15 Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him, 2 “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? 4 For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ 5 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ 6 In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
8 ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”
10 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 11 It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”
12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?”
13 Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, 14 so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”
15 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.”
16 “Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked. 17 “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. 18 But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. 19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. 20 These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”
Matthew 15:1-20
7 One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. 2 They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. 3 (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands,[a] as required by their ancient traditions. 4 Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to—such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.)
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”
6 Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’
8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”
9 Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. 10 For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ 12 In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. 13 And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”
14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”
17 Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. 18 “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? 19 Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)
20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”
Mark 7:1-23
Dear God, I was talking yesterday with an old friend and his wife (a very Godly couple who loves you so much, and whom I admire!) about the mistakes in our theology and biblical knowledge. In what we think we know about you. Our hearts justify errant thinking because we are often selfish and hypocritical. And sometimes we are just the victims of bad teaching that has been handed down generation to generation. There are just so many things about you that I do not know, and so many more that I think I know that are wrong. The example I used yesterday in our discussion was where Jesus was born. I don’t know when this tradition started to be taught, but I have always been taught he was born in a stable/barn/cave where they kept animals–some sort of a livestock area. I’ve also always been given the impression that Mary had Jesus as they rode into town (with her riding a donkey) and they couldn’t find a hotel room (this mistake is probably the reason it was so easy to come up with the “barn” part of the story. So why am I saying this is incorrect? Because in Luke 2:4-8 (NASB 1995 translation) it says, “4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she“ wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a [d]manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” [the footnote before “manger” says, “or feeding trough”] So it occurred to me one day that it doesn’t describe Mary riding a donkey or her coming into town fresh off the long journey and needing a quick hotel room to give birth. No, what it says is, “While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.” So how long had they been there? A week? A month? Three months? Did they get there, do their registration duty, and then decide they needed to stay because she was too far along to travel? The text doesn’t say, but what it does indicate is that they had been there for more than just a night or two. So if they were there for a certain period of time, where were they staying? In a tent in a field? Were there camps that had been set up for people like them? If so, maybe, just maybe, she had the baby in the tent, and then when they needed a makeshift crib, Joseph was able to go get a food trough from a local stable/barn/cave and use it for Jesus.
I really got off on a tangent there, but it goes with these passages from Matthew and Mark about the “heart of man” because everyone involved was a victim of errant teaching. And I don’t necessarily blame the Pharisees who were hassling Jesus. I honestly can’t say that I would have done any differently if I were them. They were taught how to be Pharisees by those that came before them, and they were passing it down. I’m sure I’ve done the same thing in my life. I’m sure I do it every day. There might even be part of what I’m doing right now that is doing the same thing.
As I try to take the lesson from the passage, I think the core of it is the reference Jesus gave from Isaiah 29:13, which both Matthew and Mark (Peter?) recorded:
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’
Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I really do not want my heart to be far from you. That’s what this is about. I don’t want my worship to be a farce. I don’t want to just teach man-made ideas as commands from you. No, I want to be completely yours. I want to be able to hear your still small voice speak to me. I want to learn what you want me to learn, and then pass on what you are teaching me to others so that they might be drawn closer to you. make me your vessel, oh Lord. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me, and then disperse me to your people.
I pray all of this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Amen
P.S. I couldn’t help but notice that both of these versions end with Jesus describing what Paul describe in Galatians 5 and what I referenced yesterday as the deeds of the heart/desires of sinful nature. And again, Jesus’s lead-off hitter is sexual immorality. Hmm. I probably should look into this more.
Emails to God 