Then Jesus called to the crowds and said “Listen to what I say and try to understand. You are not defiled by what you eat; you are defiled by what you say and do (i.e. what comes out of the mouth defiles you.)” (Matthew 15:10-11, NLT)
Far too often this passage has been misunderstood and interpreted to mean that Jesus may have in someway by it denied the Kosher dietary laws. This is clearly not the case, as can be seen by looking at it in context. Yet, surely too often we ‘religious’ put our religious actions (being zealous for the law, for the Church, in “worship,” etc.) in a place that we assume by it we have done our religious duties and are sure we have our place with God in his coming Kingdom. When Jesus says, “You are not defiled by what you eat,” there is a much heavier weight to it than at first appears. If by simply following the list of legal codes developed by the religious elite in a system of “traditional” and acceptable behavior gives us the right to think we are somehow of the hook religiously, it seems to be a good assumption that those who do not follow these codes are still in danger of fail.
