Smoodock's Blog

Ceremonial laws are supposed to help us understand deeper truths. Men have their ceremonial laws for initiation into their clubs, sororities and institutions; and God has his! When men transgress one of their own ceremonial laws, he may show himself to be a poor example of his club, sorority or institution, but, quite frankly, I don’t believe God cares even a little, when such things are done. However, when ancient believers transgressed one of God’s ceremonial laws, the man was sinning. While it may not have been murder or bearing false witness, it was sin, nonetheless. Why? because those ceremonial laws were important for man’s instruction.

For example, have you ever wondered why an ancient Jew was forbidden to eat a bear, a horse or a rabbit? It is because these animals don’t have a parted hoof. A parted hoof symbolized walking a separate life. So, the teaching was that a man’s spiritual food should cause him to be holy and walk separately from the world. Well, one might say: “what about the pig? Its hoofs are parted!” This is true, but the ceremonial laws also say the animal must chew the cud. This points to how one takes in spiritual matters, like hearing the word of God. Knowledge isn’t learned only by memorization. Memorizing helps us to remember a thing but it doesn’t necessarily affect one’s heart. Chewing the cud represents a man’s thinking about the spiritual food he had been given. He “chews” on it over and over again until he fully understands/digests what he’s been told.

So, ceremonial laws were important to the ancient Jews, but with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the laws themselves became unnecessary, because God’s Spirit did what the Law couldn’t do and that was to change man’s heart and cause him to be willing to understand and obey the Lord. Our understanding and our walk in Christ were affected by the presence of God’s Spirit within us.

So, after Jesus had taught the people, when Jesus and his disciples were alone, he explained his doctrine, vis-à-vis one should not permit folks who are barren of spiritual understanding to govern what he says or does, because their authority does not come from God. At that time Peter, representing the other disciples (Mark 7:17), came to Jesus and asked him to explain the parable (Matthew 15:15). Remember, that Jesus spoke parables to the people at large, and only parables (Matthew 13:34). Therefore, when Jesus said: “What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person” (Matthew 15:11), it was a parable, and Peter, with the other disciples, wanted to know what Jesus meant.

Jesus then questioned his disciples, saying: “Are you still so ignorant?” (Matthew 15:16). Then he went on to explain that whatever food we eat (washed or unwashed) enters the stomach and is expelled as waste (Matthew 15:17). How can such things defile the man. Whatever we eat, washed or not, ends up as waste. What happens to the washed also occurs to the unwashed. What’s the difference?

However, what comes out of one’s mouth comes out, not as what’s wasted, but is expected to accomplish something, whether good or evil. Such things can and do defile a man, because it comes from his heart. Men use their hearts to give themselves permission to do all kinds of evil, sinful things, such as: murder, adultery stealing and bearing false testimony, destroying another’s character etc. (Matthew 15:18-19). These things are what defile men, and they come out of a man’s heart. Nevertheless, eating with unwashed hands can never defile a person or make him unclean (Matthew 15:20).         [EB1]