...by what you say and do...

It seems that today's NT reading contains within it the crux of legalism vs non-legalism.

The Pharisees come to Jesus and ask why the disciples disobey the "age-old traditions," in this case, ceremonial hand-washing. Jesus responds with another question about why the Pharisees disobey, by their traditions, God's commandments.

Every worshipful act has a symbolic representation. The symbolic representation is designed to give honor to a particular item of faith, whether it is a promise from God, a place where God showed Himself, or any other manifestation of God functioning in our lives. The act is not the important part. The important part is the presence of God, and the act is the symbolism that we assign to any ritual that we use that forces us to remember God's manifestation in our lives or in the lives of our ancestors.

Over time, the symbolic representation of faith, designed for a remembrance of God, becomes a ritual. As time passes, performance of the ritual, unless constantly reminded of its meaning, loses its symbolic meaning in favor over exact reproduction of the ritual. That is, the ritual becomes the thing to be "worshipped," not what the ritual represents. When we start worshipping rituals, and forget the meaning, we have the seeds of legalistic sectarianism and a loss of true faith in God's manifestation in the lives of our ancestors. As we perfect the ritual, we use our limited human rationality to create a group of "ritualists" who do it "more right" than other ritualists. That can be ourselves, saying we are doing it "better" than another group of Christians, or it can be a pastor, who seems to interpret scripture "more rightly" than another group of pastors. The downstream effect of this is sectarianism, or a process by which one group feels right to exclude another group from the Kingdom of Heaven, because they are not following the correct "rituals." Not questioning their faith, their choice of "ritual" is what will exclude them from the Kingdom of Heaven.

As this progresses forward, ritualism begets further ritualism. Such as, worshipping in a certain way must be attended by a certain dress code. This dress code becomes a further ritual we might use to exclude others from our "faith." If all we have is faith in the "ritual" (if we have lost faith in what the ritual was designed to represent) then we would be "right" in doing so, because others who don't follow that ritual would be outside our ritual faith. But as new rituals offshoot from old rituals, there can be a perversion of the original meaning of the manifestation of faith.

In this instance, the original manifestation was to honor one's father and mother. Phariseeical ritualistic and legalistic derivations resulted in a perversion of that commandment, saying it was okay to do so as long as money was given to church. The downstream effect of a good idea (ritual) whose meaning has been forgotten is a legalistic environment that obscures meaning and separates man from God.

Jesus obviously understood this, being God and all, and so His words were designed to remind us that it is not ritualistic obeisance that matters, but rather what comes out of one's heart. The heart controls the mouth, and what comes out of the mouth (evilness, slander, lies) is what makes a person unclean, not what goes into it.

However, how far can we go with this? Can we abandon all "form" of religion? As long as I am a good person, doing good for other people, why do I need "Christianity" if it is just a "ritual?" Isn't this just as valid as Buddhism, or any other "moral" human construct?

That comes down to a matter of faith. But, once accepting that faith, we see that even Jesus is not constrained by "ritual." He is constrained by faith alone. When the Canaanite woman comes and asks for help, He initially says no. He says He was sent for salvation of the people of Israel alone, and He tells her He will not help her. Had He stayed with this idea, He would have proven that blind adherence to a "ritualistically" set apart people, just because of their genetic bloodline, would be a valid approach.

Instead, after a short discussion, He says He will help her, but the reason He gives for helping her is not "mercy," or "proof for others" but He helps her because her "faith is great."

Faith, then, becomes the deciding factor. Faith to God is what allows us to see the symbolic meaning behind the ritual, and not be faithful to the ritual in an of itself, outside of God. Faith to God keeps us from derivation of ritual that leads us away from God. And faith to God results in our salvation.

Ritual has meaning only in what it is designed to represent. Outside of that, it is a tool by which we can be led away from God, unless our faith keeps us centered on God. Ritualism, and legalism, are the tools of the wolves in sheep's clothing, the false prophets. They are the things that Jesus speaks against when He quotes Hosea 6:6 over and over again. But, the bible reminds us that it is not a free-for-all, and that we can abandon all pretense at organized religion, just because ritualism can be misused. Faith matters, and even the Gentile who shows faith is of God and will be saved. Jesus even stated that it is the original intent that matters, and our faith-affiliated social organizations, our churches, can keep us strong in that faith, as He quotes one of the commandments.

By honoring the commandments, we participate in a ritual that keeps us faithful and reminds us to worship the God of our ancestors. Our identities as Christians are derived from our worship. Who we are is what we worship. So, even though deconstructionists my deny meaning due to the inadequacies of language combined with the inappropriateness of ritual, Jesus gives a clear indication that there are "things" which do matter (the commandments) and that it is faith that saves us all, in the end.