Today’s reading deals with the fallout from Jesus’ “Korban controversy” (see post for Jan. 13, 2009). We begin with the apostles asking Jesus: “Do You realize You offended the Pharisees by what You just said?” (15:12)
In reading this, I cannot help but think of the church political squabbles I have observed (and, to my shame, participated in) over the years. The Pharisees thought they really were “the cat’s meow.” Not only that, the apostles put far more stock into the importance of the Pharisees than was warranted as well. The twelve fell prey to the same problem many of us do: they worried far too much about what other people thought.
In response to the apostles’ question, Jesus simply said, “Ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind.” (15:14) This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I don’t want to ignore the Pharisees. I want to defeat them. Yet Jesus’ response is that they don’t need to be defeated because they are so totally irrelevant. Jesus had REAL enemies to deal with: Sin, Death, Satan, Evil, et. al. He couldn’t be bothered by mere human squabbles.
I don’t know about you, but when I look at the way I’ve responded to controversies throughout my life, there are more than a few people that I simply should have ignored…not because what they were doing wasn’t wrong, but because it didn’t matter. I claim to be a man of faith, yet when I look at how I’ve dealt with conflict, there’s not a lot of evidence that I have enough faith to trust that “every plant not planted by [the] heavenly Father will be uprooted.” (15:13) As we go through the rest of this week, let’s all try to have a little more faith in God…to remember who the truly dangerous enemies are…and expend our fighting energy accordingly.
-- Justin
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