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| Love, Don't Wash Your Hands Of It |
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What doe's washing your hands have to do with Love? Well, nothing, "Unless you're trying to suggest to Jesus that religion and ritual are more important. Let's listen to a heated discussion from Matthew 15.
1. Then from Jerusalem came scribes and Pharisees and said, 2. Why do Your disciples transgress, 'PARABATES' go beyond, and violate the rules, 'PARADOSIS', traditions handed down by the elders of the past? For they do not practice [ceremonially] washing their hands before they eat.
Interesting way to start a dialog, isn't it? The sarcasm comes from the fact that some local Pharisees had already objected to Jesus' attitude to their tradition of avoiding bums, prostitutes and other low life's, fasting, and the Sabbath observance (9:11, 14; 12:2).
They must have told this to the Pharisees in Jerusalem, and so they came down to check out this 'preacher' in far away Galilee.
Their concern was that Jesus and his disciples did not obey their rules for ritual washing to remove the pollution of the world before eating.
This might have begun as a sensible health rule and then given ceremonial significance. Or it could be based on the rules for priests before service in the tabernacle (Exodus 30:19-21).
There is no trace of this requirement for ordinary people. And the rule does not come under any of the categories of moral judgment listed in the ten commandments. Now I said this all has something to do with Love, so lets continue on in this discussion.
3. He (Jesus) replied to them, And why also do you transgress and violate the commandment of God for the sake of the rules handed down to you by your forefathers (the elders)? 4. For God commanded, Honor your father and your mother, and, He who curses or reviles or speaks evil of or abuses or treats improperly his father or mother, let him surely come to his end by death. [Exod. 20:12; 21:17; Lev. 20:9; Deut. 5:16.] 5. But you say, If anyone tells his father or mother, What you would have gained from me [that is, the money and whatever I have that might be used for helping you] is already dedicated as a gift to God, then he is exempt and no longer under obligation to honor and help his father or his mother.
Jesus answers the Pharisees by showing how they twisted the moral law about honoring parents.
Instead of supporting their parents in their old age (even more necessary when there was no social security or Old Age Pension), they said the money was already given to God. This was to avoid the obvious intention of the moral law.
Now, Jesus is referring to the practice of Corban (literally, 'Offering' see Mark 7:11) Anyone who made a Corban Vow was required to dedicate money to Gods' temple that otherwise would have gone to support their parents. Although this seemed worthy, many were merely neglecting Gods command to love and care for their needy parents.
Do we, the church do this today?... Oops. How often do we allow the need to fund things going on at church take priority over the needs of our parents, children, neighbors?
Remember now, Jesus said (referring to reaching out in love) that if you've done this for them, you have done it to me.
Back to this meeting,... freeing His disciples from burdensome traditions for ceremonial washing did nobody any harm and it certainly did not go against the moral law. And so He continues:
6. So for the sake of your tradition (the rules handed down by your forefathers), you have set aside 'AKURPO' the Word of God [depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect]. 7. You pretenders, 'HUPOKRITES' (hypocrites)! Admirably and truly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said: 8. These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me. 9. Uselessly do they worship Me, for they teach as doctrines the commands of men. [Isa. 29:13.]
The hypocrisy of Pharisee traditions will be exposed more fully in a whole chapter devoted to that topic (23:1-36). At this point in Matthew, Jesus wants us to know that the battle line with the Jerusalem religious establishment was already drawn over the question of tradition. In nearly all of the discussions with religious leaders, Jesus is trying hard to draw their attention to the most important thing, 'the issue of love'.
Just as Isaiah had seen in his day, Jesus is saying their "hearts" were far from God. Their Love for "HIM" and then for one another has been replaced by their traditions and mere human inventions (Isaiah 29:13).
10. And Jesus called the people to Him and said to them, Listen and grasp and comprehend this: 11. It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that makes him unclean and defiled, but what comes out of the mouth; this makes a man unclean and defiles [him].
A key difference between the two models was that legalism made rules designed to change the human heart, and then required the willpower to obey them. Jesus' teaching was based on turning to God for a heart change that would express itself in appropriate words and behavior. As opposed to legalism, Jesus' teaching was based on the fact that "Out of the abundance of the "heart" the mouth speaks" (12:34).
12. Then the disciples came and said to Him, Do You know that the Pharisees were displeased and offended and indignant when they heard this saying? 13. He answered, Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be torn up by the roots. [Isa. 60:21.] 14. Let them alone and disregard them; they are blind guides and teachers. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a ditch.
The disciples were naturally concerned that the highly respected religious leaders from Jerusalem were offended by Jesus' tough words. But instead of toning down his words, the Messiah insists on calling the legalists "blind leaders of the blind."
Evidently Paul came to understand the reasons for Jesus' insistence on freedom from the rules of external discipline. And having wrenched himself free from Pharisaic self-effort, he is as vehement in attacking it as Jesus was (Galatians 1:6-9, 3:1-5).
15. But Peter said to Him, Explain this proverb (this parable, maxim) to us. 16. And He (Jesus) said, Are you also even yet dull and ignorant [without understanding and unable to put things together]? 17. Do you not see and understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the abdomen and so passes on into the place where discharges are deposited? 18. But whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what makes a man unclean and defiles [him].
Jesus has to explain that we cannot be put right by rules about eating and other kinds of external behavior. As in the Sermon on the Mount, there is adulteration of the heart long before it expresses itself in adultery (5:28).
19. For out of the heart come evil thoughts (reasonings and disputings and designs) such as murder, adultery, sexual vice, theft, false witnessing, slander, and irreverent speech.
If a person's heart is full of murderous, adulterous, or promiscuous sexual thoughts, compulsive stealing, or malicious gossip, no amount of making rules and good intentions can purify the source of the problem. The Epistle of James captured this exactly with the picture of a foul spring, which can only be purified by the wisdom from above or Holy Spirit (James 3:11-17).
Similarly Paul recognizes what Luther called the bondage of the will: "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it." The good news is that instead of self-effort, he can set his mind on the power of the Spirit to change him (Romans 7:18, 23; 8:5-6). "It is God who energizes you to give both the will and the energy to do what is needed" (Philippians 2:13; literal translation). And that is why the Pharisaic rules about external washing totally miss the point of what God has in mind for us.
20. These are what make a man unclean 'KOINOA' and defile [him]; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean or defile [him].
Tradition includes the attitudes, rules, and customs which are handed down from a previous generation. Since it is unwritten, and often subconscious, tradition can have a tighter grip on our thinking than written law.
Again and again Matthew presents Jesus as a critic of tradition and he keeps teaching us the need to go to the heart of what love is about.
Instead of human traditions, the only tradition that is handed down for His church is Jesus saying "But I say to you" (5:28, 32, 34, 39, 44) and living out and explaining the perfection of God's kind of love.
This is why the Gospel ends with "teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (28:20). The result is that in every generation his church is responsible for checking every tradition that is added by this very simple standard.
Love God and one another!
I Love you. |
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| To add a comment to "Love, Don't Wash Your Hands Of It" |
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| April 26, 2009 |
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| God Bless You Preston! |
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| April 26, 2009 |
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| Amen & amen. Great message - praise the Lord. God bless you, Preston. |
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| April 26, 2009 |
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| --wonderful marvellous council--- |
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| April 26, 2009 |
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| Thank You. |
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| April 26, 2009 |
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Jesus is the reason for all seansons... hehe. I love you guys so much. Lets help get this message of love out to anyone who will hear it.
Welcome, Mild2_wild. I hope you'll try to catch up with us in the Journey through the study of love. It begins with  THIS thing Called Love. |
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| October 08, 2009 |
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| LOVE LOVE LOVE JESUS LOVED US, GOD OVED AS SO SO MUCH. LOVE THE TREU FINE OF THEGOSPEL. STAY BLESED |
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| October 09, 2009 |
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| Thank you my Dear Friend from Kenya! Yes! This is the Love of Jesus that binds us together. His love has made us one... together. I love you. |
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