Matthew 15: 1- 2, 10 – 20 “Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, ‘Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.’”
Then He called the multitude and said to them, “Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth, this defiles a man.” Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” But He answered and said, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.”
Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind; both will fall into a ditch.” Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.” So Jesus said, “Are you also without understanding? Do you not yet understand whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man.”
When the Scripture this morning reads that the scribes and Pharisees came from Jerusalem to Jesus this was a big deal. It would be like Tom Daschle and a specially appointed committee was to come down and question the school teachers here in Parker. Jesus had created quite a stir and the Pharisees sent their best men in to question what He was doing.
The first thing they do is challenge His authority by asking Jesus why His disciples were breaking the traditional law. Jesus, the teacher, is being held responsible for their actions and He is being charged with causing people to break the law.
The law that Jesus was charged with breaking was about washing your hands before they eat. I know that most parents would say this is a law in their house. But in Jesus’ day what the Pharisees were referring to had to deal with the Old Testament when the priests washed their hands before offering sacrifices to God. They didn’t want dirty sacrifices. Now this law only covered the priests but buy the time the Pharisees gained influence in the Jewish culture it had become another one of the many laws they put on the people’s backs.
Jesus knew this. He knew that the Pharisees had become engrossed and obsessed with all of the petty laws and appearances. Jesus must have been laughing to himself when He saw this pompous official delegation of religious lawyers coming His way. All they had on Jesus was the fact that they didn’t wash their hands before eating. But to the Pharisees, this was a great sin. Not washing the hands before eating to them meant you would pollute yourself; you would make yourself dirty and rotten before God.
This morning we’re going to look at how Jesus responded to the people and disciples that heard the Pharisees try to correct Jesus. He gets their attention by saying, “Hear and understand.” Jesus is saying, “Listen up! This is why you don’t have to obey all of these petty rules and the people who try to keep you down.” Jesus tells them that what they put in their mouth isn’t what pollutes a person or makes them corrupt; it is what comes out of their mouth that will make them impure, defiled, rotten.
But the disciples (who were very familiar with the Pharisees and probably obeyed most of the rules as good Jews) reacted in fear with what Jesus had said. They didn’t even understand what He said any ways; they were just afraid of offending the Pharisees. They were afraid of what they would do to them. Jesus responds to them by telling them that the Pharisees aren’t even from God. They don’t represent His Father; they in fact are like weeds that need to be pulled up.
Jesus doesn’t stop here either. He tells the disciples what harmful effects they have on those who follow them, who pay attention to what they have to say. Jesus tells them they are, “blind leaders of the blind.” He tells them what happens when the blind lead the blind. They both fall into a ditch or literally, a pit which meant death in those days. What the tragic reality of this is is that Jesus is implying a spiritual death, the loss of your soul more than a physical death.
Think of cults and leaders you have heard of: Heaven’s Gate, Jim Jones and the cyanide Kool-Aid, David Koresh and Waco Texas. All of these were blind guides that required the most legalistic way of living and resulted not only in physical death but spiritual death as well. These modern day false-prophets and Pharisees literally led people to their deaths. And it is easy t o look at those examples and say, “They’re crazy. They’re insane. They were evil. Those people were weak and brainwashed.”
But oh how we can forget that Satan is a master of disguise and camouflage. It is sometimes the little things that can make us forget what the church is really about. It can be our own little ideas, traditions and expectations that can make us lose focus on God. Hear some clever remarks and see if you recognize these:
1. Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited until you try to get into their pews or their favorite church parking spot.
2. Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisors.
3. People are funny. They want the front of the bus, middle of the road, and the back of the church.
4. Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect, you couldn’t belong.
5. A lot of church members are singing the hymn, “Standing on the Promises” while they’re just sitting on the premises.
You see there are many little ways that we all can forget about God and make up our own little rules.
About six years ago, Michelle’s parents, Rod and Dorinda, came to a church we both attended. It was probably one of their first times they had ever been there. Do you know what they remembered the most after that particular service? Was it the message? No. Was it the fellowship? No. Was it the greeting they received? Well, sort of. When Rod backed the family van into the parking lot he got out and was greeted by a congregation member. The first thing she said was, “You know the exhaust fumes from your van will kill those bushes.”
Well, hello to you! That is an example of a legalistic, Pharisaic approach to greeting people at church. Even if this person may have had a point, is this how we want to welcome visitors to the church? If you were to walk in here this morning and you were greeted by somebody telling you how bad your taste is clothes was, or how your jewelry was too showy, or because you didn’t bring your own Bible, you had to turn around and go back home, how would that make you feel welcomed to worship?
I bet you wouldn’t come back. Or at least you would tell ten other people of how you were mistreated. Church of Parker, that is a lesson for us in how to welcome others into the church. Jesus wasn’t concerned about those little things and neither should we. There are people who are looking for something true, looking for something to hold on to, looking for a way to survive in this world. We have to ask ourselves, “Am I welcoming like a Pharisee or am I welcoming like Jesus?” Am I more concerned with their heart than what they do with their hands?”
It reminds me of a show I watched the other week. It was about highway patrol and the good things they do to keep us safe and secure. There was a segment that pointed to what troopers were not about. An elderly man was rushing his wife to the hospital because she was having a heart attack. He was speeding to get to the hospital and was pulled over by a trooper. The police car camera shows the trooper yelling at this elderly gentleman, telling him that he shouldn’t speed no matter what. Despite the man’s pleas for the trooper to escort him and his dying wife to the hospital, the trooper ignored him. After yelling at him for ten minutes and writing him a ticket, they proceeded to the hospital. His wife shortly died thereafter. The question is, “What if that officer would have been more concerned more about her life than the law?”
That is what Jesus is getting at in Scripture this morning. He is telling us it is not the little rules that we follow, whether it’s not washing our hands or speeding to save a life, but it’s our attitude. Or as Jesus says, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.” God doesn’t sweat the small stuff. He doesn’t chalk up how many times we messed up. God wants more than our hands, He wants hearts devoted to Him.
But here in Scripture, the disciples still don’t get it. It’s difficult for them to understand how they can move past the fear of those who would point their finger at them. Peter asks Jesus if He can explain the parable once again to them. Jesus answers by asking them, “Aren’t you listening? Aren’t you getting this?” He says, “Are you also without understanding?” The word Also is interesting because Jesus is basically saying, “Are you, also like the Pharisees, not getting this?”
Jesus then starts to tell why that legalistic little rule is absurd. He tells the disciples that what goes into the mouth goes to the stomach and then is eliminated from the body. He is literally saying that what you eat ends up in the toilet. Jesus is saying that these little rules and regulations that tradition dictates are crap.
It would be good for us to remember this. Like the trooper from the previous story we can get too hung up on the things that really don’t matter. We can get trapped by our own little rules or the rules of others and end up completely blind to a life that is real and full of joy. Worse yet, we could be leading others away from Jesus instead towards Him.
Aren’t you tired of living in fear? Afraid of rocking the boat in order to keep everything smooth? You might get a finger pointed at you. You might have people talk about you behind your back. But shouldn’t we be more concerned about pleasing God than people whose opinions and ideas constantly change? The power the Pharisees had over the people then is no different than the way people try to control others today. They knew they had a long list of shoulds and shouldn’ts they could bring out against anyone at anytime.
Maybe you have experienced this attitude? Maybe you’re struggling with it yourself? God is not ultimately concerned if we dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s, He is concerned with your heart.
Jesus says that it is the wickedness that comes out of the heart which spoils a person. It is the evil that we are all capable of that rots us from the inside out. Jesus says that all of these things; evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, lies, and damaging words about God; these things are what we need to watch out for. It’s not the petty traditions that buzz around us like mosquitoes that we should spend our energy on. It is our hearts – our attitudes that we should be concerned about.
Think about the story of Hans the tailor. Because of his reputation, a prominent businessman that was visiting the city ordered a tailor-made suit. But when he came to pick it up the customer found that one sleeve twisted that way and the other this way; one shoulder bulged out and the other caved in. He pulled and strained and finally managed to make his body fit.
As he returned home on the bus, another passenger noticed his odd appearance as he was crouched in his seat. The passenger asked if Hans the tailor had made the suit. Receiving an affirmative reply, the passenger said, “Amazing! I knew that Hans was a good tailor, but I had no idea he could make a suit fit so perfectly for someone as deformed as you.”
Unfortunately that happens in the church. We get some idea of what the Christian faith should look like; then we push and shove people in the most grotesque mis-shapen configurations until they fit wonderfully! That is death. It is wooden legalism which destroys the soul.
But don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that we need to ignore God’s law and commandments. His commandments are to protect and guide us. The difference between His ways and our strangling rules comes down to a matter of trust.
Who do we trust in our lives? God or ourselves? When we put our trust in rituals, when we put our trust in heritage, when we put our trust in rules, and when we put our trust in reputation that is when we become legalistic and small. That is when we become like the blind leaders of the blind.
This morning I need us to ask ourselves a very important question. “Am I more concerned about the heart than I am about the rules?” Not God’s commandments, but our own little rules. We know what they are – Dressing a certain way, talking a certain way, looking a certain way. Are you hung up on those things so much that you can’t see the other person for who they are according to God – as Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created humankind in His own image; in the image of God He created Him, male and female He created them.” Do you hear that, “We are created in the image of God, not in the image of what others want us to be!”
We need to make sure we are not confusing personal preferences with diving law. If there is one thing you want to make sure you do, one thing that you want to check off on your ‘to do’ list, this is what it is: Being concerned with the heart more than the rules of our society. Jesus says, “Come follow me.” Can you follow our Savior pas the petty rules? Can you give up the fear to follow in His footsteps? Can you remember that you are a child of God, created in His image, not in the expectations of others? Jesus came to show us how to love others, let us not begin with restrictions but with compassion towards each other’s heart. Just as Jesus had compassion towards us while we were sinners.
