Clean your hands before you eat

Wash your hands before you eat!  How many times as a child did you hear those words?  Or, as a parent, how many times did you shout them to your own children.  “Wash your hands before you eat”.

 And of course, they would look and examine their hands and say, “why, they’re not dirty”. To them, they probably didn’t look dirty on the outside, but we all know the germs, the hidden bacteria that makes a home on our hands. So, we wash our hands before we eat so we don’t get sick.

In Jesus’ time the washing of the hands was not so much in the interests of hygiene, but it was a ceremonial cleanliness that was at stake; hands washed and washed in a certain way.  The water for the washing was actually kept in a special jug, not just any water that they found in a nearby well.

This ceremony had to be so exact to the Jewish people that one time a rabbi who once omitted to the washing was buried in excommunication.

When Jesus was talking to the Jewish leaders, he was trying to make a point.  It’s not the ritual that makes us clean, but what’s in our hearts. Yes, clean and examine your hands before you eat, but more importantly than anything else, examine your heart. It is your heart that will condemn you, not how clean your hands are. Look deep into your heart.

And one of the most difficult things to do is to figure out ourselves, to get deep into our own turmoil and confusion; our own interior pain and see the things that others don’t. A true examination of conscience reveals our inner most thoughts and that takes courage. But, knowing ourselves can be the radar needed to avoid the near temptations to sin.

So, cleanse your heart with prayers every day, bring God into a pure heart and then you can feast.