Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” – Matthew 15:3
Dear friends in Christ! It is nice to write to you all again in Christ’s name after a little while!! I am doing this on a weekend, when I had gone to work, then finding no one to operate on, being a quite day, finishing my pending administrative work, still finding ample time, chose to write this!!!
What do you think about this? Does God get time only when I get spare time? Is that true in our lives too? If God looks it that away and want to implement Hammurabi’s code of practise, “Tit for Tat”, do I have the strength or courage to face up to it? We all know God is an ever loving, forgiving, compassionate God. So are we having a go at Him with abuse!!
Of course we all know the code of practise God instituted for us thorough Moses in the Ten Commandments. One of them is “Honour your father and your mother.” Do we practise it diligently? What do we think of ourselves as we grow and succeed, make a career for ourselves, and persevere to set up same for our children? Is there a sense of pride and arrogance which is creeping into me? If I am anointed in God, do I Understand, how damaging this attitude could be in my relationship with my God?
Often we fail to recognise our withering parents in their good old days, the sacrifices they undertook for us to be in a position where we are! Ironically their tendency to make sacrifices still continues! Of course there will always be some exceptions to the general rule of the thumb, who failed to nurture their children appropriately, gave them grief. However is it what we want to repay them, simulating them or is it time for us to show the love and compassion God showed us to live today as His child. If we are disrespectful and abominable to them despite their care and sacrifice, are we prepared to take the same stick from our children?
It is time to think these in our life friends!
I call you all now with cold hands and warm heart to read Matthew 15:1-20, to know this chillness and warmth in Christ.
We see in here the Pharisees, who are supposed to live and show people how to follow the God’s code of practise, faltering. They were concerned that Christ’s disciples were breaking the tradition, a tradition like Hammurabi’s code, unlike them. My dear friends, the Pharisees broke God’s code of practise, with a tweak here and a twitter there to keep up to a traditional (Hammurabi’s) code.
Yes, the Pharisees had that lovely elegance and eloquence in their walk and speech to be covetous among the people, with their mesmerising words to flex the truth and twist it to their advantage. They had the attitude to be critical on others, but not being self critical. They were autocratically leading them, alike dictatorship!
Friends, even today we see these attitudes in us and in our church leaders. Yes we make leaders and make them in a way they simulate us and our view points. Whom do we blame them, the leaders or us?
Yes, we all stand for our tradition, don’t we? The pride and honour standing for our tradition is phenomenal!! Is it honestly what we want to reap from the future generation when we get old? We are blind like the Pharisees, ain’t we? Can we now lead our children to do differently to what we do to our parents?
Jesus said we are hypocrites – Matthew 15:6-7. Absolutely correct as we nullify God’s words for the sake of our tradition as Pharisees did!! How correctly and cynically prophet Isaiah wrote about us,
“These people honour me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.”Isaiah 29:13
Yes friends just as the face is the window of our heart, so are our deeds as a door to it. Our actions come from our heart’s treasure.
Jesus said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth that is what defiles them.”
Matthew 15:10-11
So it is time that I should keep up to God’s code, not my tradition. It is time to change! One question I often face is how one can change. Here we go, a few tips below!!
How can I be good to someone and make others happy? Today let me think of the ways I can make friends and relatives, parents and children happy. Let me change myself and be good to people who hasn’t been that way to me.
I am Christ’s child and I am holding His light. Let me lit the darkness with the light I have. Let the Light of Christ be shone everywhere, where I go and where I live. Let his peace be honoured in love and happiness.
“Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots,” said Jesus
Matthew 15:14
I honestly do not want to be pulled out, instead I want to stay in my soil and use my energy to grow, grow for Christ that I will inherit God’s Kingdom of Heaven.
Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”
“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.
Matthew 15: 16-17
I am sure I have tried my best to explain this to you my friends and I am convinced that you are all brighter and intelligent than Peter.
Yes, let us love our neighbour as we love ourselves!
Yes, let us change now, a change for Christ!
Yes, let us break the tradition to practise God’s code!!
Yes, let us live and reveal Christ!!
Christ is my light and I am His light!!!
Salvation & Mission 