More Than Lip Service and Rituals

Jesus was at it again. Going head-to-head with the scribes and Pharisees who, this time, were questioning why His disciples transgressed the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands when they eat bread (Matthew 15:1-2). Jesus answered their question with one of His own: "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" (v.3), proceeded to give them an example (vv. 4-6), before delivering the finishing blow, "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 'This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men'" (vv. 7-9). That was some serious stuff!

Two thousand years later, the words of Jesus continue to resonate through time. How many of us are caught up in diligent observation of church and other traditions while being less than diligent in our observation of God's Word? For the religious leaders of the day, this custom of washing extended not just to their hands before eating, but in coming from the market; and also to cups, and pots, and brass vessels, and tables (Mark 7:3-4). On this point, Bible Scholar Albert Barnes observes, "They did this professedly for the sake of cleanliness. So far it was well. But they also made it a matter of superstition. They regarded external purity as of much more importance than the purity of the heart. They had many foolish rules about it respecting the quantity of water that was to be used, the way in which it should be applied, the number of times it should be changed, the number of those that might wash at a time, etc." It could be said that they majored on the minors. They failed to recognize that God's primary concern was not the cleansiness of their hands but rather the cleansiness of their hearts.

God's priority in that regard has not changed. Like the scribes and Pharisees, we may be regular in the forms of worship; strict in certain observances and doing things that demonstrates our religiousness outwardly; but God requires the heart, and that some of us have not surrendered. In other words, we honour Him with our lips but our hearts are far from Him. This is not true worship (v. 9).

True worshippers are those who "worship the Father in spirit and in truth," those who engage in the offering of the soul rather than the formal offering of the body - the homage of the heart rather than that of the lips. These are the people "the Father seeketh ... to worship Him" (John 4:23, KJV). How do you measure up? What kind of worshipper are you?