Protect Your Heart Matthew 15:1-20

“Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (Ps. 119:11, NASB).

In today’s world, it is often said that we live in uncertain times. As we struggle with the coronavirus many people are yearning for a return to normal life. At the same time there are those that believe that life will not return to the old normal. We must prepare for a new normal. America is struggling with civil unrest as Black people are more conscious of the injustices that plague our nation. Even many white people are unaware of the injustices practiced in our nation. Black people want change. They want an end to racial discrimination. They want systemic injustices to end. Yet, while there are millions of American citizens that want things to change, it seems to me that the majority do not know how these changes can be accomplished. One of the suggestions is that people register to vote. If people vote they can elect people that fight for legislations that bring about change. On the other hand, there are people that tell us that nothing will change until the hearts of people are changed. This article takes the view that the key to peace, harmony, safety, and security will be accomplished when people’s hearts are changed so that reconciliation can take place.

In both the Old Testament and New Testament God judges a person by their heart. Psalm 119 tells us that we must guard our hearts. “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (v.11, NASB). Our hearts must be protected from evil, that is, our hearts must be protected from all unrighteousness and all injustices. Psalm 119 tells us that our hearts are protected by God’s words along. Thus, the psalmist speaks about meditating on the words of God. He hides the words of God in his heart. He meditates on God’s words because it is through God’s words that he gains understanding. How does the psalmist keep God’s word in his heart? He not only meditates on God’s words, he also lives by God words found in God’s commandments and in God statues.

Thus, it is important that we know the word of God. I do not mean head knowledge because head knowledge requires us to give only mental ascent to the word. It is heart knowledge that motivates us to live by the word. It is heart knowledge that gives us the desire to do our best to use the word to govern everything that we do in life. It is heart knowledge that helps us to be all that God created us to be. God’s desire is that we live our lives reflecting His image and His likeness. Thus we must protect our hearts.

In order to protect our hearts we must come to the knowledge that our actions are determined by our hearts. This is the lesson that Jesus is teaching His disciples in the Gospel of Matthew chosen to be our text for this article. In this passage the Pharisees are questioning Jesus because they see Jesus’ disciples breaking traditions. The Pharisees notice that the disciples of Jesus do not wash their hands before they eat. I get their perspective because my mother taught her children to wash their hands before sitting at the table to eat. We were taught that our hands were dirty and had germs that might make us sick. Some germs can also cause death. So, it is a rule in our house that we wash our hands before we eat.

Now, as we read through this text Jesus begins to teach us that our behavior is not what separates us from God. Jesus tells the Pharisees that holding to their traditions are not the way to God. Keeping traditions will not reconcile us to God, and traditions do not make us to be the person that God wants us to be. Jesus says that the Pharisees are hypocrites. “‘You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrine the precepts of men’” (Matt. 15:7-9, NASB). Did you get that? God is not interested in the precepts of men. God does not accept the worship of men based on man’s precepts, traditions, and practices. It is easy to learn how to worship God in this manner. God, however, is interested not in the doctrines of men. God is interested in the heart of a man. True worship can take place only when the heart is right.

Jesus tells the crowd, “‘It is not what enters the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man,” (v. 11). Because of these words the disciples express their concerns. Jesus offends the Pharisees with His words. Jesus dismisses the Pharisees. He says that “they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (v.14). Upon Peter’s request, Jesus explains the parable. “‘Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those defiles the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man’” (vv. 17-20, NASB).

In this teaching Jesus is not dismissing what is written in the Law. The Pharisees are strict keepers of the Law. The Law requires that the people be ceremonially clean and holy. If a person is not clean he or she is defiled and are cut off from the people. As we examine what Jesus says, we learn that Jesus is not so concerned with ceremonial holiness. Instead, Jesus is aware that while the Pharisees insist on outward appearances and behaviors, at the same time they are not right in their hearts. This is important because what a person eats is physical with physical consequences. Jesus comes to not only restore physical health. On the contrary, Jesus comes to heal the sin sick heart. What a person eats is not the primary reason that a person commits acts that destroy relationships between a person and God as well as relationships between people. Thus, Jesus teaches us the lesson that we read about in Psalm 119.

In order to have a right relationship with God and other people we must protect our hearts. Our hearts must be nourished with the words of God. Thus, we must feed on His words. We must protect our hearts by properly exercising our hearts. This is done when we live by the words of God, keeping His commandments and his statues.

Now, this is a reality that we all need to accept. We live in a world of darkness. This means that we live in a world of sin. The world wants to make things right, but the world rejects the one thing needed to make things right. People are marching in the name of Black Lives Matter. They are taking a knee for social justice. Yet, I personally have not seen these demonstrators and protesters as well as their opponents take a knee for Jesus. I have not heard them say anything about Jesus. The world will do what the world knows to do. The world will try to accomplish things based on the wisdom of the world. The methods used are designed by the world. I am not criticizing those seeking to make things right. I am simply saying that the world is trying to change the world by eliminating practices without changing the heart. Jesus tells His disciples that their ways are ineffective. Jesus has an effective way.

Jesus, in this scripture passage, as well as others, teaches us that the real solution is a change of heart. The evil acts that we see are the results of the evil that is in our hearts. Jesus commissions His disciples to make disciples of all nations, teaching everything that Jesus commands (Matt. 28:18-20). They will be rejected and persecuted. He says, “‘These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world’” (Jn. 16:33, NASB). Thus, the way to reconciliation and peace is through Jesus Christ. He gives us the words of God through His teachings. He is the Word of God. He releases the captives and sets them free, and He gives sight to the blind (Lk. 4:18-19). He is the Lamb that takes away the sins of world (Jn. 1:29) making reconciliation with God and humanity possible. We must accept Him into our hearts. We must protect our hearts.