40 DAYS - Day 14 - 3.6.21

Love Goes the Distance - Day 14 – Saturday, March 6th – Pastor Todd Crofford
Scripture Reading – Read Mark 7:1–13 and focus on 7:6-13
Remember to Pause | Read | Reflect | Listen |Pray | Journal |Practice | Encourage/Share |Fast

"Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

The command to honor one’s father and mother included care for them if they became impoverished. The tradition of Corban had grown to provide a way by which a person could claim their funds were being set aside for the temple and thus could not be used to fulfill that duty. Historians tell us that many of these supposed commitments to Corban were never fulfilled. In this way, these Pharisees used a religious tradition to skirt a command built on love and caring. This action infuriated Jesus, and he boldly called out their hypocrisy.

We are just as guilty if we use our religion as an excuse to mistreat others. An overbearing husband silences his wife and says he is just behaving as head of his household. We cannot shirk legitimate financial responsibilities claiming we have been called to give money away instead. Gossiping under the guise of sharing prayer requests is flat-out wrong. It is wrong to search for Bible verses simply to protect and further our agendas. We must instantly question our faith practice when our “deeply held religious beliefs” are crafted to benefit ourselves to someone else’s detriment.

Prayer Focus – Pray for a mighty moving of God's Spirit through our on-campus and online worship services tomorrow.