Enjoy Life, Enjoy God
BASEBALL CAPS
February 6, 2013
Many of us were taught: "No hats at the dinner table." Mind you, there is no real reason for it or against it; the rule was social convention, etiquette. It's just not done.
"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"
--Matthew 15:2 TNIV
--Matthew 15:2 TNIV
Mind you, "wash your hands before you eat" had little to do with sanitation, everything to do with ritual, religious practice, and coveted tradition, and Jesus knew it. The religious rule-enforcers terrorized people for breaking all in the name of God. But Jesus knew the enforcers' hearts were far from the heart of God.
"These are what defile you, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile you" (v. 20). The issue never has been hats on or hats off, to wash or not to wash, but the heart. We can easily wash our hands, and tip our hats, and have filthy hearts. The enforcers had forgotten this, but Jesus knew it, and so do we.
"These are what defile you, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile you" (v. 20). The issue never has been hats on or hats off, to wash or not to wash, but the heart. We can easily wash our hands, and tip our hats, and have filthy hearts. The enforcers had forgotten this, but Jesus knew it, and so do we.
Joyfully,
Dale Patterson