Thursday, December 20, 2012 Jewish Tradition vs. Inner Purity

The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ

(Seed Sowers Christian Book Publishing House. http://www.seedsowers.com/)

Thursday, December 20, 2012     Jewish Tradition vs. Inner Purity  

Page 133-135         Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23

An essential part of being a Christian is spiritual discernment. Anyone who desires to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus will come to appreciate that while spiritual discernment is a skill that can be learned, it is also an art. Part of the art is learning to understand scripture, and then test human traditions against the teachings of the Bible.

Jesus is revealing how the religious leaders had blurred the distinction between tradition and scripture. They were teaching people cultural traditions as though they carried the same weight as scripture. It is from the Law of Moses that the Jews developed their dietary laws. This is serious because Jewish martyrs had died at the hands of their oppressors because they refused to eat certain foods, such as pork. When Jesus said that all food is permissible to eat was he dismissing the Old Testament as now being irrelevant? No. Jesus was demonstrating that the purpose of the Old Testament is to be sign posts of the coming Kingdom of God. The Old Testament is not irrelevant; it is now fulfilled in Jesus. How?

The Jews had laws relating to purity, such as ceremonial washing of hands and a strict menu of what foods could be eaten. Jesus is showing that these laws do not deal with the core issue of purity. The purity of a person is not based on what is on the outside. A person’s purity does not come from what is taken into the body. Purity is revealed by what comes out of the heart. Jesus shows that the issue with purity is that the human heart has been corrupted by sin. Although Jesus points to the problem of sin here, he does not tell us the cure for this brokenness; not yet, but this is only Friday (metaphorically), and Sunday is coming. Easter Sunday, the cure for sin’s corruption of the heart, is coming.

In today’s reading, Jesus laid the foundation for our responsibility to take down the barriers that keep people away from intimate fellowship with God. Jesus tells the Pharisees that God values substance over form. God is looking to our heart, our inner life, for evidence of our transformation. It is not so much a matter of how we worship; but why we worship. This understanding helped the first century church take the Good News to the Gentiles; and will help the church today reach those who are marginalized.

The more my focus is on Who I worship and why I worship, the more God can use me to invite all people to come and receive healing and wholeness from His throne of grace.

Sē’lah

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What word or phrase in today’s reading attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

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The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ

(Seed Sowers Christian Book Publishing House. http://www.seedsowers.com/)

Friday, December 21, 2012          The Faith of a Gentile Woman    

Page 139      Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30