PrayerBits for Monday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Monday

Scripture lesson: Matthew 15:1-20 Law vs Tradition

Time to reflect: At the time of Jesus there was a great deal of discussion about how to fulfill God's commandments in the Modern world. Various Jewish factions were all over the map about how to handle certain things that “modern life” made complicated (such as restricted travel on the Sabbath when you are a international merchant). Jesus pokes fun at some of the more extreme or offensive ideas that were floating around at the time. [The first issue about honor the parents is too complicated to explain in a PrayerBit, but the gist was to find a way around having to spend too much money on supporting elderly parents.]

Moving Through The Day: It is natural for us to want to codify religious rules and to interpret them to our advantage. Can you think of some situations or practices of the modern church that are more convenient than right?

 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"

 Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor your father and mother'and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
 " 'These people honor me with their lips,
      but their hearts are far from me.
 They worship me in vain;
      their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "

 Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"

 He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

 Peter said, "Explain the parable to us."

 "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "