Matthew 15:1-20 Corban

Matthew 15:1-20

      “Corban”

As we come to this passage today from Matthew 15:1-20, there are just a few points I would like to make, followed by a few applications to our lives…..

You see that is what I hope to do every week- not only what the eternal truths of scriptures tell us, but just as importantly, how do we take those truths and apply them to our lives.

The first point is this……

And this first point is one which I want to dwell on for a little while, as it calls us to respond in our everyday lives with great wisdom.

It is this…….

Evil often looks respectable

Evil often looks respectable

This notion that satan is a two horned, long tailed, blood red creature with a pitch folk in his hand whom we can spot a mile away……. is simply a myth.

Satan is often described in the scriptures as an angel of light, someone who you may even respect and even admire.

Adolf Hitler, in his day was greatly respected and admired by many.

In this passage that we are looking at today, these pharisees and scribes, those who knew God’s laws inside and out, those who wrote God’s laws, those who taught God’s laws were doing evil things and get this, they were doing these evil things in the name of God, to make it look respectable.

They were doing things under the banner of God’s name to do evil…..and what in particularly were they doing?

They were crying “Corban”……”Corban”

And you may be rightly thinking, well what is this Corban thing….you may have noticed this is the title I gave this sermon- “corban” and “corban” is this……

When a Jew cried “corban” they were making a public declaration that part of what they had, or part of what they owned, whether animals or money, belonged to God. They had set aside some money to give to the temple.

And so when they cried “corban”, they were claiming that they were going to give a portion of their possessions to God’s work, to the temple. And so that sum of money, those possessions were not to be used for anything else, apart from being given to the temple.

Now, on the surface level, this was good, it was respectable….fantastic, if you guys want to cry “corban” and give your money to the church…..awesome……go for it……

But just heed the warning of Jesus here…..

Look at what Jesus said to these “respectable” pharisees and scribes, whom were doing this “respectable” thing.

Look at verses 3-9 with me:

He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? (that is corban)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,” (that is corban) 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:

“‘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.’”

You see, Jesus saw through their hypocrisy, he saw through their “respectable” evil.

The pharisees and scribes (I am sure not all of them, but some) were using this cry of “corban” as an excuse not to look after their parents in their later years. They cried “corban” so they could hang on to the money they had and not give it to their parents, who may have been in need. Particularly in that culture and that time where there was no social welfare system.

And so instead of helping out their aging parents, with some financial help, they were claiming they couldn’t, since they had already set aside the money to give to the temple, and once you cried “corban”- that money couldn’t be used for anything else.

“Corban”- double barrel, triple locked, no returns, “Corban”

By the way, just look at how important God sees the importance of honouring your father and mother. It was laid down in the Mosaic law in Exodus 21:17 and Leviticus 20:9, that anyone who even spoke evil of their parents would be put to death.

Boy, oh boy, if we still lived under the Mosaic law now, there would be a few deaths wouldn’t there.

But then not only were these pharisees and scribes not helping out their parents in their later years, but they were hanging onto the money that they set aside for the temple, they were crying “corban” but then not even using that money to give to the temple.

What they were doing looked “respectable” but is was evil.

They were in fact doing exactly what Isaiah prophesied they would do, 700 years earlier, they were putting their seemingly “respectful” ruling of “corban” above the commands of God which are always grounded in love.

They were using their “respectable” tradition of corban, teaching it as a command of God……when it wasn’t. 

This idea of giving an extra gift to the temple, wasn’t something that God commanded, but it was a tradition that arose from the vows which were laid in Leviticus 26. Remember a vow was something that people wanted to do on top of the commands, it was a way people wanted to give something extra to God, as a way of expressing thanks.

It was never demanded.

Unfortunately these vows were used for evil instead of good, they were used to puff oneself up- “look at me” rather than used for giving glory to God.

It was what our culture would call “virtue signalling”.

They could appear virtuous and signal there virtuousness to the world, but in fact it did anything but reflect what was really in their sinful and selfish hearts.

They were a people who honoured God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.

These pharisees were not only practicing “corban” but they were teaching this “corban” as though it was a core doctrine of belief, when it wasn’t.

It was just a tradition, that they held on to, in order to puff themselves up and bring others down.

Before the reformation kicked off in Europe in the sixteenth century, bishops and priests were teaching traditions, as though they were core doctrines of the scriptures in order for selfish financial gain and power.

There was a famous line that the bishops would echo, “when the coin in the offering box rings, the soul from purgatory sings….”

Talk about evil looking respectable….these bishops were respectfully offering salvation for dead relatives with just a simple donation to the church- Awesome, I would pay…the only problem was, it simple wasn’t true, they were doing this “respectable” thing to line up their own pockets.

It was evil that looked respectable.

Today, so called “faith healers” would sit under the banner of Jesus, promising physical healing, in order to gain financially, in order to gain power.

It may look respectable- but it’s evil.

These pharisees and scribes not only taught their traditions as though they were God’s commands, but sadly, they used their traditions to put down others……

Just look at verses 1 and 2 with me:

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.”

This was very sad……..the pharisees had taken God’s word, twisted it, distorted it, and then used that twisted version of God’s word, to put others down and puff themselves up.

The pharisees had taken a law which God had given the priests in the desert…….that was for the priests to wash their hands before entering the tabernacle and making a sacrifice……. and these pharisees and scribes had taken that command for the priests  and wrongly applied that law to all people, at all times, before all meals.

They put extra burdens on people, that God never put on them in the first place.

They had sadly drawn the wrong conclusion, they had drawn the conclusion that if Jesus disciples did not wash their hands before a meal, they were considered unclean, defiled, unacceptable before God.

Dirty hands meant dirty people, meant not part of God’s people.

Jesus quickly corrected their theology- look at the end of verse 20 with me

Jesus said “But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a person”

Jesus said plainly that if you eat with unwashed hands, it doesn’t make you unacceptable to God.

Dirty hands doesn’t make you unacceptable to God, but a dirty heart does.

Sure, washing your hands before a meal is respectable, especially today, when we know more about germs, but it is not a deal breaker for God, and so the pharisees and scribes shouldn’t have made it a deal breaker, since it was only a tradition that they had made and imposed in the first place.

Friends, do we have some traditions which we consider deal breakers, which shouldn’t be?

Are there times when we can let out personal preferences be put aside for the sake of showing love for others….like…..

What we wear?

How many songs we have in a service?

What style of songs we have?

Do we have pews or chairs?

Do we preach from the pulpit or not?

Where should the cross go? Do we have a cross?

We all have blind spots, I have blind spots, we all intentionally or subconsciously put up boundaries that Christ has already torn down.

So there is my one and only timeless truth that I have presented you today- evil often looks respectable, and so now I am going to leave you with 3 applications.

How do we respond to the fact that evil looks respectable?

Well there are three responses I want to give you today…

1.        First and foremost, and the most obvious thing we do, which I encourage us to do every week, is we must know our bibles.

We must know our bibles, we must know God’s word, if we are going to discern between God’s commands and man-made traditions, we must know what God’s commands are.

Yes, trust that I am pointing you to the scriptures, I’m not preaching to you in a strange Latin language, as the priests did in the 15^th Century, but also read it for yourself, know God’s words, know his commands, know how God wants you to live.

And so you will know how to discern between good and evil.

You will recognise things which appear “respectful” but underneath, are evil.

2.        Confront evil and call it out

Jesus called out the pharisees and scribes, he could see through their “respectable” evil, and he didn’t just say they were doing a “woopsie”, he made it clear what they were doing was wrong….

He didn’t congratulate them on their hand washing, he didn’t congratulate them on their “giving” their “corban” to the temple.

No, he told them how it was….

a.        He called them out for breaking God’s command

b.        He called them out for making God’s word void

c.        He called them hypocrites

d.        He called them out “they worship in vain”

When Jesus called out their evil practices, they didn’t like it, they plotted to kill him and eventually they did.

Calling out evil can be hard, it can be costly, but it is the right thing to do, why?

Why?

Because it could potentially save a multitude of souls.

Look at verse 14 with me:

Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit

The pharisees and the scribes were falsely teaching that one must wash their hands before a meal in order to be acceptable to God. And so people would have heard that teaching and followed it religiously, thinking their hand washing was going to save them. And so instead of being saved by faith, they would have wrongly put their trust in their traditions, which in the end would not have saved them.

Even things which we tolerate, which we keep quiet about, which we don’t call out as wrong, some may interpret that silence as acceptance, some may interpret that silence as approval, and so we could lead others into a pit of destruction by our silence.

And so, as hard as it is, we have to call out evil, for the love of God, for the love of people, because by speaking out, we are giving people a chance to repent and believe and we may stop others following and carrying out evil.

And so if we know our bibles, if we call out evil, and yet hearts are not changed, finally and this is the last application, there is a time we just walk away.

This is what Jesus told his disciples to do with the pharisees and their teachings, just look at the beginning of verse 14 again…..

Let them alone

By the way the way the pharisees and scribes had produced a book called the Mishnah, which had 4,000 words devoted to the subject- “How to wash correctly”- they had created a burden for people which was a noose around their necks and Jesus told his disciples to leave them alone.

Sometimes we just have to stop the conversation, we don’t need to go down rabbit holes that others have set up, just so they can gain control and power.

And so what the world may consider the most loving thing to do, “just let them be” “let them be who they want to….let them do what they want to”….is actually an act of judgment from us, because we know that evil people who continue to do evil things will be led to a pit of destruction on that final day of judgment.

We know that if people don’t repent of their evil ways, then eventually on the day of judgement, God will deal justly with them.

This is what Jesus was ultimately referring to in verse 13,

Just look at verse 13 with me:

He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.

Now, what was the plant that Jesus was talking about here?

I think two things….

1.        It was the pharisees and scribes themselves who were teaching traditions of men

2.        It was the teaching of the traditions itself.

And so Jesus was saying, that any traditions that we hold so dearly, that we think will bring us fully and gloriously into the kingdom of heaven, will not sustain us eternally, eventually those traditions that we hold so dearly, that we have elevated above God Himself, will cause us to be separated from God’s kingdom, just as a plant is ripped out of the ground.

And just as those teachings of the traditions will be ripped out, so will the people who taught and practiced those traditions will be separated too.

But and here is where I want to finish, with a word of encouragement, with a word of hope, with a word of grace…..I also think Jesus is saying here, that while there is breath in the lungs of the pharisee, the scribe, the self-righteous person, there is still a chance that the teachings of these traditions can be uprooted from a person’s heart, so that the root of the gospel, the eternal root of the gospel can be planted.

You see by default, since Jesus says that all plants that have not been planted by God will be uprooted, that is the traditions of men, he is also implying that every plant that has been planted by God will not be uprooted.

Friends, if you confess Jesus as your Lord and saviour and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, I want you to be assured today that your roots are deep, they are firm, they won’t be uprooted, God has planted his word in your heart, by his Holy Spirit, and it will never be uprooted.

Perhaps that word has never been planted, perhaps today you need to repent of your traditions, your idols, so that God can uproot those things and plant the root of His Holy Spirit in your heart.