Insights From Matthew – Traditions of Men and Corrupt Hearts

It is already established that Jesus and the religious rulers of His day got on together like two things that did not get on together. The animosity and hostility between the two would almost inevitably pop out whenever the Pharisees saw what Jesus was up to and what law they had perceived He had broken.

The stinging rebuke He gives them on the occasion of the first part of Matthew 15 hits to the bone. He is not mincing in His words concerning how they have put the traditions of men over the commandments of God. It also makes me wondering looking at how church expresses itself today, how many would be guilty of the same charge.

Good ideas that helped at the time have been enshrined and made into tablets of stone that cannot be altered, because now we take what is being said that it is divine and surely should only come from one source and never changed. Well intentioned suggestions turn into binding precepts for the church that continue to stifle the spiritual life out of some and lead others to nurture their soul elsewhere. I am sure there are plenty of church practices that would certainly come under the title of being traditions of men that often get in the way of the Kingdom expression.

What I want to look at, though is the connection between this issue that Jesus addresses with the religious rulers and then considering that in the light of what He says to the people that will gather around Him. It could be seen as two unrelated incidents, but there is something about it that suggests there is something more to these two than just happening at the same time.

Jesus tells those who gather around Him that it is actually what comes out of a man which defiles him, not what he puts in. And for Peter’s benefit Jesus spells out that the heart is the source from which the garbage is produced. Contaminated hearts produce contaminated goods – it is inevitable and only a work of Jesus can change that.

Contaminated hearts thus are also quick to turn to other things rather than God – sexual prowess, self-dependent intelligence, being able to set up complex monitoring systems and even elaborate well meaning rituals and hoops to jump through with no regard to what but what matters to those around, especially those gatekeepers of what is and is not acceptable.

That is to say I believe that just as we have institutional racism, if we are not careful to be lead by the commandments of God we are liable to be accused of institutional sinfulness.

What practices foes the church go about that would conform more to the traditions of men, rather than God’s commands? What personal practices on reflection could be considered personally as more tradition driven than spirit driven?

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd