WASHING HANDS

In Matthew 15, '...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!'"  [vs.1-2]

Ritual handwashing was only required of the priests (which most Pharisees were not), but the Pharisees adopted this practice anyway.  They thought the more they sought purity through these rituals, the more they would please God.  Jesus had no patience for righteousness that ignored the heart of God and His Word in order to gratify self.  The Pharisees argued that eating with clean hands would keep them pure.  Jesus said that purity came from the heart.

Rituals have value!  

For centuries, couples were married using the same words as their parents and grandparents (although that began to change after the 1970 movie, LOVE STORY).  

For centuries, we have used the same words to receive the elements of the Lord's Supper (although in recent years those words have been abbreviated or eliminated).

For centuries the words of committal have been pronounced as recorded in scripture at the funerals of Christian people (although now we rarely accompany the body to the grave and those words are often omitted or replaced with tributes).

I remember when the Tri State Family Camp tabernacle had an earth floor that was covered with straw during camp.  During the debate over cementing the floor, W. P. Jones made a statement that I never forgot.  He said, if you cement these floors, we'll never kneel for prayer again.  [It was the tradition at camp during prayer times for everyone to kneel at their seat.]   He was wrong.  We did continue to kneel for a year or so - everyone used the song books to kneel on.  :-)  But after that, the tradition of kneeling fell by the wayside.  

But let's be real here.  Rituals only have imputed value.  Our prayers weren't more sacred because we knelt to pray.  

In our church, we recite the Lord's Prayer together every Sunday [which I don't believe was ever Christ's intention].  Saying those words doesn't insure our forgiveness or secure our salvation.  [I've often wondered why when praying this prayer in public we seem to prefer "debts" or "trespasses" instead of Luke's "sins"?]

When I was leading the church, I often did things in a different order (or a different way) just to keep people off guard.  That may not have been right, but I hated the monotony of predictability and its accompanying boredom.  Worship should be vibrant, alive, spontaneous, physical, stimulating - NEVER BORING!

I don't think the Pharisees liked it that Jesus chose twelve fishermen, zealots, tax collectors and rabble-rousers to be His ambassadors.  There were only a few thousand Pharisees in Israel, but they certainly would have thought that they were the ones He should have chosen.  

But again, Jesus doesn't look at robes or headgear.  He looks at hearts.  He looks for teachable spirits.  He looks for men and women who will open themselves to His will and His way - even if they do have dirty hands....