Dirty Words

AM Psalm 80 • PM Psalm 77, [79]
Neh. 9:1-15(16-25) • Rev. 18:1-8 • Matt. 15:1-20

In today’s reading from Matthew, the Pharisees ask Jesus why his disciples do not wash their hands before eating, thus violating a “tradition of the elders.” Jesus counters, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”

Leaving aside the problematic quote that “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die,” I got to thinking, why is it that the Pharisees cling so stubbornly to their world view and feel threatened, as they have felt threatened elsewhere in the Gospels, by Jesus and his world view? It is as if the Pharisees consider the words of Jesus to be as dirty as the disciples’ unwashed hands.

The Pharisees might well fear a loss of cultural power. But I think it goes deeper than that. The loss of their cultural power—the threat to their world view—is a threat to the Pharisees’ very identity.

My teacher John Robert Locke had us learn a working definition of world view that went something like this: that network of assumptions including values, codes, hierarchies, god(s), religion, nature, gender, law, and justice through which we experience the world.

We all have a world view. It is the ground upon which we stand. “Hier stand ich,” Luther is said to have proclaimed when he nailed the ninety-five theses to the door, “Ich kann nicht anders.” That is, “Here I stand. I cannot stand elsewhere.” For someone to challenge our world view is to have them virtually rip the ground from beneath our feet. So where do we stand then?

Today’s culture wars are wars over world view. Is it appropriate to kneel during the playing of the national anthem? Should transgender youth receive medical treatment?

Was the pharisees’ world view a “sincere belief” (to use a phrase from a recent Supreme Court decision), even though, as Jesus pointed out, it went against a commandment? Or were they desperately clinging to their own sense of identity, of their very existence?

As we read the Gospels, we may want to identify with the disciples, although, as we see time and again, they, too, struggle mightily to follow the Lord. But how many of us can put ourselves in the shoes of the Pharisees? How often do we cling to our “sincere beliefs” for our very sense of existence, even when those beliefs simply don’t add up?

And whom can we ask for the love and guidance we need to give us a place to stand?

Written by James Gamble

James Gamble is in his second year of retirement from his position as Senior Instructor in the English Department at the University of Arkansas. His navigation through world view, the culture wars, and faith continues to be a work in progress.