Lip Service

(Note: still searching for a way to have these slices posted at 10: 00 am or earlier. We shall overcome!)

  

 Mark 7: 1-13

Traditions and Commandments

7 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, ² they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, ⁴ and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) ⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” ⁶ And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;
⁷ in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹ And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— ¹² then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³ thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

It's easy to fall into lip service or keeping the letter of the Law with great "bravo" and satisfaction, perhaps even pride, while missing the point of cleansing and purifying our hearts and motivations. We swell with   pride, rather than bow in humility. Evidently, the Pharisees were missing the point of the Law, and were giving more attention to the traditions they had developed. They had crossed the line and Jesus called them on it.

As we look at our own lives, we might see similar patterns creeping in; hence the need to keep vigilant and take these words of Jesus seriously, to keep ourselves from falling into the mentality of the Pharisees.

Bro. Rene