When There's More to What He's Saying Than What He's Saying

Peter said, "Explain the parable to us."

Matthew 15:15

The Pharisees confronted Jesus regarding the disciples and their failure to wash their hands before meals.  In turn Jesus confronted them regarding the tradition of allowing children to fail in the honoring of their parents by signing the parents' money over to the synagogue.  Then he used a biological metaphor to highlight that the condition of the hands matters nothing when compared to the condition of the heart.  

But he didn't stop there.  He makes a reference to the parable of the wheats and tares (Matthew 13:24-30) and states that the Pharisees are a blind people leading other blind people.  In unpacking all that Jesus pronounced over the Pharisees, it's clear that He didn't just pronounce judgments over the Pharisees.  Who were the blind people that the Pharisees were leading (v14)?  Was He only referring to the Pharisees as those that the Father did not plant (v15)?

Over the ages, we've seen religious systems (not just speaking of the Christian flavor here) extort money from people in many ways and for many reasons.  From temple prostitution to buying your way into favor to buying salvation, the means of religious systems are not only varied, but creative.   But what's more, who is enabling whom?  Did the religious leaders come up with these streams of revenue, or did the people come up with the idea to escape a more difficult, transparent path to provision, resolution, legitimacy, salvation, etc (to which the leaders gladly played along)?

It's the condition of the heart that makes us blind, and in the desperate condition of our souls we willingly allow those over us to blindly lead us over the cliff and into a tragic, terrible abyss.  Even if (or when) intentions are good and fair, the hapless state is a scene straight out of a Keystone Cops show.  And it's the condition of our soul - not the cleanliness of our skin - that makes us unclean. Without a soul-transformation, we are without hope.  And so, He circles it all back around to Him and why He came.

And to think it all started with something as trivial as hand washing!