And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into the pit.
-Matthew 15:14b

Jesus was referring to the fundamentalists of his day that got all fired up about whether or not a person washed their hands (as the laws of ritual cleansing required), but seemed relatively unconcerned about what was in a person's heart. What comes out of the mouth, or how the hands are used arises from the heart. If the heart is not cleansed then what difference is it whether we have clean hands or are picky about what we eat or drink?

In the Middle Ages if you had a headache, the local "physician" treated it by drilling a hole in your skull so that the evil spirits could escape. If you didn't die of infection from the dirty drill bit, you might actually have gotten well-or maybe not. They were concerned about treating externally a problem that was a matter of internal issues.

Many of the religious leaders of Jesus' day approached religion the same way. If you ate food that was ritually clean, kept your hands clean, and otherwise did as the laws directed, you were considered to have great faith. Jesus' point was that many of these leaders were blind to the very essence of religion's purpose-changing the heart. Change the heart, and you change the way a person views themselves, others, and the world around them.

A friend of mine, Mike Mather, senior pastor of Broadway Church here in the city, was observing how accessible information is. Every day we are bombarded with information from our cellular phones, televisions, ipads, ipods, and computers. "Yet," he observed, "it's too bad we live in the age of information and not the age of wisdom."

William James wrote that "the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." We have a lot of information but sometimes fail to overlook the details of the information so we might discover the deeper purpose to which the information is pointing. The blindness of too many religious people in Jesus' day (and I might add our own) was they were so focused on the minutiae of the Law, so blinded by it, that they failed to see a wiser purpose-loving God, loving one another, and loving ourselves.

Such discerning wisdom that knows what to overlook and what to focus on begins with reverence for God (Proverbs 1:7). I speak here of the God of Jesus who focused on the heart-the repentance and grace that could heal the heart and literally transform life.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, I will be bombarded by a lot of information today. Grant me a discerning heart that I may make wise choices and look for what may be the deeper lesson about life. In Jesus' name. Amen.

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana