When the Pharisees with some scribes who
had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his
disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the
Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their
hands, keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace they do
not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they
have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and
beds.) So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not
follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips, but
their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines
human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order
to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said, Honor your father and your
mother, and Whoever curses father or mother shall die. Yet you say, ‘If someone
says to father or mother, “Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’
(meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or
mother. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have
handed on. And you do many such things.”
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Reflection:
Are we fond of insisting on a rule which we
do not actually follow?
Jesus criticized the Pharisees and scribes
hypocrisy because they were insisting on following the tradition of washing
their hands before eating. But Jesus knew them very well, He knew that they
were only good at pushing people to follow their traditions and manmade laws.
But the irony of it all is they themselves were not following the laws that
they had crafted.
What made Jesus an extraordinary leader?
He led by example there was no hypocrisy in His system, He practiced what He
preached. Are we not like the Pharisees and scribes sometimes or even
oftentimes?
We are good at telling people to do this
and that, but we are not doing what we want others to do. For example in a
family setting, many parents create rules and regulations for their children to
follow. But they themselves do not subscribe to the rules that they’ve created.
Many of us are not being respected because
we don’t stand for what we say or we don’t live what we preach. We say
something today and then we violate what we’ve said. We must always be like
Jesus who always put to living actions His words and teachings.
Thus, we would earn the respect that we
richly deserve. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
