Once, some scribes and Pharisees were scandalized by Jesus' disciples and asked him why they did not observe traditions and ate without first washing their hands. However, they were not referring to rules of physical hygiene, but of moral impurity, of non-observance of the synagogue traditions.
And Jesus answered them with the following comparison: "Whatever enters a man from the outside does not make him impure, but what comes out of a man; because from the heart evil thoughts, lust, homicides, false testimonies, hypocrisies, blasphemy, adultery, are born - and these are the things that make a man impure. But the fact of not washing his hands before eating does not make the man impure".
Christianity has persisted for more than 20 centuries with the idea that external objects and acts can give man purity or impurity - when, in the reality, only the internal attitude gives man moral or spiritual purity or impurity, for what purifies or contaminates man is not the circumstances, but the content of his thoughts.
Certain ecclesiastical theologies attribute purification and sanctification power to certain objects and words - an ideology that was inherited from the ancient "Mysteries" of Roman paganism. The sinner desiring spiritual purification addressed itself to the magicians and priests of the temples; it touched certain "sacred objects", or heard the ritual words and thought becoming this way purified and redeemed.
The Greek word "Mysterion" is, in Latin, "Sacramentum". Ecclesiastical sacraments are the continuation of pagan mysteries and their function is ritualistic magic.
Later, Jewish magic prevailed in a large part of Christendom, which attributed redemption and spiritual sanctification to the blood of sacrificed animals. Solomon, according to the first book of Kings, on the occasion of the temple’s ceremony dedication in Jerusalem, had thousands of animals killed. Each year, on Mount Zion, the priest gathered the people of Israel at the entrance to the temple and ordered a goat to come, placed his hands on the head of the innocent creature and transferred the sins of the people to that it; then, this "scapegoat" was killed, and, according to the dominant belief, with that death, all the people's sins also died.
This tradition of the tabernacle festivals that condemns the scapegoat to death was because, in previous rituals, the innocent animal was released into the desert to die, but eventually, the goat returned, and this scandalized the inhabitants of Israel, as it did not have their sins redeemed. Therefore, for the goat not to return, it was better to kill it!
It is also said, that it was customary, to differentiate the goat that would be the scapegoat, in placing a strip of red fabric around its neck, but with the scorching heat of the desert, the sun would fade the red colour to the point of whitening it. As the goat did not always die, they believed that the colour white was the colour of purity and, therefore, Israel's sins were forgiven and the goat returned to live without being harassed!
Christian theology replaced the innocent goat with the only sinless man and attributed a redemptive and spiritualizing effect to his blood - although Jesus himself never considered his blood as an elixir of redemption!
In some more recent Christian beliefs, purification is not attributed to objects and words, nor the blood of any animal, but the sinful man himself, who, through successive reincarnations, progressively purifies himself from his sins.
In all these cases, the purification of man comes externally to him, through objects, formulas, rituals or the inheritance of his parents - it always comes from someone else's factor.
However, according to the Gospel, there is no redemption motivated by external circumstances, but only self-redemption. Man is not saved by anything or anyone - man redeems himself, saves himself, purifies himself, sanctifies himself, not by his tyrannical human ego, but by his divine Self, his internal Christ, the Kingdom of God, Light of the World, which is in him and which he must awaken.
This self-redemption is Christ-redemption, Theo-redemption - self-realization.
When Jesus says that the first and greatest commandment is that man should love the Lord his God with all his soul, with all his mind, with all his heart and with all his strength - what is this if not self-redemption, self-realization? It is the purification that comes from within man, and not externally. For just as, according to Jesus' words, all impurity comes from within man, so also all purity comes from within.
If impurity comes from his human ego, purity comes from his divine Self.
All the purification and sanctification of a man comes from the awakening of his divine Self, which is the "rebirth by the spirit".
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