Matthew 15:1 says, Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, The scribes and Pharisees once again came to where Jesus was, not to hear Him but to find fault with Him. Verse two asks, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. They asked Jesus why his disciples failed to keep the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before they ate. I believe this would have been a ceremonial washing and not one to simply clean their hands. Sometimes today certain religious people have ceremonial practices or traditions that they hold others at fault for if they do not keep them, but if we are followers of Christ, we are set free from all empty rituals and are just held accountable for our relationship with Him. Verse three declares, But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? Jesus responded by asking a question to the scribes and Pharisees as to why they themselves broke the commandment to honor their father and mother. Verse four adds, For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. Jesus then stated the commandment that God gave that anyone who did not honor their father or mother should be put to death. Once more, if others question us about our faith, our answers should be based on God's word. Verse five continues, But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; Jesus basically said that the scribes and Pharisees said that anything that they did for their parents was a gift and not something that was required of them by God's law. Verse six concludes, And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Jesus said in this case that the scribes and Pharisees attempted to free themselves from God's law by following a man made tradition instead. We need to be careful that we do not allow some man made tradition to become more important than God's law. Verse seven declares, Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees, the leaders of the religious community, hypocrites based on a prophesy of Isaiah. Verse eight adds, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. Jesus said that they honored God with their lips, but not with their hearts. Unless we truly accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord in our hearts, the very core of our being, then all our words professing to do so are empty. Verse nine continues, But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Jesus said that the scribes and Pharisees worshipped God in vain, because they followed the doctrines of man and not of God. We must never allow the traditions man to come between God and us. Verse ten states, And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Jesus called the multitude and asked them to hear and understand what He was saying. We must not only hear what God has to say to us, but we must also understand the meaning of what He has to say. Just reading the Bible does us no good if we have no real understanding of what it actually says. Verse eleven adds, Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Jesus said it is not what we eat that defiles us, but what we say based on our understanding of God's word.
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