‘These people honour Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ – Matthew 15:8-9
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They went to Galilee all the way from Jerusalem, to investigate and assess the works and words of the man called Jesus. They had heard all kinds of reports about Him and had come to understand the situation for themselves.
They began by questioning why the disciples broke the tradition of the elders. Interestingly, by their own admission, the disciples were breaking tradition, not Scripture. Jesus did not answer their question directly. Instead, He gets to the root of the problem and asked, what made a person pure?
The Bible gives no command about washing hands before meals. The religious leaders’ problem was that they substituted their own rules and rituals for real love and worship of the living God. Jesus used the words of the prophet Isaiah to reveal their hypocrisy. Their lofty words and impressive prayers were of no use when their hearts did not belong to God.
For all their outward attention to rituals and apparent devotion, their worship of God was man- made custom and ceremony. Their traditions might ease their conscience but God knew their hearts. They were empty of real love for the living God and neither did they have love for their parents through whom they received physical life (v4-6).
People today often know their church’s rituals and programs better than their church’s actual faith and belief. Could it be that you use the rules and traditions of the church to cover your lack of true personal commitment to Jesus Christ?
Lord, give me a heart that is pure, that leads to pure actions, I pray.
Extended Reading – Matthew 15; Mark 7
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