Did Jesus Reject the Word of God?

Matthew 15 and Mark 7 are often cited as evidence that Jesus abolished the dietary laws of Torah. Did HE change HIS mind and suddenly decide that HE really didn't mean what HE said in Leviticus about what is or what is not food? Is HE a double minded, lawless, rebellious Son to HIS Father? What does the Scripture really say? What was Jesus really talking about in these two chapters? We have to find the context in order to really know what is being said. Who is involved in the conversation and what is the issue being discussed?

Verse 1 tells us who is involved in the conversation that is recorded. "Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying...."

Now we know who is involved in the conversation. It is God, in the person of Yahshua/Jesus, the Living Word, speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees who were in a position of authority in Israel, concerning the views and practices of Torah. It's a meeting between the Torah personified, who spoke it to Moses and every man who ever wanted to hear HIS Voice, and those who thought they were the keepers of Torah who felt it their position to give people guidelines to live out Torah. It's much like the church today. Now for the issue at hand.

Verse 2 continues with the question asked by the scribes and Pharisees - "Why do your disciples (the disciples of Yahshua) transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat."

The issue is a tradition concerning a ceremonial washing of hands that was added to the commandments by the elders. The Written Torah, given by the Living Torah, does not have a commandment concerning the washing of hands before one eats. Therefore the issue is that these scribes and Pharisees are attempting to prove that Yahshua's disciples are transgressing Torah by their lack of adherence to the rabbinic authority. By the way, this is the issue seen throughout Paul's letters. There are two laws being spoken of. One law is this Mishna, or at that time oral tradition handed down by the elders (codified now as the Talmud) versus the Torah, or Law of God as given from the beginning, and spoken to Moses to write down. How does Yahshua feel about their question?

Verse 3 - "And HE (Yahshua) answered and said to them, 'And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?'" Here the argument is juxtaposed; tradition of men versus God's Commandment. You will see the same contrast in Paul's letter to the Colossians in Colossians Chapter 2.

After Yahshua gives them a specific example of their lawless tradition nullifying HIS commandment in not honoring their father or mother (A Torah commandment from Exodus 20) HE says very specifically what their root problem is.

Verse 6 - "...And thus you invalidated the Word of God (HE calls Torah the Word of God) for the sake of your tradition."

The argument is clearly laid out for us to see. The context is clear. It is lawless tradition versus the Torah, the Word of God. I have said many times that the Torah is the Word of God. I've had people get very angry with me for saying that. But in reality you have a problem with the One who said it, the One you say you believe, Jesus, called Torah the "Word of God!"an addition

Moving on to Verse 11. This is the verse that is often cited by those who say that Yahshua declared all meat clean to eat, even though HIS Word said that man should not eat what HE calls unclean. HE told us what is food and what is not. Remember the context of the conversation is lawless tradition versus the Word of God. The Word of God, in Leviticus, tells us that we are not to eat that which is unclean; swine (pork), shellfish, buzzards, and many others. Some versions of the Bible have done a tremendous wrong in how they translate Mark's version of this account. In Mark 7:19, they include, "thus HE declared all foods clean." By looking at the words and their meanings, along with the context, you will see that is not an accurate rendering of the verse.

Remember the context is eating with unwashed hands. The context is not what one eats. Secondly, in the context of eating with unwashed hands is the idea that the food one eats with unwashed hands (particularly if an gentile or a pagan had handled it in the market) they believed it contaminated them. A more accurate rendering of what Yahshua said is that what is eaten, even it had some dirt or whatever in it from the marketplace, when it entered the stomach and was digested and then eliminated, it was purged from the body. HE asks them a basic biological question that they should all know the answer to, in Matthew 15:17, "Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated?" After our food is digested the waste is eliminated. HE says we defecate the waste and maintain what is nutritious from the food we eat. There was no deleterious effect on the body, because food was eaten with unwashed hands. Therefore Yahshua says, in Matthew 15:18-20, that defilement comes from what proceeds out of the heart of a man and not from eating food with unwashed hands. The context is maintained throughout this record of the event.

A final thought on context, concerning this passage and every time you read any portion of Scripture. You must maintain the context of the particular record of the event, along with the context of the chapter and the book you are in at the time, AND you must maintain the context of the entire Bible. And just as any good book of Instruction, the foundation laid at the beginning, and built upon as you continue to study it, will not deviate from the foundational that has been laid. It is the same with the Bible and the foundational Truth of Torah. When Yahshua says that all food is purged, as it says in Mark 7, HE means what HE has always called food. HE has never said that all meat from any animal you want to harvest it from is clean for food! The unchanging God of the Bible, who gave the Word of God to Adam, to Cain and Abel, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses to write it down, and to you and me, will stay consistent. HE is opposed to the traditions of men. HE is not opposed to HIS Word. Remember Matthew 15:6? HE said, "And thus you invalidated the Word of God for the sake of your tradition."

My friends, please take a deep breath and consider what the Word of God says. It is the tradition of the elders of the professing church that says that Yahshua/Jesus declared HIS food laws no longer valid. It is the traditions of the elders of the professing church that has declared HIS Sabbath to no longer be valid, replacing it with Sunday worship. It is the elders of the professing church that have abrogated HIS commanded feast days and appointed times for the sake of their traditional observances of lawless, pagan originated Christmas, Easter, and more.

I exhort you to take another look, a contextual look at what the Word of God has to say. The fact is that our heart is very telling in the matter. Out of our heart our mouth speaks and our hands touch and do and our feet walk. We are so busy speaking, handling, and doing what has been handed down by tradition, that has a place of devotion that keeps us in bondage to it, that we don't hear HIS Voice saying, "Come out of her MY people." This devotion to tradition, powered by the emotional attachment in the flesh, will not allow us to read Matthew 15 and Mark 7 and see that HE is telling us that our devotion to tradition is our problem. In our flesh, as Paul clearly tells us in Romans 8, we CANNOT submit to the Law of God.

But there is hope! There is one who can and will deliver us from this body of death that opposes HIS delightful Torah, just as Paul says in Romans 7. It is Yahshua, the Messiah, (Jesus the Christ) who will deliver us, so that we can serve the "Law of God" with our minds. It is our flesh that serves the law of sin - lawlessness. The hope is in believing HIS Word, the Word of God that Yahshua mentioned in Matthew 15:6. This is faith, since "faith comes by hearing (hearing means doing), and hearing by the Word of God." Through this faith we access HIS work of grace in the New Covenant. Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8 give us the Word of God definition of what this work of grace in the New Covenant is. It is that HE writes HIS Torah on our hearts, puts it in our minds, and causes us to walk in HIS statutes and keep HIS commandments. But we must first believe HIM, repent of out dead works of the traditions of men and return to HIS Torah, the Word of God. Then you will experience this amazing grace, changing you from glory to glory into the very image of Yahshua, God's own son (2nd Corinthians 3), that we might walk as HE walked, just as John tells us we should, in 1st John 2. It is a process that continues until the day we go to be with HIM in eternity, not a one time, "there I did it" kind of thing.

I pray you are blessed as you hear HIS Voice; the Living Word of God, and are set free to walk in HIS glorious, blessed Instruction.