Matthew 15:1-9

Matthew 15:1-9

Then the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came near to Him while saying, “For what reason do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?  For they do not wash their hands whenever they should eat bread.”  And the one who answered said to them, “For what reason do you also transgress against the commandment of God because of your tradition?  For God said, ‘Honor the father and mother’ and ‘the one who reviles father and mother must come to an end by death.’  But you all say, ‘Whoever should say to father and mother that ‘a gift by which out of me you all should be helped,’ he will surely not honor his father and mother.’  And you all invalidate the authority of the Word of God for the sake of your tradition.  Hypocrites!  Isaiah prophesied correctly regarding you all while saying, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is very far off from me.  And in vain they worship me while teaching as teachings the commandments of humankind.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

The Pharisees and scribes come to challenge Jesus once more.  However, note that this time they come to challenge Jesus about something that is not in God’s Word.  They come to challenge Jesus about the fact that His disciples are not obeying the traditions of the elders.  They come because Jesus is not living and teaching within the box that they have constructed.  They come because Jesus is not living up to their expectations.

Have you ever been made to feel lesser because your faith did not fit inside the box of another person?  Why do human beings behave like the Pharisees and scribes here?

Second Thought:

Jesus teaches us in the middle of this passage a little about priorities.  The Greek is a bit unclear, and most English Bibles add a phrase not present in the Greek to help it make sense.  When talking about the gift, most English Bibles add the phrase “given to God” to indicate that the gift that should go to the parents was instead going to God.  The point that Jesus is making is about prioritization.  We often like to use our own preferences to get out of our obligations.  We even go so far as to prioritize God’s Word to allow us to not fulfill other parts of God’s Word.  How many times have good Christians opted out of helping people in the world because they were afraid of becoming “unclean” by being in the presence of sinfulness?  How often have we justified having a lack of compassion because we want to stay pure?  This is exactly that which Jesus speaks today.  We are not supposed to use portions of God’s Word to justify ignorance of other parts of God’s Word.  For example, we should not let our obedience to God allow us to disobey the command to honor our father and mother.  We are to pursue all of God’s desires, not just the ones that we think are the most important.

Do you prioritize any aspects of your faith?  Do you minimize other elements of faith?  Why is it dangerous to do so?

Third Thought:

 I am struck by Jesus’ quote of Isaiah in this instance.  Jesus lifts up Isaiah and reminds the Pharisees and scribes that God is not appreciative when people lift up the doctrine of humankind and teach it as equal to the commandments of God.  I think this is an important thing to remember.  It is very easy to lift up human traditions as being equal to the teachings of God because human traditions become warm and comfortable and they allow us to feel like we are in a familiar situation.  However, what should be important is not the comfort of our human traditions but the pursuit of God’s righteousness.  There is nothing wrong with having traditions.  But we should never be in a position to teach human tradition at the same level as God’s Word.

What traditions in worship or church have you experienced getting in the way of pursuing God’s righteousness?  Do you think this has been a problem throughout all human history?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 15:10-20