Religious people have predictable patterns. The whole
identity of God’s people, in Jesus day, was, “we are not like other people…” It
is predictable that God’s people will have a proclivity to draw clear lines of
who is in and who is out so that they can feel good about their ‘in-ness’ and
better than people who are on the ‘out list’.
There was plenty of Law to follow; Moses’ teaching was
revered, and at different points, added to. Jesus pushes back against these
‘traditions’ and even voids part of the cherished Law of God’s people. It is
not your traditions that make you ‘clean’, it is not even your rigorous
adherence to the dietary Laws. It is not what goes in that makes you ‘clean’ it
is what comes out that makes you ‘unclean’.
Therein lies the problem…all the
stuff that comes out of our lives…now what do we do?
Read this passage several times and then spend some time
with the following questions, make this a time of prayerful examination and
repent of anything that comes to mind: Lord, am I living in obedience or am I
using traditions as a way to avoid following Your law?
Am I thinking about the
sins of others too much and too little about the sin that is within me? End
your time with this prayer, “Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a
sinner. Amen.”
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