Dragons and Geysers
Matthew 15:11 (After calling the crowds to listen up) Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a person, rather that which comes out from the mouth, this defiles a person.
Is it not true that people these days are as nervous about being around a possible ‘carrier’ of a virus as the one who actually has the bug? Infection. Who wants an infection? Avoid it at all costs. Jesus hinted at a similar scenario, that which makes a person clean or unclean, infected or sterile.
In a culture ripe with religious and traditional behaviors, Jesus found the perfect analogy to describe the use for one’s mouth. The curious crowd, void of spiritual intuition, to whom Jesus was speaking, seemed to be depleted of any actual intelligence as well. They were so easily swayed by the self-serving, pocket-lining leaders of their monotheistic ecclesia (assembly), aka, synagogue. The laundry list of household codes for the ‘religious-conscience’ rule-keeper would keep one busy for the entirety of life; wash cups, wash hands, don’t eat this, don’t touch that; clean or unclean. Jesus knew the culture well; He grew up in it, so He was more than equipped to speak to its lunacy. To help the curious crowd grasp the meaning of His recent sermon regarding a certain Twenty Commands, He took their religious rules for clean-eating and chucked them out the window, giving a nice little promotion to the otherwise ordinary and innocuous mouth.
The sins of carnality lie deep in the belly of a fully-human, carbon-based carrier of potential infection. Without those Twenty Commands to act as the National Guard, protecting the immune system from said sins, defilement can and will spew out pus like “Old Faithful,” a geyser-like assault on whoever and whatever is in the surrounding area: offending and insulting; maligning and impugning. Where the spirit-fruit? Where the walk of Jesus?
Those who rushed to meet Jesus’ requirements for being His disciples entered a training program which post-modernism has labeled, discipleship, but Jesus simply called it, imitating Him. The guidebook to complete such a task came in the form of His Twenty Commands, an upgraded version of Moses’ original tablets. Why the upgrade? Old Faithful. The spewing geyser of malignant sin only increased as mankind devised new ways of corruption. The Ten Commandments could no longer contain the sinful heart of people.
There is a reason why Jesus called the sinister religious leaders a brood of vipers. They had poison in their veins, and they sucked the spirituality out of what should have been the holy of holies. Jesus came to make that right, course-correcting a derailed system. And the mouth? Total upgrade. No longer did it serve as a cave for feeding a dragon; the mouth of integrity became a command-keeping, light-shining, little engine that could.
