Opinion: Hearts and meatballs have things in common

I don’t remember how old I was, but I do remember being hungry. What I’ll describe took place, I think I recall, on a Sunday morning, and I know it was many decades ago.

I feel sure that I was minding my own business. I know my mother was minding hers for that morning as she happened to be doing some cooking, probably for a church dinner, as I happened to be making my way through the kitchen. The details have long since become a bit foggy.

I recall that, on a platter, browned and beautiful, were some meatballs. They looked great, and Mom evidently felt no need to stand guard over them, so ... I snitched one. Ate the whole meaty little sphere in pretty much one bite.

At that point in my life, I knew much more about meatball-eating than I knew about meatball-cooking (and I guess that’s still true). But when my mother missed the stolen meatball, she did not miss the fact that I was the culprit, and she educated me a bit.

It turns out that those meatballs were not even close to being ready to turn out as food ready to be eaten.

Mom had browned the outsides; they’d spent a little time in some hot oil, but they’d spent no time at all in a hot oven. Hence, though their outsides looked great and could even tempt a normally obedient little lad to misdemeanor meatball theft, their insides were completely raw. And, of course, eating raw hamburger meat is not a practice many trustworthy health authorities recommend.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 23, you won’t find any notes at all about meatball-cooking or eating, but you’ll find some serious wisdom for life as Jesus teaches about living lives that are genuine and pure both inside and out. He has some particularly harsh words for some very “religious” folks who claimed to be “the best of the best.” They looked good on the outside, but their hearts were wicked.

It makes no sense, he says (I’m paraphrasing), to scrupulously wash the outside of a cup and dish and leave yesterday’s dinner on the inside to mold and putrefy. “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23:26).

It’s true, of course, that we’re all human, and that means that we often fall very short. But what I think the Lord wants is for us to live honest lives, acknowledging our imperfection, seeking his grace, and asking for his help to live lives that are genuine and not hypocritical.

The preacher who preaches God’s grace on Sunday is to be a gracious person in line at the grocery store on Monday.

The elder who prays on Sunday as if he’s close to God is to live and pray on Tuesday as a person who honors the Almighty in private at home as well as in public at church.

All of us who claim to be Christ’s people are to live our lives bowing to him as Lord every day.

And, by the way, people who are religious about not being religious are not immune to versions of this same “disease.” Sadly, humans and hypocrisy have always had more in common than an initial H. It just seems particularly pernicious when we’re “religious” about it.

Hearts and meatballs. Who’d have thought they might have anything in common?

Curtis Shelburne writes about faith for The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him at:

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