RULES OR RIGHTEOUSNESS?

And He continued, ‘You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honour your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father and mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father and mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God) – then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.’ (Mark 7: 9-13).

On the warpath! Just as much as the Pharisees were after Jesus for violating their beloved rules, so Jesus was after them for choosing their rules over what was right. One thing they did not realise – that the best way to serve God was to obey His instructions and to do the right thing when it came to the needs of people.

What were the religious leaders advocating? They knew that it was their responsibility and the responsibility of every Israelite, according to the Torah, to take care of the needs of their aging parents. However, they sidestepped Moses’ instruction by dedicating to God what should have been used to support their parents. They made a religious issue out of what should have been simple obedience to God’s command.

What did it mean to honour their father and mother? They were to give back to their parents in their old age what their parents had invested in them in their childhood. When their father and mother were no longer able to care for themselves, wasn’t it the right thing to do to take care of their parents, to ensure that they were provided for and made comfortable when they could no longer provide for themselves?

People matter to God. He is concerned about His people doing the right thing – taking care of the needs of others when they cannot take care of their own needs – and it starts right at home. By withholding from their parents what was their due in order to “give” to God (and most probably in the most ostentatious way possible, to be noticed), they were not serving God; they were heaping judgment on their own heads.

Again Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, ‘Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them (Mark 7: 14-16).

Now here’s the difference between religion and reality. Man-made religions concentrate on the outside – doing this, doing that – eating or not eating certain foods, using this hand and not that hand, facing this way and not that way when they pray, washing in special water or sprinkling “holy” water on their heads, or “doing” whatever is prescribed by their religion, as though what is slapped on the outside can change what is on the inside.

Jesus put in in a nutshell. It’s not what you put in but what comes out that makes a person unclean. You can wash your body as much as you like with whatever kind of water you like – it will make not one iota of difference to the sin in your heart. You can eat whatever you like, wear whatever you choose, go wherever you please, but you will remain the same person inside. You cannot change your heart from the outside. You have a past which remains until your heart has been made clean, and that will never happen by washing or scrubbing the outside.

The prophet Micah asked the question:

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (Micah 6: 6-7).

No, dear reader. No amount of observing rituals, obeying rules or practising religion will clear the debt you owe to your Maker for the sin of your soul. Giving Him your money when He told you to take care of the needy will not wash away your guilt. Not even giving to the needy will do it. Grooming the outside will not cleanse the inside. Your heart is defiled and nothing you can say or do will make your filthy past clean. Even if you were to change from this moment on and live a life of perfect obedience to God, you would still have a past you cannot change.

Do not be fooled by the traditions you have adhered to that have replaced the Word of God. It is God’s Word and not the traditions of men that will endure forever. Go back to the simplicity of Jesus’ call: “Follow me!” Stick with Him and He will show you the way to the Father.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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