In the text, the Pharisees and Jesus were having a difference of opinion. They were fed up with Jesus always going against tradition. They asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” (v. 3) Jesus called them hypocrites because they had “let go of the commands of God and were holding on to human traditions.” (v. 8) He believed that the Pharisees had taken ceremonial tradition to the extreme and become disillusioned and no longer sought hope. The Pharisees needed a soul makeover. They needed to ask God for a clean heart. “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (v. 6)
“Give me a clean heart so I can serve Thee Lord fix my heart so that I may be used by Thee For I’m not worthy of all these blessings And I will follow Thee.”
Pastor Davis reminded us that, even today, we see how certain traditions in the various denominations and churches are practiced and protected as strongly as if they were pure biblical doctrine. We talk about sins of the church but not sins of the spirit. When your heart appears to be broken, it needs to be healed because an empty heart leaves room for the enemy. We tend to fill our hearts with anything, including evil thoughts that defile us. It’s not what goes in us that defiles us, but our motives. God demands that we act right because we represent God. What we do matters.
Fill my cup, Lord; I lift it up Lord; Come and quench this thirsting of my soul. Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more. Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.