Clean Heart
Matthew 15:1-2 Then
Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your
disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands
when they eat.”
THE Jewish ruling council begins to get involved in Jesus’
ministry. Other Pharisees and teachers have questioned and challenged Jesus.
Now the leaders from Jerusalem come to see the miracle-working rabbi, and they
don’t like what they see.
Their first
objection seems to make sense, “Why do
your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their
hands when they eat.” But they are not asking, “Don’t you follow proper
hygiene rules, Jesus?”
Their question,
instead, was about the Pharisees view of godliness. There is nothing in the Law
of God that says a person must wash before he eats. But over the generations,
the “elders” had added this regulation as if it were a command from God. Thus,
they equated what the “elders” had commanded with what God had commanded.
Man-made laws have
a regular habit of getting in the way of true obedience to God’s truths. For
example, we form certain habits in our worship out of our own preferences. We establish
certain forms of music, particular liturgies and even length of service to such
a point we begin to think these habits are God’s requirements. We go through
the motions because we think the motions make us holy.
But our motions of
obeying God’s gracious truths must be from habits of clean heart-love. Jesus knew
his disciples’ and his people’s hearts not hands needed washing as he pointed
them to God’s first command: “You shall
have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)
LIFE Link: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see
God.” (Matthew 5:8)
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