From The Heart

The way we love and honor others says a lot about the health of our faith, because it reveals to the world how we love and honor our God.

a heartfelt thought on love from
Matthew 15:1-20

These past few weeks have been tough for the Trumps. I’m not talking about the family whose father has been indicted yet again. But about the family of my friend, Bill Trump, whose kids asked me to speak at his funeral this past Thursday, here in Wisconsin.

Now to find nice things to say about one of these men is easier than it is about the other.

One was faithful to God, the other to himself. One gave his life in service to God’s people, the other …well not so much.

It’s not too difficult to understand why it might be easier for someone to love one over the other.

​This is where things get a little messy for those who choose to follow Jesus, who made it very clear that to love one person and not the other speaks volumes about the truth and worth of one’s faith.

There is a Jewish proverb that states,“Before every person there marches an angel proclaiming, ‘Behold, the image of God.’” Of course to say are all made in God’s image, means everyone. Not some of us, but all of us. Jesus taught us to see the image of God in a person’s heart, not just because that’s where God is, but also because that’s where real transformation and redemption begins.

To recognize the divine in all people, and to be moved to act by this principle, is fundamental to following the way of Jesus. But here’s the thing, Jesus’ actions back up his words. So the question every Christian must answer is “Are my words and actions on the same page?”

If not, Jesus gives us this message from Matthew 15:1-20:

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!” Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? .... 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.’ Jesus called the crowd to him and said, .... “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them….. the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts ... but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”                                                               Matthew’ 15:1-20

For most of my life, the Pharisees have always been portrayed as the antagonist in the gospels stories. They’re always made out to be the bad guys, because after all, Jesus is the good guy.

In today’s encounter, this group asks Jesus why his disciples don’t wash their hands before eating…a law required of priest and not the people. We don’t know what happened that trigger the question. Maybe they’d been caught reaching into the olive jar with their grubby hands. Or maybe the Pharisees were fishing to see if Jesus’ teachings were aligned with their interpretation of scripture.

The majority of people who followed Jesus regarded him as a Rabbi, a teacher. So it wouldn’t have been that uncommon for the Pharisees - who where the keepers of the laws and traditions- to interact with Jesus to test his yoke, his teaching and interpretation of Scripture. Yet that didn’t seem to be their only motive.

Jesus knew exactly what they’re trying to do. They were using the laws to their advantage, and to try to entrap him as a means to make themselves look good before the crowd.

So Jesus turns the tables on the Pharisees with a question based on God’s commandments that were given to all people to obey. He asks, “Why do you break and nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition?” Then, without missing a beat, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah charging his accusers of hypocrisy.

We might think Jesus turns to the crowd in order to shame the Pharisees. I think he did what he did to remind us all of our own failure of faithfulness.

Again, we’ve been taught to believe the Pharisees are the bad guys. They’re not. They've dedicated their entire lives to keep the commandments at the forefront of public life, because they know what has happened to the Jewish people in the past when they weren’t obedient.

We ought to be careful on judging them, or anyone else, because how many times have we thought we were honoring God with our hymns and prayers, and yet by manipulating scripture to favor our own opinions, or to make ourselves look better, actually fails to worship God.

In this story, Jesus is pretty much saying that honoring God isn’t about external rituals or proper interpretation of scripture. It’s about having and sharing a sincere and faithful heart.

As he tells the crowd, it’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out. By this unsavory example, he shifts the focus from our outward appearances to the inward intentions and attitudes that drive our actions.

​Clean hands aren’t the issue. God wants a clean heart.

Richard Rohr reminds us that “Love is the only thing that transforms the human heart.” As we see throughout the Gospels, Jesus shows us how love is the impetus of redeeming and restoring people and their communities. Love is way to healing and radical forgiveness.

The way we love and honor others says a lot about the health of the Body of Christ, because it reveals to the world how we love and honor our God.

By placing love for God and others at the forefront, Jesus shifts the focus from legalistic adherence to a more profound and transformative ethic - one that is centered on compassion, mercy, and grace as a way to engage with others, making the kingdom of heaven come to life in real time.

Again, God wants our hearts, not lip service. While eating with dirty hands might make a person physically sick, a dirty heart will make someone spiritually sick which can affect the entire community of believers.

We’ve seen this every time a leader of a church has a fall from grace, when they are caught with their dirty hands in the proverbial olive jar.

Our focus must first and foremost be on the heart. In Psalm 51, David prays, “Create in me a clean heart, O God!” (Psalm 51:10)

In his epistles, Paul tells us to believe in the heart (Romans 10:9-10), sing from the heart (Colossians 3:16), obey from the heart (Romans 6:17; Ephesians 6:6), and give from the heart (2 Corinthians 9:7).

And of course it was Jesus who said, they will know you belong to me by the way you share your heart with each other (John 13:35).

Love begins in and proceeds from the heart. But so do our words, and all our other actions and interactions as well.

It’s easy to say we love God, love others, and serve both, but how do we make these seven words more than just a flowery way to describe our church?

How do we make them the actual foundational principles of our faith?

How can we transform them into an action plan that defines who we are rather than defile?

How can we embrace this ideal in such a way that we become more like Christ and less like Pharisees?

To love God like Jesus did involves cultivating a deep and personal relationship with the divine. By devoting our life to the teaching and commandments like Jesus did by adhering to the intent of the law and not merely the letter of it.

To love others like Jesus did requires treating everyone with the same compassion, kindness, respect, and empathy that you would want for yourself, regardless of who they are or what they believe.

And to serve both God and others like Jesus did…means putting his unconditional love into play. It’s about taking your time, talents, and resources to make a positive difference in the world.

Jesus called us to place love above the law. Which means whenever we step into Anamesa, that space between ourselves and others, we need to be mindful and present to needs of those around us.

We need to listen with an open heart and a non-critical attitude. We need to refrain from passing judgment on others based on their situation, choices, or circumstances.

We need to remember that when we say we love God, love others and serve both, we’re not just giving God a bunch of lip service. Instead, we are honoring God by speaking for those whose voices have been silenced; advocating justice for the mistreated and oppressed; and being the living incarnation of God’s compassion - all by engaging in the divine love that you were made from.

Our faith begins in the heart. So too does our real spiritual transformation. As we set our sights on following Jesus, let us set the intentions of our heart on imitating on the one who declared the greatest commandment in the law is this: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second is like it,” he said. “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:36-40).

Jesus will go on to pick up his cross and demonstrate that “There is no greater love than this, but to lay down one’s life for others” (John 15:13).

Jesus showed us the way, which isn’t easy. But it’s not impossible either. It’s might seem scary because it exposes our heart and makes us vulnerable to hurt. But it is the way to redemption and transformation.

Which is why to show what we mean when we say to love God, love others, and serve both will always be greatest form of worship we can ever offer.