Wednesday after the Sixth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 19, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 15:1-9 (NKJV)
15:1 Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 2 “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.”
3 He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”—6 then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
9 ‘And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Devotion
Verses five through nine present Jesus’ harsh condemnation of the common practice of the religious leaders, holding the “traditions of the elders” to an equal authority and value as the Holy Scriptures. Sadly, this behavior is not unheard of in our age as many point people to modern authors of loose, sometimes heretical, writings about Christian living, faith and hope, etc. These should never take the place of the clear divine Word of God graciously provided in the Holy Bible. Dr. Martin Luther and our other fathers in the faith are clear that Holy Scripture is to be the only rule and norm for life and faith, so there is no excuse for any Lutheran to ever fall into this diabolical trap our Lord so vehemently warns against.
After the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish rabbis began to make meticulous rules and regulations governing the daily life of the people. These were interpretations and applications (commentaries, so to speak) of the law of Moses, handed down from generation to generation. In Jesus’ day this “tradition of the elders” was in oral form. It was not until 200 A.D. that it was codified into what became known as the Mishnah. Jesus clearly points out how the Pharisees and scribes were using these human opinions to contradict and ignore the Fourth—and probably also the First and Second—Commandment of God in Exodus.
Prayer: Lord of all power and might, Who art the Author and Giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of Thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of Thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
