Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

Matthew 15:1, 2, 3, 12.

As I see it, we need to have laws to guide behavior so obedience to law may become our way to please God.  The Pharisees and teachers of the law pressed obedience to the law so much that they believed that it is possible to gain God’s favor by obeying the law.  That became the center of their religion.  They went way beyond Moses, in this regard. They believed that it is possible to obey the law of God if all effort is channeled in that direction.

One of their laws was not to eat with hands that are not ritually washed, a religious washing.  I do not know how they came up with this law, it is not consistent with the Moses’ teaching.  No matter, it became not just a peripheral issue but a central test as to whether a person was serious about obeying the law or not.  It is my guess that this view of the law represents the view of all Jews, but only a few, like the Pharisees, put it to practice.  So, the center of their attention was the law as they understood it.  The apostle Paul was from such a family.  It was all law, law, law from morning to night.

So, it does not surprise me to learn that such people were appalled by the fact that Jesus’ disciples broke a crucial law, eating without first ritually washing the hands.  It had nothing to do with hygiene.  This horrified the Pharisees who saw that Jesus could not be the Messiah because he did not view the law like they did.

When they confronted Jesus with this obvious flaunting of the law, Jesus pointed out their error.  He reminded them that they refused to obey a clearly-stated law, to obey and look after their parents.  Instead of obeying, they manufactured a short-cut that looked fine but was simply a way to avoid obeying that law.  They did not like to think about that.  The law was not meant to save anyone, but to guide people who wanted to please God, be it ever so haltingly.

This struck at the very heart of common Jewish piety.  I wonder if we, in our time and culture are any different.  When we see God, we know that we should be like him, so we go about lining up our lives with the law.  That is good and proper but does not result in newness of life, life in the Spirit.  Life is not obedience to law but fellowship with Christ Jesus who died for us and has forgiven our sins and has given us his presence to order our lives, on the inside, born again by the spirit of God.