JUNE 17 JQ#16-2 “Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3) The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JUNE 17    JQ#16-2 “Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3) 

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, You Lord are worthy to be Praised even in not a single person did so. Your Mercy and Grace are extended to All, believers and non-believers receive Your Blessings and one gives Praise and Thanksgiving and the other rejects the gifts of God, yet acceptance and rejection are no reflection on Your Glory but merely a reflection of who we are. Lord forgive me when I think that my thoughts have anything to do with who You really are! What  we believe about God is as A. W. Tozer is the “most important” thing about “us” but our “belief” about who God is has no bearing on God’s Holy Character ——— Lord Jesus, I Praise You because You are Worthy of our Praise.      AMEN

The Jesus Questions

JUNE 16   JQ#16-2 “Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3) Jesus has been teaching the “multitudes” with one style and His disciples with another and I believe that is because Jesus can use the same event but teach accordingly to teach different lessons at the same time ——— Jesus is just that good! Jesus proves His consistency and His “Fairness” by always teaching the Truth of God and Jesus makes His lesson personal and intimate or global in nature depending on the needs of His followers. JQ#16 is the second time that Jesus has used the word “Hypocrite!” in His teachings as we see in Matthew 7 that Jesus was teaching the multitudes that we should not judge others (JQ#4) for if we “say to your brother ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye…” and miss the “plank” in our own eyes then Jesus used the word “Hypocrite!” to describe us. (see Matthew 7:2-5) and now  in JQ#16 we see the “scribes and the Pharisees” are questioning Him again as to His Lordship very similar to when the Pharisees had questioned Jesus about “lawful” things for the Sabbath and Jesus had answered, “…the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath’. In the first instance the Pharisees asked Jesus if it was “lawful” for Him and His disciples to pick grain and eat on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-8) and Jesus answered their question with a definitive statement about His Lordship and in this instance Jesus does the Pharisees just like He did Peter and turns their question into an indictment on themselves as the Pharisees asked  “Why do you transgress the tradition of the elders?” (Matthew 15:2) and Jesus turns that back on them and asks  JQ#16   “Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)  When we look at the context of this question we see it is directed strictly to the legalists of that age and was not addressing the “multitudes” in general, so Jesus has directed His Teaching at a specific group, those that thought that man’s law was greater somehow than God’s own law as Jesus pointed out the commandment of “Honor thy father and thy mother…” had been re-written by the Pharisees so that they could “justify” getting around that commandment for the purpose of personal gain! Jesus quickly let’s them know that changing the commandments “legally” is a sin in itself! Matthew records for the second time Jesus using the word “Hypocrite!”  (see Matthew 7:5) and here where Jesus is talking about the Pharisees practice of changing God’s Law to suit themselves. (Matthew 15:7) Each time the Pharisees try to trap Jesus using their law (the Pharisees interpretation of God’s Law) Jesus points out that God’s Law cannot be changed nor interpreted any was but the way God said it! Jesus makes it perfectly clear with His question that “your tradition” is wrong if it transgresses “the commandment of God”! Jesus again quotes the Prophet Isaiah to describe the Pharisees: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:8-9 taken from Isaiah 29:13) Jesus has once again taught the specific lesson needed to what a specific group needed to help them see that there is the TRUTH set forth by God and no amount of “legislation” or “popular outcry” from a majority of voters can alter or change in any way the Commandments of God. I have to stop and ask a 2016 question today, “Why does the world today fight over who has the right to establish law when the Law has already been established by the One that first establishes Law and then has the Power to enforce it?”