November 10, 2025 • 21 mins
Ever catch yourself following the rules but missing the point? We open with small-town warmth and head straight into the heat of Matthew 15, where Jesus confronts the Pharisees’ obsession with handwashing and exposes a deeper problem: the heart that hides behind holy habits. From the Corban loophole to Isaiah’s warning about lip-deep worship, we trace how tradition can eclipse truth and why Jesus’ question—“Are you still without understanding?”—lands closer to home than we expect.
Together we unpack what truly defiles a person, how the “blind leading the blind” still plays out online and in our circles, and why clarity begins with listening. Not passive hearing, but an active posture that lets Scripture interpret us, invites the Spirit’s correction, and moves us to love people in practical ways. We share candid stories about common misunderstandings, then translate them into a spiritual lens: how easy it is to misread God when we’re defending our image or our camp. The better way is simple and demanding—listen and understand.
We get practical without getting shallow. Read the Bible across translations to shake loose stale assumptions. Commit to a real community that wrestles with the text and guards against performative faith. Pray in a way that makes space for God to speak. And pay attention to needs the way Jesus did: feed, heal, comfort, and serve. If your heart feels hardened, your words feel sharp, or your habits feel stronger than your hope, there’s a path back. Let Jesus reorder what you value, release the mask, and lead you out of blindness into honest, humble obedience.
If this conversation helps you see your heart more clearly, share it with a friend who needs encouragement. Subscribe for more thoughtful, Scripture-centered episodes, and leave a review to tell us what part challenged you most. Your insights help shape where we go next.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Good morning, Central.
unknown (00:01):
Good morning.
SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
Anybody catch a deer yesterday?
My mother-in-law used to askthat of my my sons, her
grandsons, and they're like,Grandma, we didn't catch a deer,
we shot them.
Anyway, my husband's up huntingthis morning, so prayers for
safety for all of those who arehunting who probably aren't in
the room, but maybe you'rewatching online.
That would be cool.
You're sitting in your deerstand watching along with us.
(00:23):
We're so grateful that you'rehere in the building.
It's warmer in here than in adeer stand, just saying.
My name is Sonia Knuts, and I'mthe Pastorio Associate here at
Central.
I have a privilege of workingalongside women here at Central
and working with the women'sministry team.
We call it the She Team, whichstands for sharing his
existence.
We have a lovely team that wouldlove to come alongside any of
(00:45):
the women if you're in need ofprayer or ministry.
And we're starting to do morepop-up events, we call them,
where like yesterday we had aShe hike.
Cheryl was there.
I see you, Cheryl.
And it's just super fun to gettogether with different women of
all different ages.
We're a growing congregation.
There's lots of new faces.
So we're going to have all thesefun, different events coming up
so we can get to know each othera little bit better.
(01:06):
By the way, we do have a Sheplay coming up.
It's a Christmas play in Anokaon November 30th.
I think I have about 10 ticketsleft.
If you would like to attendthat, stop at the counter and
share some information aboutyourself.
We can help you go online andfigure out how to be a part of
that.
Well, we are leaning towards theend of our This Isn't Rhetorical
sermon series, and we've beenworking through the questions
(01:28):
that Jesus asked.
And weekly, I'm in awe, I don'tknow about you, but of how
masterfully he uses thesequestions to teach uh virtual,
spiritual, vital spiritualtruths.
He doesn't ask the questionsbecause he needed to know the
answer for himself.
He uses the questions to grow usas his readers and his
followers.
After the series, we move intoAdvent because Christmas is
(01:51):
almost here.
Yay! And we get to explore thecharacters that were around the
story of Jesus' birth.
And then in January, we're goingto hit some hard questions of
the Old Testament.
So buckle up because who doesn'tlove the Old Testament?
Amen.
My question today that Kevinread for us is, I believe, one
that we can all connect to asJesus asked this question of his
(02:13):
disciples.
And he asked, Are you stillwithout understanding?
This question isn't new, and itis also found in Mark 7 around
this same story.
But he also asked the question,do you not understand?
In Mark 8 and Matthew 16, do youstill not understand while they
were feeding the 4,000?
Now, for me, as I listened or Ithink about that question around
(02:35):
that story, the 4,000, thedisciples didn't bring bread.
This is after they just got donefighting and feeding the 5,000.
I'm like, okay, disciples,you're missing some connecting
piece here because you just gotdone feeding over here.
Why didn't you bring bread overthere?
Either way, I can imagine thatJesus is still asking the same
question of us today when welive the way we do and we call
(02:56):
ourselves his followers.
And of course, if he was to askthat question, are you still
without understanding?
We would say yes, because it iseasy for us in this world to
misunderstand things and in theBible.
We do it every day, just likethe disciples did in the story
today.
Whether it's the misconceptionor a misunderstanding, we are
(03:17):
often confused in life, am Iright?
For example, did you know thatthe Vikings did not have horns
on their helmets?
I know.
This is a misconception, ahistory misconception that was
created from a stage designerwho was working on an opera back
in the early 19th century.
Now, is this going to changeyour wardrobe for football
(03:39):
today?
I don't know.
Maybe.
Or not to ruin your cr yourChristmas, but did you also know
that we're not sure how manymagi or wise men were actually
at the birth or that broughtgifts to Jesus?
There were three gifts,therefore we assumed there were
three wise men.
There we go.
But it could have been one,could have been more.
(04:01):
We don't know.
I'm thinking it could have beenone.
They could have just thrown itin their backpack, jumped on
their camel, and off they went,right?
But our misconception is thatthere were three wise men.
Some of my favoritemisunderstandings are always
around song lyrics.
When I was growing up, there wasa movie called Caddyshack.
Are you familiar with it?
Super funny.
There was a song in it calledI'm Alright by uh Kenny Loggins.
(04:21):
And one night on a Friday night,my girlfriend and I were driving
down Owatana, because that's thecool thing to do.
And I'm singing along this song,Ham on Rye.
Don't nobody worry about me.
She's like, What are yousinging?
I'm like, Well, the song.
What did you say?
Uh Ham on Rye.
She's like, It's I'm Alright.
I'm like, oh, well, that makes alot more sense.
(04:43):
My son used to watch the moviePocahontas from 1995 as an
animated Disney movie.
And there's an extremelyinappropriate song in there
called Savages, Savages,whatever the rest of it.
And he at three would walkaround the house singing,
sandwiches, sandwiches.
I guess it's a genetic thing,ham and rye, sandwiches, you
know.
It just passed on the way down.
(05:05):
And don't we do a wonderful jobof misunderstanding
communication, whether it's anemail or a text message or over
the phone?
We misread things all of thetime.
And there was an email that wentout to a dad that said, Come to
your son's costume party.
And so he did.
But his son was the one that wassupposed to be in the costume.
So you can see and you can hearhow easy it is to misunderstand
(05:28):
things in life.
And our story today was filledwith misunderstandings and
misconceptions for thePharisees, for the disciples,
and for the crowds that gatheredthat led to Jesus' question.
And I would love to go back withyou today in the beginning of
our story in Matthew 15.
So if you did not take yourBible out when Kevin read
earlier, I would encourage youto do that now and go to page
(05:50):
796, which is where our storybegins.
And while we dig around in thisstory and we figure out what
this question really meant, Iwant you to think about what
speaks to you in this story andhow this question pertains to
you in your own faith journeyand relationship with Jesus.
You cool with that?
Great.
Well, let's begin in prayer.
(06:10):
Whoops, I don't want that oneyet.
There we go.
So, Father, we thank you forthis morning.
We thank you for the chillystart to this morning that
reminds me of your warmth in ourlives, that sometimes we
misunderstand, that sometimes wemisread, and sometimes we forget
to listen and see where you arein our lives.
This morning I ask that you usemy words, you use this story to
(06:35):
speak into our mindset and toopen up the areas of our lives
where we struggle in ourrelationship with you and in our
own faith journey.
We love you, Jesus.
We invite you in.
We ask that the Holy Spiritspeaks to us this morning.
In your name we pray.
Amen.
Well, in the beginning ofMatthew 15, 1, we find that
Jesus is with his disciples inthe region of the Sea of
(06:58):
Galilee.
He's been there preaching andteaching and performing miracles
and healing people.
And they're just hanging outwhen all of a sudden they hear
that the Pharisees and thescribes, which by the way, if
you don't know who they are,they're the big dogs in all of
this.
They're the religious leaders,they are the teachers, they know
the God of Abraham, the God ofIsaac, they know the Torah, they
(07:18):
know the scriptures, and theyare coming down from Jerusalem,
which is about 60 miles away, toconfront Jesus and his
disciples.
Now they know Jesus, they knowwhat he's been up to.
They've heard that he's beenperforming miracles, that he's
been healing people, and theyknow that he's has many
followers and they're threatenedby him.
And the disciples are with Jesusand they're waiting and
(07:41):
anticipating, probably with somefear, of why are these guys
coming?
What did we do now?
What did Jesus do now?
So what's going to come next?
Now, one would think that thePharisees are coming to ask the
obvious questions, but insteadthey focus on a ridiculous
thing, or at least as we read itnow, 2000 years later, we think
(08:02):
it's a ridiculous question.
But as Ben mentioned last week,the Pharisees are just doing
what they know to do.
They're holding up the laws,they're holding up the rules.
And so we read in verse 2 why doyour disciples break the
tradition of the elders?
They don't wash their handsbefore they eat.
What a strange question, right?
They traveled 70 miles to askthis question.
(08:24):
Not what's up with all of yourmiracles?
How have you been healing all ofthese people just by touching
your robe?
How do you have so manyfollowers when you're not on
Instagram or Facebook?
But instead, they say, Let'stalk about hygiene.
And all of the moms in the roomare like, Yes, let's talk about
our boys' hygiene.
And Jesus quickly jumps on theircriticism by asking, and why do
(08:46):
you, by your traditions, violatethe commandments of God,
pointing out that they do nothonor their mother and father
and called them hypocrites whenthey declared their money a gift
of God or a Corban.
Now let's push pause here alittle bit.
A Corban is an offering, it's agift of money to God.
And anyone who made a Corban vowwas required to give money to
(09:07):
the temple, which would havenormally been given to family to
support their needs.
Now remember, this is a culturethat moms and dads and children
and extended family livetogether.
And so typically when they workout in the fields or doing
whatever their carpentry work,they pool their money together
to support one another.
And although this action seemedworthy and prestigious, often
they would make the vow publiclyfor selfish acknowledgement.
(09:30):
And that had become areligiously acceptable way to
neglect their parents andfamily.
And Jesus is saying, you areshaming the disciples for not
washing their hands, which isn'ta law, it's a tradition, but
it's not a law.
But you break the law of God tohonor your mother and father by
giving your money to the templeinstead of supporting and
honoring your parents.
(09:51):
And therein lies the rebuke ofthe Pharisees as hypocrites.
I bet that stung a little bit,don't you think?
I don't know about you, but whenI I cringe when I hear the words
of hypocrisy and Christianitytogether.
But it's not wrong.
Churches are full of hypocrites,whether we like it or not,
whether we admit it or not.
(10:12):
Don't be looking around, becauseI'm probably talking about you
or I'm talking about myself.
I love Rich Mullen's quote, whois a famous singer and
songwriter from the 70s and 80sand 90s, when he was asked, Is
church full of hypocrites?
And he said, Full of hypocrites.
No, we're not.
There's always room for more.
And this is who we can be.
(10:34):
We show up looking all nice on aSunday morning.
We're wearing our Christian maskproudly with a Bible in our hand
and all of its rules.
And we are quick to point out toothers the flaws that don't
align with what we believe, orat least what we understand the
Bible to say.
And this is what Jesus isreferring to when he calls the
Pharisees out and he appliesIsaiah, the prophet's words from
(10:57):
the Old Testament, that says,Your mouth may know me, but your
heart doesn't.
And your worship is fake, foryou teach man-made ideas, not
the law.
And then he draws the crowdscloser and he declares, Listen
and understand.
Almost as if he knows they'renot going to.
(11:18):
He says, Listen and understand.
What goes into someone's mouthdoes not defile them, but what
comes out of their mouth is whatdefiles them.
Which did not go over well forthe Pharisees who happen to be
within earshot.
And the disciples tell Jesus,Well, now you did it.
Now you offended the Pharisees.
And Jesus said, Oh, well, not myproblem.
(11:41):
They are the blind that areleading the blind.
And if a blind person guidesanother one, they will both fall
into a ditch.
You gotta love his confidenceand his attitude, don't you?
But Peter, taken back, neededsome more clarification.
Why?
Well, Jesus may have beenreferring to the Pharisees as
the blind, but he knew, and thedisciples knew, that they had
(12:04):
power, and they were not ones tobe messed with.
It was known that if you crossedthe Pharisees, you could be
shamed, you could be kicked outof your community, or in some
circumstances you could be putto death.
So Peter is probably thinking,should I wash my hands or not?
Am I the blind following theblind?
Or is what Jesus saying thetruth and the way?
(12:26):
Now remember, Jesus in hisministry is still fairly new,
and what Peter and the disciplesknew and from their past
teaching was being challenged.
They grew up with the law, theyknew the rules, and they were
threatened and warned not tobreak those rules.
So it was natural for them tosecond guess Jesus' ways and to
be cautious of the Pharisees.
So Peter, poor Peter, who oftenwas taking one for the team and
(12:50):
one for the boys, asked Jesus toexplain more, as if he was in
middle school raising his handto the teacher.
And I envision Jesus giving himthat, you know, teacher look
that teachers sometimes do andasking this question, Are you
still without understanding?
And Jesus then shares thisparable that while physical food
passes through the body, it isthe internal heart-based evil
(13:12):
thoughts, such as murder andadultery, sexual immorality,
theft, false witness and slanderthat are the true source of
spiritual corruption.
So eating with unwashed handsdoes not defile you.
Now look back at that statement.
The internal heart-based evilthoughts, that is confusing to
(13:32):
me.
Because when I think of theheart, I think of warm fuzzies.
Right.
I think of like the little heartemphasis that you send out to
people from across the room whenyou're saying I want to love
them.
I think of the heart-shaped boxcandies that we send at
Valentine's Day, or when I signLove Mom, I have hearts all over
my cards.
Or when I send a text to myboys, love you, happy faces,
(13:56):
heart, heart, heart, heart.
And my boys get so annoyed withbeing like, Mom, send one happy
face and one heart.
That's all you need.
I'm like, no, no, you don'tunderstand my love for you.
But in this context, the heartis the center of a person's
being, their mind.
It's their will and theiremotions.
And Jesus states that from thisinner source come all of the
(14:16):
evil thoughts and actions thattruly defile a person.
It's not what we put in ourmouths with our unwashed hands.
So this question, are you stillwithout understanding, is a
scolding to his disciples fortheir inability to grasp
spiritual truths and theirfailure to see meaning behind
Jesus' words and actions whenthey get caught up in the
physical and in the literal?
(14:38):
And he uses this question toseparate the Pharisees' emphasis
on the traditional rules likewashing your hands with the true
source of defilement, which arethe evil thoughts and actions
that come from our hearts or thecore of a person.
So where did you see yourself inthe story and in this question?
Are you still withoutunderstanding in your own faith
(14:59):
journey and in your relationshipwith Jesus?
Is there something that blocksyou from his love and guidance
because of your lack ofunderstanding?
What spoke out to you thismorning?
Was it the hypocrisy that Jesusdescribed and rebuked the
Pharisees of having?
Maybe this hit home for you andyou find yourself holding on to
(15:21):
rules over others or wearing theChristian mask all the while
hiding under your own sins sothe world doesn't see it.
Maybe the phrase the blindleading the blind spoke to that
question for you.
Perhaps your thought as youheard it, am I the blind, being
led by the blind?
Who's speaking into my life?
(15:42):
Or perhaps you thought, maybeI'm the blind leading the blind,
based on how you talk to otherpeople, what you share on your
social media, where your stanceis on the left or the right.
Maybe the defiling parable spoketo this question, and you
struggle understanding how toturn your life around as your
heart is hardened and yourthoughts and choices are
(16:04):
corrupt, and you have no ideahow to step towards a better
life that encompasses God.
My addiction consumes me.
I have awful thoughts outside ofmy marriage.
I consistently lie to cover upmy choices, I hide from truth, I
hate my neighbors.
And I would say to that, numberone, we're in good company,
(16:25):
you're not alone in that.
But also, in our story thismorning, there were three words
that stood out to me as I readand reread and thought about my
own corruption in my life, myown hypocrisy, my own blindness.
And it was listen andunderstand.
(16:46):
Three simple words, listen andunderstand from Matthew 15, 10.
It sounds simple, but thosewords jumped out to me several,
several times.
This concept isn't new.
Listen and understand wasrepeated throughout the gospel
with various translation, and itis a recurring theme in his
teachings.
And yet, his followers, thedisciples, and I think it's safe
(17:07):
to say, you and I continuouslydisregard and misunderstand his
teachings due to the lack ofmisunderstanding and listening.
And this isn't just an issuewith our relationship with
Jesus.
Think of the struggles that youhave in your personal life with
other people.
And I would guess that when youtake the time to interpret the
true issues in those struggles,somewhere along the way, there
(17:30):
has been misunderstandings andmisconceptions that can be tied
back to listening or the lackthereof.
To listen is to understand,because just like the disciples,
we are blind to what we think weknow and we don't have ears to
hear.
And if we under want tounderstand what a Christ-like
life is all about, then in thewords of Martin Luther, we need
(17:52):
to take our eyes off our faceand put them in our ears,
because only then we will hearhis plans for us in the world.
So how do we do this?
Well, as Ben preached last week,we dig into the Bible.
We read and we study scripture.
And the more in this, the morethat we are in this word, then
(18:12):
the more we will understandJesus.
And the more we've devour it,the deeper we will grow in
relationship with him and withothers.
I don't know if you noticed thatas I was going through my slides
today at the bottom, it mighthave said that I was in RSV or
NIV or the message.
One way I really encourage youto read the Bible is to read
(18:33):
different translations.
There are hundreds oftranslations, and all of them
will speak to you in a differentway.
So read and devour the Bible.
And do it in community.
Community is a beautiful thing.
Look around this morning.
We are reading and we aredigging in and we are dissecting
the Bible this morning.
We're breaking down the story,and maybe something I said to
(18:54):
you, you've read the scripturebefore many times, didn't make
sense to you, or you read it ina different way.
We are dissecting it together incommunity.
Yes, I'm the teacher thismorning, but there are many
opportunities for you to breakinto smaller communities and
work through the scripturestogether.
Community is beautiful.
It challenges us, it holds usaccountable.
(19:15):
It also gives us a chance tospeak into one another.
I would encourage you, if you'renot already in a house church or
a journey group, to talk toPeter, the guy who was up here
earlier.
He's going to be at theChristmas cheer table today.
He is in charge of growing ourhouse churches and our journey
groups, and he will happily putyou in a place where you can
speak the word of God and youcan learn to listen and
(19:35):
understand it together.
You can also join Bible studies.
I have a dear friend who is apart of Stacy Minor's Bible
study on Thursday mornings, andthey're working through the book
of Psalms.
Every Thursday since she's beenpart of this class, she comes
into my office after the classand she's like, oh my gosh, I've
never thought of the Bible thisway.
I've never read the Psalms thisway.
I didn't even know you couldpray over the Psalms.
(19:56):
She is so excited about howshe's learning the Bible,
understanding the word in adifferent way.
So read the Bible, be incommunity, and pray over it.
As you read the Word of God tounderstand and to listen to it
to the best of your ability.
Pray over those beautiful wordsthat God and Jesus and all of
these beautiful authors andprophets and disciples have put
(20:19):
their heart and soul into thisbook so we can understand what
it means to have a relationshipwith Jesus.
Pray.
Don't dominate prayer.
Don't talk at him.
Let him speak into you throughthe word of God.
And then pay attention to theneeds of others through this.
Jesus listened deeply to thepeople around him, and because
(20:40):
he listened, he knew their needsand he cared for them.
You need food, I'll feed you, hesaid.
You're sick, I will heal you.
You need compassion and love, Iwill pray for you, I will be
there for you.
You need saving, I'll die foryou, he said.
I'll die for you, which was thegreatest gift of listening and
(21:02):
understanding his kingdom, whathis kingdom needed.
Friends, Jesus listened, and toknow and understand his word, we
too are called to listen.
And when we do that, we willthen care for his world in ways
that we didn't even know werepossible.
So listen and trust his word.
Trust that he will turn you fromhypocrisy, know that he will
(21:24):
lead you from your blindness,and be confident that he will
raise you from the dead, thethings that corrupt you
spiritually and defile yourheart and your relationships
with Jesus and others.
Amen.
Good morning, Central.
unknown (00:01):
Good morning.
SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
Anybody catch a deer yesterday?
My mother-in-law used to askthat of my my sons, her
grandsons, and they're like,Grandma, we didn't catch a deer,
we shot them.
Anyway, my husband's up huntingthis morning, so prayers for
safety for all of those who arehunting who probably aren't in
the room, but maybe you'rewatching online.
That would be cool.
You're sitting in your deerstand watching along with us.
(00:23):
We're so grateful that you'rehere in the building.
It's warmer in here than in adeer stand, just saying.
My name is Sonia Knuts, and I'mthe Pastorio Associate here at
Central.
I have a privilege of workingalongside women here at Central
and working with the women'sministry team.
We call it the She Team, whichstands for sharing his
existence.
We have a lovely team that wouldlove to come alongside any of
(00:45):
the women if you're in need ofprayer or ministry.
And we're starting to do morepop-up events, we call them,
where like yesterday we had aShe hike.
Cheryl was there.
I see you, Cheryl.
And it's just super fun to gettogether with different women of
all different ages.
We're a growing congregation.
There's lots of new faces.
So we're going to have all thesefun, different events coming up
so we can get to know each othera little bit better.
(01:06):
By the way, we do have a Sheplay coming up.
It's a Christmas play in Anokaon November 30th.
I think I have about 10 ticketsleft.
If you would like to attendthat, stop at the counter and
share some information aboutyourself.
We can help you go online andfigure out how to be a part of
that.
Well, we are leaning towards theend of our This Isn't Rhetorical
sermon series, and we've beenworking through the questions
(01:28):
that Jesus asked.
And weekly, I'm in awe, I don'tknow about you, but of how
masterfully he uses thesequestions to teach uh virtual,
spiritual, vital spiritualtruths.
He doesn't ask the questionsbecause he needed to know the
answer for himself.
He uses the questions to grow usas his readers and his
followers.
After the series, we move intoAdvent because Christmas is
(01:51):
almost here.
Yay! And we get to explore thecharacters that were around the
story of Jesus' birth.
And then in January, we're goingto hit some hard questions of
the Old Testament.
So buckle up because who doesn'tlove the Old Testament?
Amen.
My question today that Kevinread for us is, I believe, one
that we can all connect to asJesus asked this question of his
(02:13):
disciples.
And he asked, Are you stillwithout understanding?
This question isn't new, and itis also found in Mark 7 around
this same story.
But he also asked the question,do you not understand?
In Mark 8 and Matthew 16, do youstill not understand while they
were feeding the 4,000?
Now, for me, as I listened or Ithink about that question around
(02:35):
that story, the 4,000, thedisciples didn't bring bread.
This is after they just got donefighting and feeding the 5,000.
I'm like, okay, disciples,you're missing some connecting
piece here because you just gotdone feeding over here.
Why didn't you bring bread overthere?
Either way, I can imagine thatJesus is still asking the same
question of us today when welive the way we do and we call
(02:56):
ourselves his followers.
And of course, if he was to askthat question, are you still
without understanding?
We would say yes, because it iseasy for us in this world to
misunderstand things and in theBible.
We do it every day, just likethe disciples did in the story
today.
Whether it's the misconceptionor a misunderstanding, we are
(03:17):
often confused in life, am Iright?
For example, did you know thatthe Vikings did not have horns
on their helmets?
I know.
This is a misconception, ahistory misconception that was
created from a stage designerwho was working on an opera back
in the early 19th century.
Now, is this going to changeyour wardrobe for football
(03:39):
today?
I don't know.
Maybe.
Or not to ruin your cr yourChristmas, but did you also know
that we're not sure how manymagi or wise men were actually
at the birth or that broughtgifts to Jesus?
There were three gifts,therefore we assumed there were
three wise men.
There we go.
But it could have been one,could have been more.
(04:01):
We don't know.
I'm thinking it could have beenone.
They could have just thrown itin their backpack, jumped on
their camel, and off they went,right?
But our misconception is thatthere were three wise men.
Some of my favoritemisunderstandings are always
around song lyrics.
When I was growing up, there wasa movie called Caddyshack.
Are you familiar with it?
Super funny.
There was a song in it calledI'm Alright by uh Kenny Loggins.
(04:21):
And one night on a Friday night,my girlfriend and I were driving
down Owatana, because that's thecool thing to do.
And I'm singing along this song,Ham on Rye.
Don't nobody worry about me.
She's like, What are yousinging?
I'm like, Well, the song.
What did you say?
Uh Ham on Rye.
She's like, It's I'm Alright.
I'm like, oh, well, that makes alot more sense.
(04:43):
My son used to watch the moviePocahontas from 1995 as an
animated Disney movie.
And there's an extremelyinappropriate song in there
called Savages, Savages,whatever the rest of it.
And he at three would walkaround the house singing,
sandwiches, sandwiches.
I guess it's a genetic thing,ham and rye, sandwiches, you
know.
It just passed on the way down.
(05:05):
And don't we do a wonderful jobof misunderstanding
communication, whether it's anemail or a text message or over
the phone?
We misread things all of thetime.
And there was an email that wentout to a dad that said, Come to
your son's costume party.
And so he did.
But his son was the one that wassupposed to be in the costume.
So you can see and you can hearhow easy it is to misunderstand
(05:28):
things in life.
And our story today was filledwith misunderstandings and
misconceptions for thePharisees, for the disciples,
and for the crowds that gatheredthat led to Jesus' question.
And I would love to go back withyou today in the beginning of
our story in Matthew 15.
So if you did not take yourBible out when Kevin read
earlier, I would encourage youto do that now and go to page
(05:50):
796, which is where our storybegins.
And while we dig around in thisstory and we figure out what
this question really meant, Iwant you to think about what
speaks to you in this story andhow this question pertains to
you in your own faith journeyand relationship with Jesus.
You cool with that?
Great.
Well, let's begin in prayer.
(06:10):
Whoops, I don't want that oneyet.
There we go.
So, Father, we thank you forthis morning.
We thank you for the chillystart to this morning that
reminds me of your warmth in ourlives, that sometimes we
misunderstand, that sometimes wemisread, and sometimes we forget
to listen and see where you arein our lives.
This morning I ask that you usemy words, you use this story to
(06:35):
speak into our mindset and toopen up the areas of our lives
where we struggle in ourrelationship with you and in our
own faith journey.
We love you, Jesus.
We invite you in.
We ask that the Holy Spiritspeaks to us this morning.
In your name we pray.
Amen.
Well, in the beginning ofMatthew 15, 1, we find that
Jesus is with his disciples inthe region of the Sea of
(06:58):
Galilee.
He's been there preaching andteaching and performing miracles
and healing people.
And they're just hanging outwhen all of a sudden they hear
that the Pharisees and thescribes, which by the way, if
you don't know who they are,they're the big dogs in all of
this.
They're the religious leaders,they are the teachers, they know
the God of Abraham, the God ofIsaac, they know the Torah, they
(07:18):
know the scriptures, and theyare coming down from Jerusalem,
which is about 60 miles away, toconfront Jesus and his
disciples.
Now they know Jesus, they knowwhat he's been up to.
They've heard that he's beenperforming miracles, that he's
been healing people, and theyknow that he's has many
followers and they're threatenedby him.
And the disciples are with Jesusand they're waiting and
(07:41):
anticipating, probably with somefear, of why are these guys
coming?
What did we do now?
What did Jesus do now?
So what's going to come next?
Now, one would think that thePharisees are coming to ask the
obvious questions, but insteadthey focus on a ridiculous
thing, or at least as we read itnow, 2000 years later, we think
(08:02):
it's a ridiculous question.
But as Ben mentioned last week,the Pharisees are just doing
what they know to do.
They're holding up the laws,they're holding up the rules.
And so we read in verse 2 why doyour disciples break the
tradition of the elders?
They don't wash their handsbefore they eat.
What a strange question, right?
They traveled 70 miles to askthis question.
(08:24):
Not what's up with all of yourmiracles?
How have you been healing all ofthese people just by touching
your robe?
How do you have so manyfollowers when you're not on
Instagram or Facebook?
But instead, they say, Let'stalk about hygiene.
And all of the moms in the roomare like, Yes, let's talk about
our boys' hygiene.
And Jesus quickly jumps on theircriticism by asking, and why do
(08:46):
you, by your traditions, violatethe commandments of God,
pointing out that they do nothonor their mother and father
and called them hypocrites whenthey declared their money a gift
of God or a Corban.
Now let's push pause here alittle bit.
A Corban is an offering, it's agift of money to God.
And anyone who made a Corban vowwas required to give money to
(09:07):
the temple, which would havenormally been given to family to
support their needs.
Now remember, this is a culturethat moms and dads and children
and extended family livetogether.
And so typically when they workout in the fields or doing
whatever their carpentry work,they pool their money together
to support one another.
And although this action seemedworthy and prestigious, often
they would make the vow publiclyfor selfish acknowledgement.
(09:30):
And that had become areligiously acceptable way to
neglect their parents andfamily.
And Jesus is saying, you areshaming the disciples for not
washing their hands, which isn'ta law, it's a tradition, but
it's not a law.
But you break the law of God tohonor your mother and father by
giving your money to the templeinstead of supporting and
honoring your parents.
(09:51):
And therein lies the rebuke ofthe Pharisees as hypocrites.
I bet that stung a little bit,don't you think?
I don't know about you, but whenI I cringe when I hear the words
of hypocrisy and Christianitytogether.
But it's not wrong.
Churches are full of hypocrites,whether we like it or not,
whether we admit it or not.
(10:12):
Don't be looking around, becauseI'm probably talking about you
or I'm talking about myself.
I love Rich Mullen's quote, whois a famous singer and
songwriter from the 70s and 80sand 90s, when he was asked, Is
church full of hypocrites?
And he said, Full of hypocrites.
No, we're not.
There's always room for more.
And this is who we can be.
(10:34):
We show up looking all nice on aSunday morning.
We're wearing our Christian maskproudly with a Bible in our hand
and all of its rules.
And we are quick to point out toothers the flaws that don't
align with what we believe, orat least what we understand the
Bible to say.
And this is what Jesus isreferring to when he calls the
Pharisees out and he appliesIsaiah, the prophet's words from
(10:57):
the Old Testament, that says,Your mouth may know me, but your
heart doesn't.
And your worship is fake, foryou teach man-made ideas, not
the law.
And then he draws the crowdscloser and he declares, Listen
and understand.
Almost as if he knows they'renot going to.
(11:18):
He says, Listen and understand.
What goes into someone's mouthdoes not defile them, but what
comes out of their mouth is whatdefiles them.
Which did not go over well forthe Pharisees who happen to be
within earshot.
And the disciples tell Jesus,Well, now you did it.
Now you offended the Pharisees.
And Jesus said, Oh, well, not myproblem.
(11:41):
They are the blind that areleading the blind.
And if a blind person guidesanother one, they will both fall
into a ditch.
You gotta love his confidenceand his attitude, don't you?
But Peter, taken back, neededsome more clarification.
Why?
Well, Jesus may have beenreferring to the Pharisees as
the blind, but he knew, and thedisciples knew, that they had
(12:04):
power, and they were not ones tobe messed with.
It was known that if you crossedthe Pharisees, you could be
shamed, you could be kicked outof your community, or in some
circumstances you could be putto death.
So Peter is probably thinking,should I wash my hands or not?
Am I the blind following theblind?
Or is what Jesus saying thetruth and the way?
(12:26):
Now remember, Jesus in hisministry is still fairly new,
and what Peter and the disciplesknew and from their past
teaching was being challenged.
They grew up with the law, theyknew the rules, and they were
threatened and warned not tobreak those rules.
So it was natural for them tosecond guess Jesus' ways and to
be cautious of the Pharisees.
So Peter, poor Peter, who oftenwas taking one for the team and
(12:50):
one for the boys, asked Jesus toexplain more, as if he was in
middle school raising his handto the teacher.
And I envision Jesus giving himthat, you know, teacher look
that teachers sometimes do andasking this question, Are you
still without understanding?
And Jesus then shares thisparable that while physical food
passes through the body, it isthe internal heart-based evil
(13:12):
thoughts, such as murder andadultery, sexual immorality,
theft, false witness and slanderthat are the true source of
spiritual corruption.
So eating with unwashed handsdoes not defile you.
Now look back at that statement.
The internal heart-based evilthoughts, that is confusing to
(13:32):
me.
Because when I think of theheart, I think of warm fuzzies.
Right.
I think of like the little heartemphasis that you send out to
people from across the room whenyou're saying I want to love
them.
I think of the heart-shaped boxcandies that we send at
Valentine's Day, or when I signLove Mom, I have hearts all over
my cards.
Or when I send a text to myboys, love you, happy faces,
(13:56):
heart, heart, heart, heart.
And my boys get so annoyed withbeing like, Mom, send one happy
face and one heart.
That's all you need.
I'm like, no, no, you don'tunderstand my love for you.
But in this context, the heartis the center of a person's
being, their mind.
It's their will and theiremotions.
And Jesus states that from thisinner source come all of the
(14:16):
evil thoughts and actions thattruly defile a person.
It's not what we put in ourmouths with our unwashed hands.
So this question, are you stillwithout understanding, is a
scolding to his disciples fortheir inability to grasp
spiritual truths and theirfailure to see meaning behind
Jesus' words and actions whenthey get caught up in the
physical and in the literal?
(14:38):
And he uses this question toseparate the Pharisees' emphasis
on the traditional rules likewashing your hands with the true
source of defilement, which arethe evil thoughts and actions
that come from our hearts or thecore of a person.
So where did you see yourself inthe story and in this question?
Are you still withoutunderstanding in your own faith
(14:59):
journey and in your relationshipwith Jesus?
Is there something that blocksyou from his love and guidance
because of your lack ofunderstanding?
What spoke out to you thismorning?
Was it the hypocrisy that Jesusdescribed and rebuked the
Pharisees of having?
Maybe this hit home for you andyou find yourself holding on to
(15:21):
rules over others or wearing theChristian mask all the while
hiding under your own sins sothe world doesn't see it.
Maybe the phrase the blindleading the blind spoke to that
question for you.
Perhaps your thought as youheard it, am I the blind, being
led by the blind?
Who's speaking into my life?
(15:42):
Or perhaps you thought, maybeI'm the blind leading the blind,
based on how you talk to otherpeople, what you share on your
social media, where your stanceis on the left or the right.
Maybe the defiling parable spoketo this question, and you
struggle understanding how toturn your life around as your
heart is hardened and yourthoughts and choices are
(16:04):
corrupt, and you have no ideahow to step towards a better
life that encompasses God.
My addiction consumes me.
I have awful thoughts outside ofmy marriage.
I consistently lie to cover upmy choices, I hide from truth, I
hate my neighbors.
And I would say to that, numberone, we're in good company,
(16:25):
you're not alone in that.
But also, in our story thismorning, there were three words
that stood out to me as I readand reread and thought about my
own corruption in my life, myown hypocrisy, my own blindness.
And it was listen andunderstand.
(16:46):
Three simple words, listen andunderstand from Matthew 15, 10.
It sounds simple, but thosewords jumped out to me several,
several times.
This concept isn't new.
Listen and understand wasrepeated throughout the gospel
with various translation, and itis a recurring theme in his
teachings.
And yet, his followers, thedisciples, and I think it's safe
(17:07):
to say, you and I continuouslydisregard and misunderstand his
teachings due to the lack ofmisunderstanding and listening.
And this isn't just an issuewith our relationship with
Jesus.
Think of the struggles that youhave in your personal life with
other people.
And I would guess that when youtake the time to interpret the
true issues in those struggles,somewhere along the way, there
(17:30):
has been misunderstandings andmisconceptions that can be tied
back to listening or the lackthereof.
To listen is to understand,because just like the disciples,
we are blind to what we think weknow and we don't have ears to
hear.
And if we under want tounderstand what a Christ-like
life is all about, then in thewords of Martin Luther, we need
(17:52):
to take our eyes off our faceand put them in our ears,
because only then we will hearhis plans for us in the world.
So how do we do this?
Well, as Ben preached last week,we dig into the Bible.
We read and we study scripture.
And the more in this, the morethat we are in this word, then
(18:12):
the more we will understandJesus.
And the more we've devour it,the deeper we will grow in
relationship with him and withothers.
I don't know if you noticed thatas I was going through my slides
today at the bottom, it mighthave said that I was in RSV or
NIV or the message.
One way I really encourage youto read the Bible is to read
(18:33):
different translations.
There are hundreds oftranslations, and all of them
will speak to you in a differentway.
So read and devour the Bible.
And do it in community.
Community is a beautiful thing.
Look around this morning.
We are reading and we aredigging in and we are dissecting
the Bible this morning.
We're breaking down the story,and maybe something I said to
(18:54):
you, you've read the scripturebefore many times, didn't make
sense to you, or you read it ina different way.
We are dissecting it together incommunity.
Yes, I'm the teacher thismorning, but there are many
opportunities for you to breakinto smaller communities and
work through the scripturestogether.
Community is beautiful.
It challenges us, it holds usaccountable.
(19:15):
It also gives us a chance tospeak into one another.
I would encourage you, if you'renot already in a house church or
a journey group, to talk toPeter, the guy who was up here
earlier.
He's going to be at theChristmas cheer table today.
He is in charge of growing ourhouse churches and our journey
groups, and he will happily putyou in a place where you can
speak the word of God and youcan learn to listen and
(19:35):
understand it together.
You can also join Bible studies.
I have a dear friend who is apart of Stacy Minor's Bible
study on Thursday mornings, andthey're working through the book
of Psalms.
Every Thursday since she's beenpart of this class, she comes
into my office after the classand she's like, oh my gosh, I've
never thought of the Bible thisway.
I've never read the Psalms thisway.
I didn't even know you couldpray over the Psalms.
(19:56):
She is so excited about howshe's learning the Bible,
understanding the word in adifferent way.
So read the Bible, be incommunity, and pray over it.
As you read the Word of God tounderstand and to listen to it
to the best of your ability.
Pray over those beautiful wordsthat God and Jesus and all of
these beautiful authors andprophets and disciples have put
(20:19):
their heart and soul into thisbook so we can understand what
it means to have a relationshipwith Jesus.
Pray.
Don't dominate prayer.
Don't talk at him.
Let him speak into you throughthe word of God.
And then pay attention to theneeds of others through this.
Jesus listened deeply to thepeople around him, and because
(20:40):
he listened, he knew their needsand he cared for them.
You need food, I'll feed you, hesaid.
You're sick, I will heal you.
You need compassion and love, Iwill pray for you, I will be
there for you.
You need saving, I'll die foryou, he said.
I'll die for you, which was thegreatest gift of listening and
(21:02):
understanding his kingdom, whathis kingdom needed.
Friends, Jesus listened, and toknow and understand his word, we
too are called to listen.
And when we do that, we willthen care for his world in ways
that we didn't even know werepossible.
So listen and trust his word.
Trust that he will turn you fromhypocrisy, know that he will
(21:24):
lead you from your blindness,and be confident that he will
raise you from the dead, thethings that corrupt you
spiritually and defile yourheart and your relationships
with Jesus and others.
Amen.
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