OUR FATHER WHO WILL ONLY PRESERVE THOSE HE HIMSELF PLANTED

The Lord Jesus, having castigated the religious leaders for placing the traditions of men above the law of God, spoke to the people and explained the absurdity of slavishly following the traditions of men. 

10 When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

Here, the Lord Jesus gave a spiritual axiom that renders the tradition of washing hands before eating spiritually unprofitable. While the cultural traditon was promoted as mandatory in order to maintain spiritual purity,  the Lord explained that eating with unwashed hands cannot cause spiritual contamination. 

Spiritual contamination is caused by the corrupt heart of a man moving the man to say and do  corrupt things and so it can be understood that what goes into a man by means of unwashed hands does not contaminate him but rather, what comes out of his heart in the form of words or actions that manifest from his physical body, is what what contaminates him.

12 Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”

15 Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”

16 So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

The disciples were concerned that the Lord was provoking the religious and political leaders by challenging the traditions they upheld and so Jesusˋ disciples alerted Him that the Pharisees were offended at Him. 

The Lord told them that His heavenly Father would uproot the doctrinal authority structures that He Himself did not plant (mirroring the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew chapter 13). Because of their lack of spiritual understanding, the pharisees were like blind men and those who followed them were blind and as a result, they would all fall in a ditch. 

Because the religious leaders of the day did not understand spiritual matters, they were concerning themselves with traditions that were pointless and teaching others to focus on these observances that had no effect on their spiritual well being and thus condeming them to lives of futile religious activities.

Amen.

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