Simply Jesus

By guest blogger - Sue Ward

Matthew 15

Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing? You can look back and see all the mistakes that came out of your mouth before you took your foot out of it!

I wonder if the disciples felt like that when they told Jesus that the Pharisees were ‘offended’ by his teaching v.12. It seems that Jesus was a bit exasperated with them from the following verses v.13-16

From where we look on today we would say – “of course they were offended, that was His plan – to upset the status quo and challenge the way they thought and the reason for their thinking.”

They were in a mindset that wouldn’t see beyond ‘this is the way we have always done it’. They criticised the way people dressed and lived, the things they ate and who they ate with, did they wash their hands before a meal etc., etc. – but it had no foundation in Scripture and God was a long way away from being involved in influencing them.

What about you and me – are we so bogged down with our own thinking that we can’t see how entrenched we have become, nor how far from God’s influence we have strayed? And – do we speak before we think too often, having to consider ‘I wish I hadn’t said that’, maybe having to work on ‘damage limitation’ to reduce the effects of what we have said on other people.

The best thing is that we are ‘in process’ and have the opportunity to change – keep running your race!

God, please make us more like Jesus, continually challenge us as we determine to make changes in our lives.