Jesus Teaches About Justice

Lesson #3 Summer Quarter 2018. June 17, 2018

Matthew 15:1-9  Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,  (2)  “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.”  (3)  He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?  (4)  For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’  (5)  But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”  (6)  he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.  (7)  You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:  (8)  “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;  (9)  in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Notes

• Three main groups in the time of Jesus – Sadducees, Pharisees, and the Essenes. The Essenes are not mentioned in the New Testament.
• The Sadducees, Essenes, and Pharisees history goes back to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes about 200 years before the birth of Christ. During the attempt to stamp out the worship of God, the Pharisees and the Essenes retreated to the desert to keep their purity. The Hellenized Jews comprised.
• You can still see some of those traits at the time of Christ.
• Pharisee means “separate” taken from Hebrew “parash”.
• Pharisees had deteriorated by the time of Christ by focusing on being called more than being, majoring in the minors, and missing the whole point.
• Adam Clarke says about the origin of the tradition of the elders, “This law, Moses at first delivered to Aaron then to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar; and, after these to the seventy-two elders, who were six of the most eminent men chosen out of each of the twelve tribes. These seventy-two, with Moses and Aaron, delivered it again to all the heads of the people, and afterwards to the congregation at large.” It later became part of the Talmud.
• Colossians 2:8  See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 1:18-24  For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  (19)  For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”  (20)  Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  (21)  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.  (22)  For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,  (23)  but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,  (24)  but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
• “Corban!” that is, “An oblation!” meaning, any unbloody offering or gift dedicated to sacred uses.
• 1 Timothy 5:8  But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
• 1 Timothy 5:1-2  Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,  (2)  older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
• Psalms 119:101-104  I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.  (102)  I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.  (103)  How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!  (104)  Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.