Freedom from the Fear of Offending Religious Sensitivities, Part Two: True Spiritual Authority
First, a Prayer of Encouragement
“Lord, Your Word has warned, ‘Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!’ (Isa 5:20, KJV). Today, we are living more and more in such a world where embracing Your Word is offending the religious sensitivities of the leaders of the “woke” agenda being promoted by many magistrates and many religious leaders. Thank You, Lord, that Your eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. You have told us to do good, to seek and pursue peace; and to be ready with a meek answer for those that ask us for the reason we do things. You have said, ‘Who will harm you if you do that which is good, but if we are punished, happy are we to have a good conscience. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that we suffer for well-doing, than for evil-doing’ (I Peter 3:13-17).
You warned your disciples that if they hated you, they would hate us, and they hated you without a cause! (John 15:18). So, Lord, as we have been called to suffer like Jesus, we ask You to help us serve the needy readily and to pursue that quiet place to pray so to have our own sensibilities tuned to your great redemptive purpose and to happily suffer with Christ in order to reach the lost we’ve been called to serve.
In the Name of Jesus, Amen!”
Jesus, Our Example
In part one (Matt. 14), Jesus went to a desolate place upon hearing of the death of John the Baptist, who was martyred for offending a civil magistrate. In part two (Matt. 15, we will see how Jesus offends the sensitivities of the religious leaders because His disciples don’t wash their hands by the Traditions of the Elders. Jesus’s example of dealing with the religious leaders of His day is a liberating model for overcoming wrongly asserted religious sensitivities in our own day.
While Matthew 14 deals with offending the religious sensitivities of a civil magistrate (see last month’s article), Matthew 15 deals with offending the religious sensitivities of religious leaders. It is noteworthy that these two chapters of Matthew contain the feedings of the 5,000 (Matt. 14:13-21) and the 4,000 (Matt. 15:32-39). In my opinion, the feeding of those two large crowds shows a huge contrast between the petty concerns of religious sensitivities and true sacrificial service to the genuine spiritual needs of the common man –which is easily overlooked by those who are myopically focused on their own significance instead of the sheep they are called to shepherd.
True Authority & Jurisdiction: God’s Law v. Spiritual Tradition of Men
“Then Pharisees and experts in the law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and said, “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matt. 15:1-3)
The startling truth here is that legitimate spiritual authority which the Pharisees had derived from Moses (see Matt.23:2-3) had exceeded its proper jurisdiction. The Pharisees had created a doctrine (an interpretative, authoritative application of Scripture) and then imposed that doctrine with the force of law on the “sheep” under their God-given care. (See Matthew 23 for a thorough rebuke of this false use of Mosaic authority.)
The key takeaway here is that Jesus condemned any and every expectation created by a legitimate God-appointed authority that has the effect of muting the subject’s duty to obey God. God-given authority is not self-possessed. It does not arise from itself, nor does it serve its own interests. It is totally submitted to God’s ordained purpose. It directs the subject’s conscience to the duty to always obey God.
True Authority & Jurisdiction: Form v. Fullness
“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matt. 15:8)
Here, vain worship is condemned. A simple way of identifying vain worship is by motive: are you seeking to gain the approval of men or please God?
I remember the first time I discovered this battle in me as a new Christian. I was in my first classes at Washington Bible College where we opened up every class in prayer. Often, the professor would ask for someone to pray. I was quick to volunteer; however, I immediately felt this inward pressure, wondering if I was saying the right things in the right way. This vanity of worrying about what I was praying before “men” so pricked my conscience that I concluded that my risk of “vain worship” was so high that I had to make a personal decision to never pray in public until I could do it without the slightest awareness that I was praying publicly. That was a true deliverance from the bondage of pleasing men. I did eventually find myself praying in public; however, I was able to do so without the concern of “pleasing men!”
Have you ever paused in amazement and considered the incredible, widespread practices of devout, pious rituals of worship in every religion? Have you ever wondered what gives religion its incredible power of attraction to so many pious followers? I think Jesus touches the nerve of such motivation here, calling them, “The Traditions of Men.” Never underestimate the power of external religion, whereby your participation affords you the opportunity to be seen by men. (Carefully note the sweeping condemnations of the desire to be “seen of men” found in The Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6:1-34. No one can serve two masters!)
True Authority & Jurisdiction: The Source of Defilement
“Then He called the crowd to Him and said, ‘Listen and understand. What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.’” (Matt. 15:10-11)
The purpose of religion is to deal with “defilement,” that is to cleanse the sinner from what is impure and to provide the means for living in a holy manner. James 1:27 describes it this way: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world.” Ritual, outward cleansing has no power to clean the inward heart from its defilement. For that cleansing, we need the blood of Jesus to wash our sins away. Authentic religion deals with one’s own sin before God and not before man!
“The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:11-14 ESV)
Next month, we will conclude our discussion on offending religious sensitivities with an examination of the vain worship of religious traditions.