Everything Jesus said seems radical to us because Jesus is God and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways (Is.55.8). Yet it is probably the case that nothing Jesus ever said was as radical in terms of the religion of His day and all human thoughts about religion and true worship as what He told the Pharisees, crowds, and disciples in the first half of Matthew 15.
Quoting from Isaiah, Jesus said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” This was Jesus’ second response to a question the religious leaders asked – it was even stronger than the first. He is accusing them of hypocritical and therefore utterly false worship. He said that Isaiah had been prophesying about them when he wrote, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”
That is a damning accusation for people who were regarded as the best people of their day, but it was a just condemnation – for a love of tradition more than a genuine love of God always leads to false religion. In fact, it leads to self-righteousness, which was the chief characteristic of these men. Self-righteousness does not bring a person into heaven. Rather, it leads to judgment and death since the only possible basis for our justification before God is Christ’s righteousness, not our own.
Jesus called the crowds to Him and strongly applied what He had said, “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’ ” This was a direct contradiction of the Pharisees, for He was saying that what matters before God is not clean hands or kosher food, which is what they were concerned about, but a purified heart.
“Clean hands” refers to one who is holy in outward actions as well as inwardly, because he has been changed within. It is the exact opposite of Pilate, who although he washed his hands publicly, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” nevertheless was guilty in his condemnation of the Lord.
Psalm 15.1 asks, “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?”
Psalm 15.2-5 answers:
He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart
and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellow man,
who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the Lord,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,
who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
This is the character of those who please God, but the only people who will ever have such a character are those who have had their nature changed by God. Or to put it in the language Jesus used when He spoke to Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3.7).
Maranatha!
(mar-uh-nath-uh – “Our Lord Comes”)
Pastor Steve can be reached at PastorSteve@MaranathaBibleChurch.org