Day 21

Genesis 41:41-42:38; Matthew 14:22-15:9; Psalm 12:1-8

The Gospel today makes it sound as though the Pharisees may have a point – clean your hands. Isn’t that what we’ve all been told for donkeys years, and who really wants to eat with someone who hasn’t washed their hands.

But what Jesus is saying is that there is something that is far more important - getting into a relationship with God. What is the point of sticking to the endless and sometimes pointless rules if you don’t have a relationship with God. In fact that is God’s number one rule – “love the lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Jesus is kind of berating the Pharisees for getting their priorities wrong. It’s as if they are saying “Let’s skip rule number one, and then that other high up one about honouring our fathers and mothers and lets go all the way down to rule 12,426 “wash your hands””. And Jesus is basically saying get your house in order, God first then look at the other stuff.

And then the Psalmist which jumps off quite well from Jesus words at the end of the Gospel. Jesus is talking about lips that speak deception and hearts that are not worshipping God. The Psalmist is also speaking about lips that speak deception and that the one true word, like silver refined in the fire, is the word of the Lord.

Let us turn to the word of the Lord, find his refined and perfect word, and we will then be able to put all other things into perspective, unlike the Pharisees. And yes that does mean that we have to honour our fathers and mothers.