Read Today's Passage
Here come the Pharisees again! Armed with their accusations, and searching eyes, backed up by their cold and hardened hearts. They again search for a way to trip Jesus up, calling upon an ancient tradition that they not only taught but practiced themselves. Washing their hands before they eat (yes, I make it seem less significant with this sentence, and there was a lot more ceremony to it than we observe). Does this not seem like a small thing to argue over? Something to nitpick and niggle about? I mean, here you are a leader in the religious world, the equivalent of a successful preacher and a bit of a rock star, and you have to pick fights over small infractions against the Law like this? Wow. How often do we lose sight of what God wants, and try to enforce our own rules on those around us? How many times have we started a sentence with "The Bible says..." only to look back and discover that we were only using that to convey our own feelings and ideas? How guilty of this am I?
(Just a side note, Jesus here is discussing clean and unclean food according to Hebrew dietary restrictions. Don't make the mistake of using this to support your consumption of media that is not honoring to God).
Also today, a very confusing passage at first reading. What in the world were the Syrophonecian woman and Jesus talking about? Dogs and bread to have her daughter healed? Remember that the Gospel came first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. Jesus was a Jew, this woman was a Gentile. Now why do you suppose this conversation took place and why it had the affect that we read about?
So what are your thoughts?
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3 comments:
u no its insteresting how jesus will tell us something not 2 do and we will do it
like he tld them men not 2 tell that he healed the deff guy but they told many ppl
and how many times aday do we get in2 our own tradions but not Gods or tradions with/for God
Hmmmm. Point well made. And how often do we contend that our traditions are God's so everyone else should do it our way. Didn't God say somewhere 'don't put words in My mouth that I didn't say!" or you will be condemed?
The part about the clean/unclean food goes back to my comments on Mark 3. The spirits know they couldn't hurt Jesus because they know Him spiritually. The Pharisees are concerned with non-spiritual things like trying to kill Jesus, and clean/unclean-liness. Jesus tells them they are missing the point completely-it's a spiritual matter, not a physical requirement. The disciples are starting to see things with "spirit eyes" (is that from a song?) and not worrying about the cleanliness of their hands. I still don't understand why He told them not to tell anyone.
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