In his teaching Jesus highlights a problem, if you like, with the practice of faith. Those who are diligent, externally faithful, dutiful and adhere to the rules can appear as holy and righteous. The Pharisees were like this — they had strict rules on personal hygiene, which they adhered to scrupulously. Jesus’ disciples, it appears, were more laid back in this department, and it earned them the rebuke of the Pharisees. Jesus, however, as he so often does, strikes at the heart of the matter. We are not made clean or righteous or acceptable to God by some kind of external cleansing process because such things do not change our hearts.
Let us look into our own hearts. Do we recognize any of the following in our own heart: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly? If the answer is yes, what then do we conclude? That we are righteous? No, of course not. We recognize that we are sinners in need of salvation and we cry out, as Paul cried out, ‘Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.‘