Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” 3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 8 “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’” (Matthew 15:1-9)
Here we see that the Pharisees and scribes came to the Lord Jesus and told him that his disciples had violated the traditions of the ancients, because they did not wash their hands before eating. The Pharisees always found fault with the Lord Jesus and his disciples. Jesus told them that they had violated God’s commandments because of their traditions. The Old Testament says, “Honor your father and mother” and also says, “Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.” But the Pharisees said, “if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it.” The Pharisees abandoned God’s commandments because of their traditions. Jesus quoted the verses of the Old Testament.
13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. (Isaiah 29:13)
The Pharisees valued traditions, received the human rules they have been taught, but abandoned God’s commandments. They honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from God.
