Sometimes you just have to look at things differently. Peter had been on the water his whole life…yet he’s never seen anyone walking on it! Just like these Jewish leaders…the law was everything to them! They’ve been on it their entire lives…yet they’ve never seen anyone walking on it! Not just the written law…but the oral law as well. The extrapolated law…laws that had been handed down to them by their parents and their culture.

The Torah, (or the Pentateuch), is the five books of Moses (the first five books of the Old Testament), but the Jews also had and have the Talmud. The Talmud is comprised of the Mishnah and the Gemara and it’s basically the commentary on the Torah. Their interpretation. And it had really become their entire focus…I mean naturally! It contained the details! Here’s the problem. The scripture is God’s Word…the extrapolation is man’s Word. They’d lost that and here comes Jesus, walking at that higher level again…walking upon the tip tops of the law…and man, it’s time for them to look at things differently…

Link was correcting Brantley the other day with passionate indignation using the word, “tetails!” No Brantley, not “details,” it’s “tetails!” Um no…HA! Link needs to listen…look at it differently. But he’s a child, and has to be right…has to think only about winning in that second…He can only think one step ahead. Madison asked him the other day what he wants to be when he grows up. No hesitation…8, (he just turned 7…HA). He needs to see things differently, right? HA!

But listen, for the natural man…you and me…with our fallen, sinful bent…that is precisely what the Word of God helps you to do…trains your heart to do…and I love this, when you look at things differently, look at things God’s way, Perfection’s way, obeying/trusting Him…things are revealed…Jesus got into the boat and revealed to Peter how close they were…Yes this could have been a miracle, or they could have just been very very close to where they wanted to go. And listen, I’m telling you, you’re closer than you think…you just gotta see it His way...

Matthew Chapter 15 Verses 1 – 2

• Are you kidding me! People have been healed! The blind see! The deaf hear! The lame walk! The maimed are restored! The demon-possessed have been freed! Even the hungry have eaten…and THIS is their objection! It’s crazy! “Um, your disciples…they aren’t washing their hands.” I mean, give me a break! But that just goes to show you how absolutely blind you can be to the power and provision of God!
• This isn’t washing by the way like we wash today…it’s not like the disciples are filthy and that is offending folks. I mean Jesus was extremely clean…He used Dove soap. HA!! NOOOOO > This is ceremonial washing. Unclean things like gentiles, like certain animals were all around and so the Jews, (even to the dust particle level), would worry about this and ceremonially clean themselves (which really didn’t clean anything) several times a day!
• Man, they would have been ok if they just stopped at “Jesus.” “Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus…” Boom, stop there. Now they will encounter and experience and receive but they did not come to Jesus to be blessed, to be filled, to be healed or to be fed…they came to Jesus to advise Him. To teach Him. To command and direct…that’s what this word, “saying,” literally means in the Greek…
• What they say is even flawed to its core! “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?” Why does Your squad sin against tradition? Impossible! And herein lies the problem! Tradition is something of man…an act, a custom, a rite, an expectation that has been levied upon man by man…I may choose to not participate but transgression? Too far man…transgression is to knowingly commit sin…you see the traditions had been exalted to be equal with the Word of God which is a grave mistake…why? Because it leads you to advising God…I love Jesus’ response…

Matthew Chapter 15 Verse 3

• Loosely translated, “Give me a break!” HA! Jesus says to them, “Hang on…tradition is one thing and it is important culturally but it can never be allowed to interfere with the simple Word of God!” And what’s interesting, is that today, even in non-denominational evangelical Spirit-filled churches, this problem still rears its ugly head. Hugely so in some traditions or as we like to call them, denominations, and paramountly so in the Catholic Church! That system is almost entirely tradition…you observe a mass, the readings, the rituals and the motions…you will find none of those things in the Word of God…
• But even within the Protestant tradition we have to guard against this…how many of you believe that we should wear our “Sunday best” to church? Not many, but I tell you what, it matters doesn’t it? What folks around you are wearing…what I’m wearing…it matters doesn’t it? Should it? Sunday best is actually found nowhere in scripture…dressing up for church is actually one of the younger traditions…only about 200 years old and was a result of the industrial revolution in England, then Northern Europe and finally made its way over to America…
• Is there anything wrong with dressing up for church? Absolutely not! Here’s the rub. Is there anything wrong with not dressing up for church? See….HA! A little uncomfortable, right? And that’s just one silly example!

• Jesus’ statement here is sharp and it is essential. I like how Mark put it in his gospel. Mark 7:8 Jesus said, “You lay aside the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” We must vehemently reject this trap…an easy one to fall into…here’s what we ought to do…we ought to lay aside the tradition of men and hold to the commandment of God!

Matthew Chapter 15 Verses 4 – 6

• By what they said, they were condemning not just Jesus’ few disciples but the whole 5000 that just ate and were filled! Jesus is like, what you want? Me to let them go hungry like you do yo momma?! HA!
• The Word of God is clear…, “Honor your father and your mother.” But the Jews were dismissing their fathers and mothers and neglecting to help them, take care of them by abusing a tradition that at its origin was not a bad thing. This thought of consecrating objects and even currency to the service of God…good thing…but to use that in order to deny the needs of your family…to elevate the cultural custom, the tradition above the Word of God…horrible thing…

Matthew Chapter 15 Verses 7 – 9

• This struck a chord for me, personally. First off, it’s clear what Jesus is saying and here He is beginning His public confrontation with the religious elite that will ultimately lead to His arrest…He calls them all actors…and this is what deeply affects me. Why? Because the world is full of actors…and they recognize their own. Can I just share something with you…? I don’t come from the church. I didn’t grow up in a churched home. I didn’t go to Bible College or Seminary…
• I was brought up by sin…the streets were my father…and yet today I live for Jesus. I hate Christianese and vanilla Christianity and hate is a faint glimpse of how I truly feel. This is why I don’t fit the pastoral mold and man, I’m just fine with that…Hypocracy and churchy piety undermines my purpose and calls me worthless again…I left worthless behind when I shattered my bong and flushed my last bag. Churchianity is more than my enemy, it is the lie that undermines my reason…my explanation today…and the church is sick with it…
• We ought to be real with God. We ought to see things His way…we ought to be QUICK to drop the things of man for the truth of the things of God…and we’ll find we’re closer than we think to who and where we want to be…