So this morning I met with a couple of buddies over coffee and donuts just to hang out and invest in one another's lives and talk about the things of God. After the obligatory discussion on Apple products and other technology we began talking about Matthew 15:8-9.
According to Matthew, Jesus had recently walked on the water shortly after feeding 5,000+ people and they were hanging out healing sick people in a town called Gennesaret, when along come some Pharisees and scribes (read, "heavy duty religious leaders") from Jerusalem (Jerusalem is over 100 miles south of Gennesaret). Well, the Pharisees have a real problem with the way Jesus' disciples are doing something and they really wanna bring them down, so they ask Jesus this deep, probing question: "Why do your buddies break our traditions by not washing their hands before they eat?" Jesus is dumbfounded and flummoxed by their clever line of questioning. But He gathers Himself and responds by giving one example of how hypocritical they are because they use their beloved traditions to break the Word of God. Then He quotes Isaiah's prophecy regarding them in verses 8-9:
"These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.”
My friends pointed out that Jesus was condemning them for their legalism, for their vain religious activity and they noted that we, in the context of our own church lives, have a tendancy toward legalism and vain religious activity too. Well, this concerns me.
What are the vain religious activities that we engage in? Or even more dangerous, what vain religious beliefs do we hold?
We talked about church history and how the errant views of a few in the past on matters that seem kinda minor resulted in the shackling of millions of people to certain false dogmas for centuries, binding people to beliefs, traditions, and fears that are unnecessary and damaging, and create false views of who God is.
Between bites of my French Cruller I realize that this is a very frightening thing to think about, because I wonder... We often feel like we've got it pretty much right; that we sorta have it figured out better than some of those guys in the past. But I wonder, do we hold any errant views today that maybe seem like no big deal, but that might result in shackling many to false dogmas in the generations to come? Are there religious ideas and views that we hold precious to us that could serve to bind people to beliefs and traditions that are unnecessary and damaging, creating false views of who God is?
I contend that we do... and I'll write more on that next time...
