would be the same as saying “Don’t miss this point” or “This is important”. Jesus isn’t going to teach this lesson in the form of a parable. This is direct teaching. And the lesson is so counter cultural, then and even more so now. How may times do we hear “follow your heart” in our music, in our movies, even in product advertising? It may be one of the most common themes out there.
The idea of a person “following their heart” isn’t new. In fact, it’s what the serpent tempted Eve to do in the garden (Genesis 3). Throughout the Old Testament we see the phrase “They did that which was right in their own eyes”, which is the same thing as following your heart. Mankind does whatever the heart desires.
IN OR OUT?
Jesus calls the crowd and begins to teach. In response to the Pharisees accusation about eating bread without the ceremonial cleaning of their hands. Jesus says:
Matthew 15:11- It is not what enters the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.
This accusation made against Jesus and His disciples was that they were eating bread with unclean hands because they hadn’t ceremonially washed their hands after being in contact with gentiles. This washing wasn’t required in the Law of Moses but was something that had been added by the Tradition of the Elders. Jesus had just accused the Pharisees of transgressing God’s law in favor of their own traditions. But He wanted the people in the hearing of this to understand something very important. The outward acts are not what God desires.
Matthew 15:18-20- But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.
“Out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness and slanders.” This list isn’t all encompassing list of all sin, but it makes the point! All sin originates in the heart of mankind. These are what God sees, not the outward acts of keeping a tradition such as ceremonial handwashing.
This is not a new message from Jesus. This was a major point in the Sermon on the Mount as well. In Matthew 5, Jesus points out how murder begins as hatred in the heart (Matt. 5:21) and how adultery began with lust in the heart (Matt. 5:28). He also does this with revenge and lying. In Matthew 6, Jesus takes prayer, charitable giving, and forgiveness and teaches that the outward expressions are hypocritical if they aren’t done with a pure motivation of heart.
THE HEART OF PEOPLE
The condition of the “heart” is not a profound new idea that Jesus is just now bringing to the table. The Old Testament has a lot to say about the condition of the human heart. We tend to think that we naturally have good hearts. We, as humans, believe the best of ourselves typically. But the Old Testament paints a very different picture.
Jeremiah 17:9-10- The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I, the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
The prophet Jeremiah teaches that the heart cannot be trusted due to being deceitful. Who does the heart deceive? The answer is us! God searches and knows our hearts; He knows our motivations and our every thought. And we will be judged by Him according to the “fruit of our deeds”. Going back even further to the book of Genesis, the heart was an issue.
Genesis 6:5- The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually.
Genesis 8:21- … “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
This is much different than what our culture tells us to believe. We’re told to believe that we are basically good and that we should do what feels right to us. But have you ever raised kids? Did you have to teach your precious little toddler, sweet as they may be, to be selfish? Do you have to teach them to lie, or to lash out in anger? Of course not, we must teach them to share, to consider others, to control their anger and to tell the truth. The ability to sin comes with the person as Genesis 8:21 says from our “youth”.
Jesus is saying the exact same thing in our passage in Matthew. It is not what we put in our mouths that defiles us, but what comes out of the heart through our mouths that is what reveals our sin and defiles the person.
SPIRITUAL CARDIOLOGY
I think it goes without saying that when the scriptures deal with the heart, it is not talking about the physical muscle in our chest that is vital to our lives. But when we have a problem with our physical heart, we visit the cardiologist to see what we must do to heal our heart. The spiritual heart we’re dealing with today is equally as vital to our spiritual life as the physical heart is to the well-being of our physical body.
Proverbs 4:23 tells us to keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life. Another way of saying this is that “The heart is the master control of life-Warren Weirsbe”. Treatment cannot begin on our sick hearts until a proper diagnosis has been given and accepted. Both Jesus and the Old Testament writers have included each one of us in this diagnosis. We have a spiritual health problem, each and every one of us. But this does not have to be a terminal illness, there is hope!
THE PERFECT TREATMENT
There is good news! This condition does not have to be permanent. There is a treatment prescribed that will make our sick hearts well, and our dead hearts live.
Proverbs 3:5-7- Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
What a wonderful hope! But what does it mean to “Trust in the Lord”? Trust, belief, and faith all carry a deep meaning. When we truly trust, believe or have faith it produces something real. It’s so much more than arriving at a position of mental acknowledgment or just a general acceptance of something as true. If you truly believe something is true it will change how you act toward what you’re believing in. Believing in God and trusting in His provision of the Messiah comes with supernatural help!
2 Corinthians 5:17- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.
Ephesians 2:4-5- But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved.
These two passages are the two of the most hopeful messages we can receive. Trust in the Lord with all you heart and have newness of life.