food and speech

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Jesus continues his response to the Pharisees who criticized his disciples for eating with ceremonially unclean hands. He argues that eating with unclean hands doesn't make someone unclean because the food that we eat goes into our stomach, not into our soul. The same argument held up later as the church was figuring out how to relate to "unclean" food or sharing the table with gentiles. Food is just food. Where the mouth reflects and impacts our spiritual lives is in what we say. This passage reminds me again of the power of words and my own need to be more careful about how I use them.
God bless,
Sam

Matthew 15:10-20

10Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: 11it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” 12Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” 13He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”



15But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” 16Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”