Leaven, Spiritual Cancer, and Getting Back to the Word

This morning, before my study, I was praying and contemplating on getting back to the purity of God’s word; and then I read this: Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matthew 15:1-9).

Jesus was addressing a religious and political class of people who had taken over worship. In fact, Religious Judaism was split in to two (well, more, but these are the main ones) classes, the Pharisees and Sadducees. They had traded the purity of God’s word for their traditions they created to follow the Law. They traded man-made righteousness for God’s perfection, and only honored him to the minimum ability that the Law would allow, and I am being generous with that assertion! They cared more for appearances than Holiness. Does any of this sound familiar?

The more things change, as some say, the more they stay the same. We have not gotten very far in 2,000 years. We’re still creating man-made traditions and doctrines and remaining (willfully or no) ignorant of the Scriptures. We care more about appearances than we do Holiness! Tradition can be cancerous: a little bit spreads rapidly, malignantly and destroys the Body! We need to test every word, every thought, every action, every tradition against the purity of God’s word, and if it does not measure up, we need to consider if we should be doing it at all (more often than not, the answer is we shouldn’t). Loved ones, we have been washed, sanctified and saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are called from Death to Life, and that Life is called Holy to the Lord. If we have been called such, then by the Word and Holy Spirit, let us leave man-made assumptions and go back to loving obedience to the One who formed us in our mother’s wombs and redeemed us by the blood of His Son.

Matthew 15:1-20; 16:1-12

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

“‘This people honors me with their lips,but their heart is far from me;in vain do they worship me,teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

16 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.