As I look out the bay window this morning it is a gorgeous day, Father! Thank You for Your bountiful gift of beauty and life!

Matthew 15:1-9 (<<click the green)

In reading through a commentary on this particular passage, I saw the wonder pedantic used in reference to the Pharisees. I knew generally what it meant but I looked it up and dictionary.com defines it as overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching.

Boy does that aptly describe them!

Lord, here you are teaching thousands of people – that’s more than the Pharisees were doing! And miraculously you had even fed, from 5 loaves and 2 fishes, 5,000 men plus women and children! And the Pharisees couldn’t have even begun to do that! Yet after all that has been said and done on Your part, what do they do? Are they pouring forth Your praises? Are they bowing at Your feet? Are they seeking to learn from Your teachings? No…they are pedantic.

In my mind’s eye, I can see them in their flowing robes with their tassels swaying to and fro as they strolled in, noses in the air, disdaining the common folk around them and with great pomp and bravado asking,

“Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”

(Cue needle scratching across record audio clip) What!?!?! Here is the Messiah, the Son of God himself, touching people, changing lives, feeing multitudes from almost nothing and…and You have the audacity to whiningly complain about a tradition of hand washing? It’s not even a part of Mosaic law – it’s just something a bunch of over-studious scholars decided was important.

You don’t often see Jesus angry but when you do it is totally legitimate! He didn’t say it like I wrote it above but He sure didn’t hold back!

“And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? … you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
      ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”

Lord Jesus, help us! This is not just a malady from Your time amongst us. How often do we get nit-picky (pedantic) about so many unimportant things while we sacrifice people with real issues and needs? Traditions are fine but not at the expense of what is really important. Fill us with Your love and wisdom, Lord. Amen.

May 17th, 2018, Thurs, 9:34 am