Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, \u201cWhy do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.\u201d He answered them, \u201cAnd why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, \u2018Honor your father and your mother,\u2019 and, \u2018Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.\u2019 But you say that whoever tells father or mother, \u2018Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,\u2019 then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:
\u2018This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.\u2019\u201d
\u2014Matthew 15:1-9<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus\u2019 conversations with\nscribes and Pharisees\naren\u2019t nearly as well known as\nstories about his parables and miracles.\nAnyone who watches movies and\nTV can tell you scenes with a lot of\naction are more exciting than scenes\nwith a lot of dialogue. But I find this\nparticular conversation to be especially\nstriking in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n
First, the Pharisees and scribes\ncome to Jesus to chastise him. Why?\nBecause his disciples are not washing\ntheir hands before they eat. To be honest,\nthis seems like a reasonable complaint!\nEven in the pre-COVID-19\nworld, we taught our children to wash\ntheir hands before meals. Today,\n\u201cWash your hands for 20 seconds\u201d is\nthe new mantra.<\/p>\n
In ancient Israel, though, handwashing\nwas part of religious rituals\ntied to purity and cleanliness. New\nTestament scholar Douglas R. A. Hare\nwrites that Israel\u2019s religion included\nmany laws concerning ritual purity or\nholiness, in line with the holiness code\nof Leviticus 19.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no biblical law about\nwashing hands before eating,\u201d Hare\nnotes, \u201cbut there is a requirement that\npriests wash hands and feet before\nministering at the altar\u201d (Exodus 30:17-\n21). The Pharisees also took seriously\nthe command of Exodus 19:6: \u201cYou\nshall be for me a priestly kingdom and\na holy nation.\u201d They argued all\nIsraelites should consider themselves\nas holy as priests (an early rendition of\nthe priesthood of all believers, perhaps?),\nand therefore all Jews should\nwash their hands before eating.<\/p>\n
Handwashing was not just an act of\ngood hygiene, but also a religious act\nand ritual.<\/p>\n
But Jesus\u2019 response to the Pharisees\nhere is not to advocate for folks to stop\nwashing their hands or to suggest\nthese rituals are unimportant. Rather,\nhe\u2019s saying rituals for the sake of<\/em> those\nrituals are null and void in the eyes of\nGod. \u201cWhy do you break the commandments\nfor the sake of your tradition?\u201d Jesus asks. In other words, why\nare you so keen on maintaining your\nrules and traditions at the expense of\nthose around you?<\/p>\n Before the Pharisees (or we) can protest,\nJesus gives another example from\nthe Ten Commandments: \u201cHonor your\nfather and mother\u201d (Deuteronomy 5:16).\nSome of you, Jesus says, are telling your\nmother and father, either by your words\nor by your actions: \u201cMy love of God is\ngreater than the love I have for you. My\nobligation to God is greater than my\nobligation to care for you. My worship of\nGod is greater than my respect for you.\u201d\nIn this way, Jesus argues, you think you\nare following the commandments of\nGod, but you are actually breaking them.\n\u201cFor the sake of your tradition, you make\nvoid the word of God.\u201d<\/p>\n Jesus is teaching them, and us, that\nwhen traditions, practices, and acts of\nworship do not honor and respect those\naround us, God rejects those acts. Our\nreligious traditions amount to nothing\u2014\nare literally made void\u2014when we prioritize\nthem over honoring and respecting\nand loving those around us.<\/p>\n Loving God through our acts of\nworship and piety is never more\nimportant than showing love and\nrespect to others, because loving our\nneighbors is also how we love God.<\/p>\n Presbyterian minister Amy Howe\ntells this story: \u201cOne Sunday morning I\ncame into my office to find a note\nquickly scribbled and left on my desk.\nThe author of the note wrote something\nlike, \u2018It seems that our youth don\u2019t\nknow how to spell any better than they\nknow the Bible.\u2019 I walked to my doorway\nwhere I had a good view of the\nnewly created bulletin board that welcomed\nkids and adults to the Sunday\nschool wing of the church. In bright,\nhappy colors it invited one and all to\nattend \u2018Sunday Skool!\u2019 I chuckled as I\nrealized that their intent was to get\npeople\u2019s attention . . . and it had\nworked. I may have been mildly\namused, but I was also angry. I knew\nthe young people who had created the\nbulletin board had sacrificed part of\ntheir Saturday so we could feel welcomed\nto a new season of Sunday\nschool. The person who had left the\nnote on my desk was missing the deeper\nChristian message.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of celebrating the message\nthat honored and welcomed people,\nthe note-writer was more concerned\nwith proper spelling. In what ways do\nwe care more about proper displays of\nworship and traditions than we care\nabout respecting and loving people in\ntheir walk with Jesus?<\/p>\n How might the words of Jesus speak\nto us during a global pandemic?<\/p>\n Surprisingly well. This year Christians,\nand people of all faiths, reimagined\nwhat their beloved traditions and worship\npractices look like when it is not\nsafe to engage in the usual ways of\nbeing the church: sitting close to one\nanother in our sanctuaries, sharing\nmeals together, singing in worship, and\npassing the peace of Christ. In addition\nto the tragic loss of life and livelihoods\nthis pandemic has caused, a blow has\nbeen dealt to these traditions.<\/p>\n But these words from Jesus, as\nharsh as they may seem, give us deep\ntruths to ponder today. During this\npandemic, how have we been clinging\nto conventional worship and traditions\nin ways that actually bring harm to the\nmost vulnerable among us? Are we,\nlike the Pharisees, more concerned\nwith following our obligation to familiar\nworship over our obligation to\nhonor, respect, and care for those\naround us? If Jesus were standing in\nfront of us today, would he look at the\nactions of his church and cry out, \u201cFor\nthe sake of your tradition you make\nvoid the word of God\u201d?<\/p>\n Since it has become clear that wearing\nface masks is a simple and effective\nway of helping to slow the spread of the\nvirus, Brethren Press has created face\nmasks that you can purchase.<\/p>\n Embroidered on each are well-known\nBrethren statements and values: \u201cSpeak\nPeace\u201d proclaims one. \u201cPeacefully.\nSimply. Not So Close Together\u201d states\nanother. But my favorite is this: \u201cFor the\nglory of God and my neighbor\u2019s good.\u201d\nThis statement, which was displayed\nover the printing press of\nBrethren forefather Christopher Sauer,\ndescribes the life of discipleship for\nwhich Brethren strive: We seek to glorify\nGod our creator while simultaneously\nworking for the wellbeing of our\nneighbors. What a perfect message to\ndisplay on a face mask, the purpose of\nwhich is to show loving care and\nrespect to those around us!<\/p>\n Beyond the pandemic, we would do\nwell to examine our own values around\nworship, traditions, and rituals and how\nthose values do or do not show respect\nand honor to those around us. To do\notherwise is, in the words of the prophet\nIsaiah, to honor God with our lips\nwhile keeping our hearts far from him.\n\u201cFor the glory of God and my neighbor\u2019s\ngood.\u201d Pandemic or otherwise, I\nhave a feeling that Jesus would\napprove.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When do our religious traditions amount to nothing? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8,212,213,207],"class_list":["post-1606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-study","tag-bible-study","tag-church-of-the-brethre","tag-lauren-seganos-cohen","tag-messenger"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1606"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1623,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions\/1623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}