Tess Koning, member of our Parish Pastoral Council and Principal of St Peter’s Primary School, presents our Gospel Reflections this week and today reads from the Gospel of Luke (11: 37-41), in which Jesus says ‘Woe to you Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and wickedness’.

Tess notes that the Pharisees’ issue with Jesus and his disciples with not washing their hands was not about the spread of germs, but about ritual purity. Their Law required ritual washing to make them worthy from certain kinds of uncleanness.

Their problem was that Jesus accepted all those who were sick with various kinds of diseases, laying his hands on them to cure them. As Jesus touched and was touched by many people, the Pharisees believed this to be defiling. Even when Jesus fed the multitudes, there is no reference in the scripture to ritual washing of hands or serving baskets, either before or after the meal.

Jesus’ response is that the problem is not with the outward but with the inward cleansing; what’s going on within the heart. That what comes out of a person’s heart defiles. The handwashing should have been like a sacramental action: an outward sign, reflective of an inner change. But it rarely was, as it was simply a legalistic action that teemed with a disdaining judgment of others.

Jesus’ constant message is “do not judge”, which is not the same as using good judgement to make decisions. He commands not to judge, by way of how we regard each other as human beings, children of God, who desires to share eternity with us. It is only for God to judge and in His judgment, everyone is made worthy of His love.

Jesus also asks us to pray for a heart to look on others as we would hope God looks on us. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged… for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Tess closes saying we have a choice, and today we pray that we refrain from judging others and that we continue to make right choices for our hearts to be clean.