We could actually entitle this study “Jesus and the Forbidding Pharisees, Part 6”. What we encounter today is almost a continuation of our study of Matthew 12. In that series of lesson, we examined the dynamic discrepancies between what the Pharisees practiced and promoted and what God actually commanded and expected.
Our next series of lessons are taking us even deeper into the heart of God on these matters of faith and practice. They have even greater significance than what the Scribes and Pharisees even thought they have, but in completely different ways and meanings.
When we began our study of Matthew 12, I opened with this quote from William Shakespeare’s play, “Julius Caesar”: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.”
As our drama opens today, we find this statement to be ever more true in the life and ministry of Christ. On this occasion, Jesus is surrounded by those He is always surrounded by – the sick, the lame, the needy, the diseased, the blind, the demon possessed – when He is approached by a special delegation of the nation of Israel’s religious leaders.
This we know from the statement in Matthew 15:1, “Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem…” There were Scribes and Pharisees throughout the country, but those who were in Jerusalem were special bunch.
The Scribes and Pharisees in Jerusalem were the elite of their parties. These were the brightest, the most learned, the most scholarly, the most well-educated, the most well-read, the most studious, the most knowledgeable and the most inundated with the culture of their religion. There were quite forboding in there appearance, with all of the outer robes and trappings of their elevated offices and stature among the people.
It is these men who come to Jesus and bring accusation against Him. They do so by means of a bit of alight-of-hand, not really confronting Him directly. Knowing Jesus to be a man of great knowledge in the Law of Moses and the rest of the Word of God, they approached with the conventional protocol they would a member of their own class – just in case they might be wrong about their suspicions. Later on, they will forgo all pretense of protocol and etiquette, attacking Him personally, directly, and even physically. But, as I said, that will come much later.
For now, they hold to giving the appearance of propriety to those who are witnesses to their interchange. They ask Jesus (verse 2), “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."
The structure of their question is strategic and coy, while being accusatory and condemning at the same time. It is strategic in that they come to Jesus asking about a tradition of the elders of the Jews that is known and observed by the vast majority of the Jews – the ritual hand-washing before eating.
Mark gives us a little better indication of this in his account of this incident when he says, “For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders (Mark 7:3).”
This practice of hand washing wasn’t at all what we think of as hygienic hand washing today. Theirs was an extremely exacting and highly ritualized practice that specified the amount of water that was to be used, how it was to be applied, the number of times it should be changed, the number of people who could wash at a time and many, many more details.
This got even more complicated when it was applied to other things, like cups and bowls and pots and vessels made out of brass, vessels made out of wood, vessels made out of pottery, tables, and almost anything that hand anything to do with eating or drinking. Mark again mentions this in his account in Mark 7:4, when he says, “and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.”
Let’s talk about these “elders” that are mentioned here by the Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem. It was their contention that Moses was given two sets of laws when he was on the mountain of God; one set was written down on the two tablets and was known as The Ten Commandments. The other set there believed were verbal and were handed down from Moses to Joshua, Joshua to the Judges, from the Judges to and through the prophets, and that they were kept pure until it was recorded in the Talmuds, the first of which was finally put in written form about 200 years before Christ. Until then, it was all passed down orally, yet with exacting detail.
These traditions had become the fence around the Law of God, put in place to protect the people from violating God’s Law. The principle behind this was that it was far less dangerous for a person to transgress the fence around the Law than to transgress the Law itself. The problem was that this “fence” had become a Law unto itself.
This is exactly what Jesus addresses in His rebuttal to the Scribes and Pharisees before Him. Matthew 15:3-9 contains Matthew’s record of Christ’s reply. It is in-your-face confrontive and accusing, quite damning in its indictment.
It is here and in the passages that follow that Jesus really gets to the heart of things – the heart of these religious leaders, the heart of their traditions, the heart of the Law of God, the heart of God Himself, the heart of who Jesus is and what He is doing here, and the heart of mankind in general.
Jesus begins His response without any observance of protocol or phony niceties. He strikes right at the heart of the matter.
Matthew 15:3 “And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”
In other words, “Who are you to say that anyone is transgressing anything when it is you who are transgressing the very law of God? Your traditions are meaningless – in fact, they are even blasphemous in that they intentionally put those who obey your traditions in direct and blatant disobedience to Almighty God.”
This is a very, very serious accusation on His part. And He doesn’t give them any time to respond. While they are reeling back under the lash of His accusation, He continues on with the details of His charge against them.
(Matthew 15:4-7a) "For God said, ’HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ’HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’ "But you say, ’Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites…”
The practice that Jesus speaks of here and that He says they consistently use to place their traditions in preeminence over the Law of God is a practice known as “corban”. To say that something was corban, was to say that it was vowed to the temple of God for spiritual purposes and it therefore could not be used for any other purpose, not even for taking care of one’s parents as the Law of God specified.
This was a practice that was especially useful when it came to landholders because, since whatever was pronounced as “corban” remained in the care of the owner, the land remained in the care of the one making the oath. They were free to use it and profit from that use as freely as before. They were still expected to pay the tithe from the land, but they could not sell it or transfer it to the use of another, including parents who were in need.
Jesus reminds them that God Himself had specified something quite the opposite. “God said, ’HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ’HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’” Here Jesus quotes from the direct Law of God as recorded in Exodus 20:12, Exodus 21:17, Leviticus 20:9, Deuteronomy 5:16.
Let’s look at all four of those references for a moment. We see that Jesus is quoting directly from the Ten Commandments themselves, and from two different sections where specific punishment for violations of the Law are mandated. From God’s point of view, Jesus is reminding them, the dishonoring of parents was a far more serious offense than the breaking of some man-created, man-desired, false vow.
In fact, when we look at how God views vows in the first place, we see that He was opposed to them. God was well aware that the heart of mankind is not what it should be and that any vow made was in jeopardy of being broken from it’s inception. God lays out specifics on how vows are to be paid and when and how they may be made null and void. He even states that the breaking of a vow is grounds for a person becoming cursed before God. Yet it is the violation of the breaking of His commandment to “Honor your father and mother” that He proscribes the death penalty.
Surely, these bright and learned men should be ale to see the difference between these. Here, again, we get to the heart of things: they were more interested in people observing the rules and regulations that they had created out of their own imaginings than they were seeing the people humbly and reverentially obeying the Law of God.
This placed them in the place of God, then, because they had made their laws to have preeminence over that which God had said was preeminent. Jesus rightly has no patience at all with this.
There are a couple of important lessons for us to take note of here, and I want to invest a few minutes on them.
First, I want us to take note of the fact that Jesus very clearly and succinctly speaks out against the hypocrisy of the Scribes and the Pharisees. There is no mealy-mouthed, phony graciousness about the way He confronts their hypocrisy. So many times we think that gentle speech is always mandated, no matter what kind of evil we encounter. Do you see that here?
Neither do I. Remember our study several weeks ago when we were looking at the condemning approach Jesus took in Matthew 11:20-24, the approach we said gave us a look at “Jesus mean and wild”, instead of the “Jesus, meek and mild”, that we are used to seeing.
In our drama today, we see it once again. This is not an authorization to blast people full-force with anger, vehemence or vitriol. It is, however, a demonstration to us that we have the biblical, God-ordained, Christian duty to be truly honest when we encounter hypocritical self-righteousness in the Church.
As authentic disciples of Jesus Christ, the purity of His Body is equally the responsibility of us all. That is one of the reasons for church discipline and why it is so specifically laid out in the Scriptures, even by Jesus Himself. Hypocrisy and willful wickedness are not to be ignored but confronted. We are, of course, to do so with a spirit of gentleness, but that does not mean a placid or a laid-back and mellow approach. It means to not be rough and mean, to not be harsh and hateful.
Was Jesus saying to them, “You hypocrites,” harsh and hateful or rough and mean? Why would speaking the truth be deemed as harsh unless we have been taken captive “through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ (Colossians 2:8).”
This is where we have to step away from the world and step into the view of life and the world from the perspective of Jesus Christ. I am as interested in preserving and protecting the feelings of others as much as anyone. I am, however, trying to demonstrate a greater love and concern for their relationship with God now and their eternity with or without Him than for their feelings.
I struggle with this, too, you know? I know how difficult it is to not get angry, not get vehement over someone’s wrong because it offends me and offends my sensibilities or of how it might reflect on me.
This brings me to the second lesson we need to take note of here and that is the importance that the heart of God and His Law need to have in our lives.
Let me ask you a question: when and where did God tell us that the Ten Commandments were null-and-void, that we no longer needed to live by them and that we could apply them or not apply them to our lives as we see fit?
Anyone?
When did God say it was okay to take His name in vain or to be party to someone else doing so?
When did God say that is was all right now for one individual to take the life of another individual with malice aforethought?
When did God say that we were no longer prohibited from lying about someone else or from stealing from them?
When did God say being envious and jealous about what someone else has is perfectly normal and fine with Him?
When did God say that adultery was acceptable and that dishonoring our parents was no longer in opposition to His nature or His character?
When did God says, “You can devote your life and energies to whatever makes you happy. I no longer expect you to give me priority and worship Me alone”? When did He say, “Follow any religion you want – all paths lead to Me, after all”?
Did I leave any out? Oh, the fourth commandment, the one that the majority of people in the Church say, “Oh, we don’t have to obey that one any more – that’s Old Testament and Jesus fulfilled all of that so that we aren’t bound by that one any more.”
How is it that the heart of the Law of God still applies in all of the other nine, but this one that is so inconvenient for us to follow is no longer valid?
Something for everyone of us who call ourselves Children of God and disciples of Christ to pray over and study and be examined by the Scriptures over. It is something we need to ask ourselves and ask God, “Have I become like the Scribes and Pharisees in regards to this part of the Law of God?”
Let’s go on and I will leave this alone for now. God will bring this theme up again, I am sure, so my recommendation is that you truly examine everything His Word speaks of and ask Him to have the Holy Spirit open the eyes of your heart in regards to your own life and walk. I will be joining you in that endeavor, so please know that I am not giving empty guidance that I am ignoring myself.
As we come back to our text, I want to discuss for a moment the prophesy that Jesus cites as part of His condemnation of these and all hypocrites. It is taken from Isaiah 29:13-14: “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.’"
What I find interesting is that Jesus renders this quote by closing it with the phrase that will many decades later be found in the text of Colossians 2:21-22, where Paul speaks against the ritualistic observances as being representative of true faith and discipleship. This shows such a line of continuity over several hundred years that, to me, it demonstrates the purity and lineage of the Scriptures as truly being breathed out by God Himself.
So, now, this prophesy from Isaiah 29. Let’s look at Micah 6:6-8: “With what shall I come to the LORD and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”
This is a recurring theme throughout the Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament in regards to the Jews, God’s Chosen People. We will revisit this when we get down into our study of Matthew 15:21-28, in a few weeks, and again in our study of the Feeding of the Four Thousand when we look at Matthew 15:32-39.
Clear back in Psalm 78, written by Asaph during the time of King David, we read these words in Psalm 78:36-37, where Asaph is speaking of God’s dealings with the Children of Israel in the wilderness. It seems to be a “besetting sin” of the self-righteous.
This phrase, which is the King James Version’s rendering of the phrase, “the sin that so easily entangles us” in Hebrews 12:1 (NASB): “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” (We spoke about this verse in another context just a couple of weeks ago when we talked about “which crowd are we playing to”.)
What I mean to say here is that hypocrites are bound together by the same heart, the same attitude and the same sinful behavior. A hypocrite, as “Webster’s 1828 Dictionary” defines it, is “One who feigns to be what he is not; one who has the form of godliness without the power, or who assumes an appearance of piety and virtue, when he is destitute of true religion.”
The word “religion” in that time meant “Religion, in its most comprehensive sense, includes a belief in the being and perfections of God, in the revelation of His will to man, in man’s obligation to obey His commands, in a state of reward and punishment, and in man’s accountableness to God; and also true godliness or piety of life, with the practice of all moral duties. It therefore comprehends theology, as a system of doctrines or principles, as well as practical piety; for the practice of moral duties without a belief in a divine lawgiver, and without reference to his will or commands, is not religion.” And, “Religion, as distinct from theology, is godliness or real piety in practice, consisting in the performance of all known duties to God and our fellow men, in obedience to divine command, or from love to God and His law.”
In other words, true faith, true religion, true Christianity flows from the heart and is demonstrated by the heart of God and His Law being applied in our lives and our dealings with others with the full intent, purpose and character of God in view, and to do so honestly and openly without any room for phoniness or illusion. To knowingly do otherwise is an indictable offense. Jesus has no patience with it at all.
Jesus is here saying that, not only do the Scribes and Pharisees practice this type of hypocrisy, but it is part of the character of their entire nation.
What is the application for us in all of this? I believe that part of it is glaringly obvious and we have already spoken of it in our time together today. It’s about the heart of things, the internal motivation and purpose behind why we do what we do, especially in what we do in the name of Jesus Christ and in the name of Christianity.
Jesus is telling these men, just as He is telling every one of us who claim to be God’s children today, that there is no living in both camps. We are either in His camp or in the camp of His enemy, the devil. To say we believe something and then to live in opposition to it is hypocrisy. To say to the world “We are followers, we are disciples of Jesus Christ,” and then to live in purposeful and intentional violation of what He says is good and right and holy is hypocrisy.
How does He feel about hypocrisy? Jesus says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” and variations of this invective fourteen times! The exclamation “woe to you” is a warning of impending misery and great affliction for whoever is being addressed.
“Teaching as doctrine the precepts of men.” is a place we do not want to be. Neither is talking the heart of the Law of God and neutralizing it by replacing it with our own standards, whether they are more stringent or more liberal.
The life of anyone who names the name of Christ is to be as one who deeply and truly loves who God is and what He has to say about everything. We cannot sacrifice grace in the interests of preserving legalism; neither can we sacrifice the commands of God in the interests of personal freedom.
Live as Jesus lived, love as Jesus loved, hate as Jesus hated, obey as Jesus obeyed, pray as Jesus prayed, minister as Jesus ministered: that is what we are called to as His disciples. If this is not our desire and our pursuit, then we are not truly His disciples. As Jesus said in John 15:8, "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
To bear much fruit is to be humble, broken, faithful, obedient and holy, just as Jesus Christ our namesake was and is.
Let’s pray.
