“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from
the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions,
murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what
defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”
- Matthew 15:18-20
Do
you remember the “I’m a Mac. And I’m a PC” ads from a few years ago? In every
commercial, two men would talk to the viewer (and sometimes each other) about
the differences between Apple’s computers and Microsoft’s. One of the men, the
personification of the PC, was a rumpled, dorky-looking middle manager type
with the glasses and khakis to prove it. The other, the Mac, was a younger,
cool-but-unthreatening creative guy, complete with nice jeans and a stylish
haircut. Apple aired dozens of ads featuring these two characters, but the
dialogue was always superfluous—the moment the characters introduced themselves,
the point was made: there were two kinds of people in this world, and your
computer of choice showed whether you were in the right group or not.
Those
ads spoke to a simple, universal desire to be recognized as the right kind of
person. We want to be included, we want to be validated—and yes, we want to be
a little bit exclusive. When you proudly say, “I’m a Longhorn” or “I’m a
Republican” or “I’m a Baptist,” you’re stating factual associations, but more
than that, you’re setting yourself apart, declaring to the world that you
belong to a superior tribe. You want the world to know that, while the world
might be full of ne’er-do-wells, you’re
one of the good people.
There
was a group in Jesus’s time, the Pharisees, who exemplified that sort of
attitude. They had devoted themselves to the study of God’s Law and to strictly
adhering to it—and they weren’t shy about pointing out those who didn’t measure
up to their standard. So when they saw Jesus’s disciples failing to make
themselves ritually clean before every meal, they didn’t hesitate to bring it
to the Lord’s attention. Their primary goal here wasn’t to ensure that God’s
Law was followed to the letter, but to embarrass Jesus and gratify
themselves—to show that, unlike this popular new rabbi, they were the right kind of people. But Jesus saw through their legalism
and cut to the truth of the matter: if you’re worried about being unclean
before God, he said, look to your heart, not to what’s on the surface.
The
kind of tribalism epitomized by the Pharisees is rampant today. On television
and radio and especially social media, there are hordes of self-appointed
inspectors checking people’s hands so that they can declare them unclean. Just
like the Pharisees, their goal is simple: to make sure everyone knows that the
only acceptable kind of person is their kind
of person.
Left
untreated by grace, a germ of exclusivity can quickly metastasize into a fever
of intolerance. Christ made clear how God judges people—not by tribal
standards, but by the measure of what you believe and confess. Your heart is
what matters to the Lord, not your social, educational, economic, political, or
racial affiliation; your righteousness is determined by God’s grace alone.
Tribalism says that the world can be divided into good people and bad people,
but the Bible declares the truth: there’s only ever been one truly good person,
and he died to save, redeem, and welcome home the bad people. So in a week
marred by factionalism, intolerance, and hatred, may you be a light in the
darkness—for your calling is not to segregate people by tribe, but to invite
them to God’s kingdom.
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