When Handwashing Isn’t Really About Handwashing
Today’s reading from Matthew 15 and Mark 7 opens with a clash between Jesus and the Pharisees over something that feels, at first glance, almost trivial: washing hands before eating. The Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of breaking the tradition of ceremonial washing, and Jesus pushes back by questioning whether their human traditions are overshadowing God’s commandments. In Matthew 15:3 (NLT), he asks, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?”
Rules, Rituals, and the Fine Print of Tradition
What I find interesting is the way this dispute isn’t really about hygiene or ritual at all. It’s about authority, and about how people decide what matters most. Traditions can be powerful—they give structure, continuity, and identity to a community. But they can also become rigid, creating a sense of control or superiority. Jesus seems to be asking: when do practices designed to honor values end up replacing the values themselves?
I wonder how often this plays out outside of religion. Workplaces, families, and even social groups develop their own traditions and expectations. Some can be small—like how meetings always start with a particular routine. Others can be larger, like family customs around holidays. These habits often provide comfort and stability. But sometimes, they can become so ingrained that people forget why they began in the first place. At that point, the ritual is preserved but the meaning behind it gets lost.
Clean Hands vs. Clean Words
Jesus takes this further by reframing purity itself. In Matthew 15:11 (NLT), he says, “It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.” That’s a dramatic shift in perspective. Instead of focusing on external practices, he points inward—to character, speech, and intention. It’s a reminder that appearances can be misleading. Following all the outward rules might make someone look respectable, but their words and actions could tell a very different story.
There’s something challenging about this idea. It suggests that measuring integrity is more complicated than following a checklist of rules. It’s much easier to measure compliance with external traditions than to evaluate the state of someone’s heart, or their ability to treat others with fairness and kindness. This tension between visible practices and invisible motives seems timeless.
Traditions: Anchors or Empty Shells?
Reading these passages makes me think about the balance between honoring traditions and remaining open to questioning them. Traditions can serve a valuable role, but when they start to cause harm, exclude others, or distract from deeper values, maybe they need to be reconsidered. On the other hand, traditions can also act as anchors—reminders of something bigger than individual preference.
So the question is: how do we tell when a tradition is helping us live out what we value, and when it has become an empty habit? Whether in religion, culture, or everyday life, the challenge remains the same: not mistaking the form for the substance.