The Heart of the Matter

Sometimes I wonder if we’ve come that far in this whole Christianity thing. As I read the Scriptures, I am sometimes reminded that things today are really no different than they were in the days that Jesus walked the earth. The Pharisee’s were totally consumed with having their religion just right. Many people failed to see Jesus, even when He was standing right in front of them. There were a few faithful followers, but even they would flee and deny Jesus when the going got tough. Sound familiar?

As I was sorting through these thoughts, I realized that the problem with religion today is a matter of the heart. I was convicted that too often I place my priorities on outer things (keeping up appearances, performing all the “right” daily disciplines, etc) rather than on the inner workings of my being. While working through this, I came across a teaching of Jesus that totally focuses on the heart.

“Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!’ Jesus replied, ‘And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him unclean, but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him unclean.’” (Matthew 15:1-11)

The Pharisees were sort of an up-tight bunch of folks. They felt like every thing had to be put together just right. You had to follow all the rules and traditions. Many of their traditions were merely things they had come up with on their own. They saw Jesus’ disciples living a slightly different way than they did and called Jesus out on it. They couldn’t believe this Rabbi would allow his followers to “break” the tradition.

Jesus was quick to call them out. He basically said, “Oh, you Pharisees! You think you’ve got it all together! Honestly, you look great! You follow the rules! You wear the right clothes! You give the appearance that you’ve got it all together. But, in reality, your hearts are far from God. You see…your rules and traditions have become more important to you than God Himself. What God wants is your heart, not your silly traditions!”

Jesus says this same thing to us today! He warns us to not get caught up in going through the motions or giving the appearance that we are “good” Christians. He wants us to get to the heart of the matter! He wants our heart. When our heart is in the right place with Him, many of these rules and traditions will naturally take care of themselves.

If Jesus were sitting with us today, I think He might ask us, “What’s the condition of your heart?” I pray that we all will ask God to search our hearts so that our faith will be an inside-out, rather and outside-only relationship with Jesus.