Offending Pharisees
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Date: 2022-06-26
Audience: Grass Valley Corps ONLINE
Title: Offending Pharisees
Text: Matthew 15:1-20
Proposition: God’s intent is fixed, but our methods aren’t
Purpose: Live out God’s intent, not your traditions
Grace and peace
Matthew 15:1-2
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” [1]
There is a LOT here to understand.
Same story told by Mark in chapter 7. Slightly different because Mark is writing to more Gentile converts to Christianity, so he does a little more explaining about some of the details:
3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) [2]
Matthew, writing to a more Jewish audience, doesn’t need to explain as much. They are more familiar with who the Pharisees are.
We aren’t really either audience. We don’t have any experience with Pharisees except what we hear in church. Frankly, we tend to give them a lot of crap and very little credit.
Who Pharisees were
Who Sadducees were
Who scribes/teachers of Law were
Why group of Pharisees/teachers would be sent from Jerusalem to Galilee to Jesus
Thanks to Mark, we’ve had the had washing thing explained – ritual cleanliness. Connected to Levitical laws for the priesthood, which Pharisees were trying to make everyone adhere to all the time.
Why asking Jesus about what his disciples were doing? Because it could reflect on Jesus’ teaching.
Jesus responds to their questioning:
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ r and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ s[3]
Honor = support/pay for in their old age
Failure to honor = curse (also, love or hate, and whoever you love more you love and who you love less you hate…)
Jesus isn’t done:
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ r and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ s 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.[4]
Corban = pledged to God. Some would pledge that all they had would belong to God when they died. Could keep using it while they were alive, but could also say, “I can’t help you with this – belongs to God.”
Word of God says “Honor father and mother,” Pharisee tradition says don’t have to do that, Jesus says, “You’re nullifying the word of God by following your tradition.”
More than that – this was about the way people had come to view an oath. Unbreakable! Couldn’t take back even if you realized you were wrong or that your oath had been foolish. Why not? Tradition tied it to honor and made it inviolate, where God allowed for mistakes and repentance and forgiveness.
Again: Tradition outweighing God
Jesus says: That should never happen. In fact, goes further:
7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 “ ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’ u” [5]
Ooh, snap!
Jesus is using a Jewish teaching technique popular in his time. He begins his argument by citing an example which supports his point. (You say I break tradition; I say your tradition breaks/ignores God’s command.) Then he cites a mutually acceptable authority to back his position (in this case, the prophet Isaiah). Next he’s going to make a point using an even more basic principle to show that there’s something more going on here than is immediately clear.
10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” [6]
We can look at that more in a moment, because the disciples are a little freaked out by what Jesus just said. Let me go back to the main argument for a moment first.
Jesus just told these guys that the traditions which are the center of their religious identity have become more important to them than the things of God.
But these traditions didn’t come from out of nowhere!
What we are calling the traditions of the Pharisees are the interpretations of scripture passed down from generation to generation. They are the way that they have always done things because they are the way that the great teachers of their past have said was the best way to live holy lives. The example Jesus uses about caring for parents… That wasn’t brought about by someone trying to game the system – that was someone, with earnest intent, trying to decide if they should take this pool of resources that they had pledged to leave to God or the Temple or whatever and give some or all of them to meet the unexpected need of their aging parents. Maybe a surprise medical bill, or perhaps dad broke his leg and couldn’t plant or harvest the crop that year. Or maybe they had a debt get out of control and they lost their property and were going to be reduced to begging, but wasn’t that their fault and so was it right to take what had been promised to God to cover the cost? Maybe the original problem had been discussed and God’s principles from scripture had been applied and in that circumstance the answer was no, don’t break this vow to meet that need.
Why is Jesus saying there is something wrong with that? Once the ruling had been made, that’s just the way things were and they way they should be, right?
Did you know that there was a time when all hymns were sung in an atonal manner? Just kind of a monotone chanting, usually of scripture verses or traditional prayers. It was the way that things had been done for generations. For many years these were sung in church only by professional, practiced choirs. For centuries! During the Reformation, certain edgy new congregations began to allow their people to sing along with parts of the liturgy. Generally only unaccompanied – this was a serious business, after all. People didn’t come to church to have fun or mess around!
Then the Revivalists came along, bringing emotionalism into their preaching and allowing it to leak into their music as well.
It took a whole church council in 1820 before the Church of England allowed hymns to be sung in church. Why? Because tradition said not to sing hymns in church.
In the 1970s there was controversy around whether guitars should be allowed. After all, for a long time tradition had demanded that organs were the music of church. Guitars were used to play that devil-based rock and roll, how DARE you allow them into your places of worship?
The Salvation Army, of course, had already had our edgy music moment. We allowed people to play brass instruments and sing tradition songs of worship to the tune of old drinking songs. It wasn’t terribly accepted at first, even among our own ranks, but the Founder had been quoted as saying, “Why should the devil have all the good music?” and it eventually won through.
We weren’t any quicker to let those guitars in though.
Tradition is usually something that was fine at a certain time, but which has been enshrined as holy, central, and untouchable. Tradition tends to carry the weight of “We’ve always done it this way,” and the added weight of having been important to the elders, who then feel marginalized or rejected when you set aside their things.
Have you ever seen this?
Traditions which were originally ways to honor God calcify into ways to honor the past, paying lip service to God, but no longer truly connected to him or his ways.
8 “ ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’ u”[7]
The traditions of the Pharisees said you needed to complete a ritual of handwashing or anything you touched and ate would be considered spiritually unclean and so YOU, having eaten it, would be considered spiritually unclean.
“Hey, Jesus?” asked the people who had come across the country to find some way to discredit the preacher who had been causing such a stir.
2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” [8]
Therefore everything that they do is going to be unclean, unworthy of God. And because they belong to you, they follow you, obviously everything you do is unclean too.
And Jesus says,
11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”[9]
This probably caused a stir. It caused the disciples to pull Jesus aside into a private huddle so they could figure this out. After all, these aren’t just some kind of regional stuffed shirts he was trading barbs with. These were big shots from Jerusalem! They were leaders of the most popular movement in Judaism. And Jesus has just publicly schooled them. People didn’t DO that kind of thing! Did Jesus even realize what he had just done?
12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” [10]
Hey, we don’t exactly understand what just happened, but we know those guys were steamed. But they’re leaders we respect and care about what they have to say, like everyone else in Israel, and we’re just wondering what just happened?
And Jesus wants to help them understand, so
13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. y If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” [11]
God’s people are often referred to as plants that he is working to cultivate and grow. In Psalm 1, for example, the righteous are a tree by a spring giving fruit when it is time, but the wicked are like the parts of wheat you throw away because they aren’t edible.
Jesus is telling his guys, hey, these leaders aren’t producing the fruit you think they are.
Then he warns them that blind people following blind people are going to find themselves falling into a pit.
We need to be able to tell who and what we should follow, or we’re going to end up lost in a pit. How can we know?
Well, Jesus has already told us, and I’m sure everyone here completely got it and doesn’t need any more explanation. But the same can’t be said for those who were right there. I guess they were paying more attention to the bruised feelings of the visiting Pharisees than they were to what Jesus said. Oops.
15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” [12]
Can you see Jesus rolling his eyes? I can.
16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.[13]
In The Message translation, Jesus says, “Are you being willfully stupid?”
This is stuff they should be getting by now. After two years or more of following Jesus, listening to his teaching, learning his ways and having his stories explained to them, these followers, especially the key guys like Peter, should already have been able to reason out what happened here.
Like I’m sure we all have, right?
16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.[14]
Don’t you get it? The whole thing is an exercise in missing the point!
Ritual handwashing is nice, but in the end whatever you eat gets crapped out. Wait, can I say that in church? It’s just food! It isn’t that ritual hand washing is bad. It’s great when you stop and say grace before every meal. Nothing wrong with that. Until you get upset that someone didn’t do it. Then you’re missing the point. That’s when it stops being about sharing a special relationship with God where you take time to be grateful for what you have and it becomes about what really matters. Is it about gratitude, or is it about the tradition? Is it about God or is it about you claiming some moral high ground because you did the thing and that other person didn’t?
What is coming out of you? What is the fruit you are producing?
18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” [15]
What Jesus tells us again and again and again is that God’s intent is FIXED. God’s intent is unchanging. God’s intent is for us to love one another. Love being agape, that choice we make to put the welfare and well-being of others as first priority.
The way that we do that may change from generation to generation, from culture to culture, even from individual situation to individual situation. How will you know you’re doing God’s will? Look at the fruit being produced.
Look at the list Jesus gives. He starts with big ones that most of us are going to know we’ve been successful at.
Have you killed anyone? No? Ok, check that off.
Engaged in adulteries? The way Jesus said it makes it plural. That means we need to understand it both as have we engaged in sexual activities with someone married to another AND have we spiritually given ourselves to anything other than God. Hmm… That one’s actually tougher then, isn’t it? Any allegiance you give to someone or something other than God is a problem, according to scripture. God describes that behavior as adultery – cheating God out of the relationship you should and could have with God.
Sexual immorality – that’s easy enough. Don’t engage in sexual acts with anyone you aren’t married to.
Theft – don’t take what isn’t yours. Not candy bars from a shelf, money from an account, or credit from those who deserve it, among other things.
False witness – it sounds better to put it that way, because we can pretend that it can only happen if we are called on to give some kind of official testimony. In reality, he just told you not to lie. Or, more specifically, not to say what is not true.
And slander – that’s blasphemy against another. It’s literally doing or saying anything that will harm the reputation of another.
These are all kinds of evil, corrupting ideas and actions, and if anything you are doing can be said to BE or BE CAUSING any of these, then you’re outside of God’s will, even if what you are doing is something that was okay at one time.
Even if it’s traditional.
Even if it was just part of life in your day. Or yesterday.
I’m not saying that tradition should be rejected out of hand, I’m saying that Jesus told us to evaluate it, and everything, based on the fruit it demonstrates.
Instead, live out the intent of God.
That agapelove.
Are you with me?
Let’s pray this through.
LORD God, Creator who chose to make each of us who and what we are and plant us where we are, when we are, so that we can grow into what you intended for us to be, we ask that you open our eyes. Open our minds. Help us to recognize that the way we’ve always done things may not be the way we need to do things. Help us to see your path clearly as we journey through life.
When we do or say things that produce bad or unhelpful fruit, help us to recognize that. We often get so caught up doing what we believe to be right because we’ve been taught a certain way or a certain idea that we might miss that things do change and you expect us to change with them. Your intent and our pursuit of that intent should be the only constants in all of Creation. Help us to be aware of that and to be ready to follow where you lead instead of getting hung up on the rituals we have made up or brought with us.
We pray all this in the name of Jesus, who taught these things. Amen.
[1] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:1–2.
[2] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mk 7:3–4.
[3] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:3–4.
[4] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:3–6.
[5] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:7–9.
[6] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:10–11.
[7] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:8–9.
[8] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:1–2.
[9] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:11.
[10] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:12.
[11] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:13–14.
[12] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:15.
[13] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:16.
[14] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:16–18.
[15] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 15:18–20.