MAY 19 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)

MAY 19  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?”  (Matthew 15:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Lord and Savior, again today as I read previous prayers to start my day, I am simply amazed at how Faithful You have been to teach me in ways that I could not imagine would teach me how to grow my faith in Your Faithfulness! Here is a prayer written in 2004 that is as timeless as is Your Glory — “Jesus, you alone have the right to claim a kingdom over man and You alone will be the Great LORD and Master over ALL living things. All but Thee have sinned and all but Thee have fallen short of the Glory of God. Lord forgive us in our weakness of the flesh ——— I pray and praise Thee and I acknowledge as did the Apostle Paul that I do the things I shouldn’t and then I don’t do the things I should?!?! O Lord, I will keep turning to Thee and praying for forgiveness and will continue to start each day looking to walk in Your Ways as I come humbly to You in Spirit and in Truth.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus will continue to Teach us in ways that we often miss in the first reading of a particular Lesson but Jesus moves our focus always to the Truth of God so if we but look again at His Lesson for the Truth of God that is always at the Heart of every Jesus Lesson, we will have our “spiritual” eyes opened and we will “see by Faith” the Goodness and Truth of God!  The Holy Spirit has again led me to “extend” the context of this JQ#16 to include the next several verses through Matthew 15:20 as I had missed the “Truth of God” when I read the text the first time through. The context from Matthew 15:1 through Matthew 15:20 should be carefully studied to gain “spiritual” insight for the JESUS Question of why do we as a society give “man-made traditions” so much authority while we fail to give God His Rightful Authority over ALL things! The Truth of God is that in our daily lives that when we stop to consider our “traditions” we miss the obvious Truth of God that we never give proper consideration as to where our “traditions” originate — from God or from man? This is very similar to the Question Jesus asked the Pharisees when they accused Jesus of breaking the “traditional law of the Sabbath” of the Pharisees regarding Jesus and His disciples when they were plucking heads of grain and eating them on the Sabbath and of Jesus healing a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath also. Jesus answered their question by telling them the Truth of God that “Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:12) and the Pharisees saw that their “traditional/man-made law” has no argument against the “Truth of God”. Now once again we see the Pharisees questioning Jesus as to another “tradition” that the Pharisees were using against Jesus and that was the tradition of the washing of hands before the eating of bread ——— if Jesus would stop and correct the Pharisees about “traditions established by man”, then we too should stop and learn the Lesson Jesus found important enough to stop and Teach, especially when it concerns the “traditions” that we tend to live by in our daily lives. Matthew records this Teaching of the Truth of God “Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, ‘Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they [the disciples] do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” (Matthew 15:1) Jesus at this point exposes the problem with their “traditions” when compared to the “Truth of God” as Jesus turned their question around and posed to the Pharisees regarding “their traditions”  JQ#16: “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your traditions?”  (Matthew 15:3) By taking their accusation against Him and using it to question their “traditions”, Jesus had once again drawn our attention to one of our daily weaknesses we live with and that is that we have been taught and are being taught on a daily basis what is packaged as “accepted traditions” that do not glorify God! I know that in growing up, many, many things I was taught was because that was the way everyone in my immediate family was taught — I now look back and see that many of my friends were doing what they were taught by their families so I have to ask the question, if we both do what is taught as “tradition” and there is a conflict in our “traditions” then who is right? I can now from my studying of the Word of God see why God has been spending so much energy in Teaching us to “know” the “Truth of God” and to evaluate our “traditions” as to their origination. I am grateful that my family was a Bible-believing family and our “traditions” were based on God’s Word and I am convinced that today’s world needs to evaluate if the “traditions” they are using to live their lives come from the True and Living God or from the “traditions of men”? There can be only One Truth and that One Truth is the Truth of God, and if every one lived by God’s commandments there would never be any conflict in our beliefs? Don’t you agree that if we continue to disagree that there will never be any hope for peace? It is a Truth of God that a house (or nation) divided against itself can not stand and that is certainly true if we consider trying to follow everyone’s personal preferences! Somewhere, somehow, we must unite under one single TRUTH and I prefer a tradition that teaches “Eternal Life and Forgiveness” — what “tradition of men” do you think would be better than the commandments of the “Life-Giving God offering Forgiveness of sin” to bring world peace?