Getting to the Heart of the Matter

Almost every encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees becomes a teaching moment for Jesus and a learning one for us. It starts off simple enough. Jesus and His disciples sat down to eat. The religious elite seem mortified that they did not wash their hands. Jesus has just the opening he needs.

As we were studying this, the surface level stuff became pretty obvious. By now in our red-letter journey, it is almost redundant. Jesus calls the Pharisees out on their hypocrisy... again. This time he brings up the notion of traditions that allow the Pharisees to work around the Law.

We considered some of the traditions of the Jews for examples and then we started looking at some of our traditions clouding our view of Christ. We are become much more aware of our own propensity to be like the Pharisees.

As we walk along this red-letter journey in our podcast, we're learning not to judge the pharisees but to learn from them - maybe as examples of how not to be but maybe how we might already be acting with the same behavior.

That led us to ask, OK - why was the Law not working. Why were they so far removed from righteous living. This got pretty philosophical about the Heart. If what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, how is the heart filled. It seems that our minds fill our heart. But our heart determines where we focus. The whole thing becomes pretty circular, right?

One thing we noticed with the question is without God, the question and answer IS circular! Somehow, God gets in the middle of the process. Of course, then we asked, if this is so, why doesn't God just wave a magic wand and get in the middle of the process for everyone. That would fix the hearts of the Pharisees. I think ultimately, the questioner is meant never to receive a definitive answer. For me, it is one of those prayer subjects I can always go to God with and just have great conversation. He will answer, but he'll never let the conversation close. He's wants you to keep coming back. That's the gem we've discovered. It is not in the answer but in the connection and the conversation with God.

 

Notes to Getting to the Heart of the Matter

 

Episode Link:

https://www.rabbitholesandmeditations.com/getting-to-the-heart-of-the-matter/