Links for today’s readings:
Read: Exodus 4 Listen: (4:17), Read: Matthew 15 Listen: (4:23)
Links for this weekend’s readings:
Read: Exodus 5 Listen: (3:15) Read: Matthew 16 Listen: (3:43)
Read: Exodus 6 Listen: (3:56) Read: Matthew 17 Listen: (3:46)
Scripture Focus: Matthew 15.10-20
10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” 12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” 13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
Reflection: Detecting Defiled Hearts
By John Tillman
Jesus says what comes out of us shows what is in us. Words we say or endorse can detect or diagnose defiled hearts.
This is true individually and collectively. Jesus affirms this when he tells his disciples to abandon the “blind guides.”
First we host defiling sin in our hearts, allowing it space and comfort. This sin could be anything—hatred for the “other,” lust for pleasures, or greed for gain or power. Letting sins linger, protecting them from the light of scripture, the revelation of conviction, and the purifying fire of repentance, allows sin to root itself in our thinking.
With sin-rooted thoughts, we justify and build logical defenses of sin. We explain it away as “my choice” or “I have no choice.” We defend it as “a strategic necessity.” We claim it as “part of my identity” or “how I was raised” or “how I was born.”
We spread seeds of our sin-rooted thoughts in speech. We manifest it in language or images. We share it in insults, inappropriate comments, memes, slander, lies, half-truths, manipulations of the truth, and dehumanizing declarations against our enemies.
Next we, or sometimes others, move our words into actions. Ponzi schemes are pitched. Corruption becomes the cost of doing business. Riots get started. Churches get burned. Protesters get shot. Victims are sexually assaulted. Police get attacked. Laws get passed.
Wicked actions are the fruit of wicked words, from the branch of wicked thinking, connected to the vine of wicked hearts, growing from the root of sin. And the seeds are all around us.
How can we live undefiled in a defiled world with defiled systems and leaders spewing defiled thinking, slogans, and logic? We need to remember that we have a different root and vine to tap into.
Your root determines your fruit. Righteous actions are the fruit of the Holy Spirit, growing through unworthy, grafted-in branches, drawing on the true vine of Jesus Christ, rooted in the Father’s unquenchable love for us.
Whose words guide you? Whose words do you repeat? Are you trusting “blind guides” whose defiled language reveals a defiled heart? Are you justifying and defending language which reveals the defilement of sin? Are you hosting sin in your heart, protected from the fire of repentance?
Abandon blind guides with defiled speech. Follow Jesus. Judge with sober judgment the words you say or endorse. Words reveal the condition of your heart.
Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us saying: “It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.” — Luke 7.47
– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Poisoning the Heart of the Gospel
The approval of the phrase “poisoning the blood of our country” among Christians is theologically wrong, morally reprehensible, and politically dangerous.
Read more: Killing With our Hearts
I do not kill with my gun…I kill with my heart.” Stephen King’s fictional Gunslingers understand Christ’s teaching about murder in a deeper way than some Christians.
