A Polluted River from Within

That Which Defiles
1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’[a] and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[b] 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[c]”

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.[d] 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.”

There is a sense that the "Christian Evangelical Religious World" has confined sin to those things and those choices that we make that are defined as wrong.  They are like flotsam and jetsam that are left from the shipwreck of humanity and now, through Christ, we can clean up the mess.  The Pharisees are more concerned with their traditions than the actual commandments of God and Jesus uses this to point out the difference between doing the right thing and the motives of the heart.   Jesus seems to be saying that it is not merely a clean water that has pollution that we must now remove....he seems to be saying that the river is deeply polluted from its source.  The human heart is utterly polluted and tending to the external defilement ignores the much deeper reality...sin isn't what you do....it is who you are.  You aren't simply polluted by engaging in sin and clean by avoiding it....you are sin, it emanates from within us.  We aren't defined by our sin as much as we ourselves define sin by the corruption of our hearts...all of us...completely.   

Interesting wording...because he who knew no sin, became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.  It is not just an accomplishment of do's and don'ts that bring purity...and the Pharisees were offended by the idea.