Friends,
in today’s Gospel Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who
imposed their interpretation of the Law on the Israelites. Keep in mind
that the first Christians and the writers of the first Christian
documents were all Jews, or at least people formed by a Jewish thought
world. They made sense of Jesus in terms of what were, to
them, the Scriptures.
Jesus
himself was an observant Jew, and the themes and images of the Holy
Scriptures were elemental for him. And he presented himself as the one
who would not undermine the Law and the Prophets but fulfill them.
All
of
those social and religious conventions that had effectively divided
Israel, he sought to overcome and to expose as fraudulent. He reached
out to everyone: rich and poor, healthy and sick, saints and sinners.
And he embodied the obedience of Israel: "I have come only to do the
will of the one who sent me." "My food is to do the will of my heavenly
Father."
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 125
Moses said to the people:
"Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin upon you,
you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.
Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'
For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?"
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
—For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. —
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"
He responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
"Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.
"From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile."
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