Religion: A Blind Guide (Matthew 14:34-15:20)
As Jesus returns to the west side of the sea, He continues to minister to the crowds. He also gets into a confrontation with the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were the latest in a long line—that goes back to the time of Adam and continues to our day—of people trying to invent lifestyles that will please God and restore a relationship to Him through human effort. They do this, not out of any real piety, but for the power over others that it brings them. They were jealous of Jesus ministry and influence, so they sought to condemn Him. They questioned the fact that His followers did not follow their rules of conduct.
Jesus counters with an example where their rules nullified actual rules that God had put in place. They could get out of taking care of their parents by claiming a sort of “piety exemption.” If they used their money to serve God, they didn’t have to help their elderly parents.
What is really at the heart of the issue is human attitude and not ritual. God is always interested in the heart and in obedience rather than sacrifice and an empty show of devotion. Jesus teaches His disciples this. It is not what you eat (i.e. ceremonial practices) that destroys the spirit of humanity, it is the sin of pride, rebellion, and idolatry already within us that does.
And pointedly, Jesus tells His disciples that it is not a religious system that God is wanting. He says, “Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone: they are the blind guides of the blind.”
Where is your hope rooted, in your efforts to please God, or in complete dependence on the righteousness of Christ alone? Are you following a religious system and a rule book, or the person of Jesus Christ as Lord?
The Pharisees were the latest in a long line—that goes back to the time of Adam and continues to our day—of people trying to invent lifestyles that will please God and restore a relationship to Him through human effort. They do this, not out of any real piety, but for the power over others that it brings them. They were jealous of Jesus ministry and influence, so they sought to condemn Him. They questioned the fact that His followers did not follow their rules of conduct.
Jesus counters with an example where their rules nullified actual rules that God had put in place. They could get out of taking care of their parents by claiming a sort of “piety exemption.” If they used their money to serve God, they didn’t have to help their elderly parents.
What is really at the heart of the issue is human attitude and not ritual. God is always interested in the heart and in obedience rather than sacrifice and an empty show of devotion. Jesus teaches His disciples this. It is not what you eat (i.e. ceremonial practices) that destroys the spirit of humanity, it is the sin of pride, rebellion, and idolatry already within us that does.
And pointedly, Jesus tells His disciples that it is not a religious system that God is wanting. He says, “Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone: they are the blind guides of the blind.”
Where is your hope rooted, in your efforts to please God, or in complete dependence on the righteousness of Christ alone? Are you following a religious system and a rule book, or the person of Jesus Christ as Lord?
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