Daily Devotional For Friday, November 28, 2025
Good morning Southside. We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew in these current devotionals. As we will see today as we did yesterday, Jesus cannot get a break. It’s either crowds seeking healings only to be healed, hoping to see Jesus put on a “show” or disciples that have no faith or as in today, religious leaders who seek to trap Him. Why? So they can disqualify Jesus as being a teacher they should listen to in life. Today we come to Matthew 15:1-9:
“Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked Him, (2) ‘Why do Your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.’ (3) Jesus replied, ‘And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? (4) For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ (5) But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ (6) In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. (7) You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, (8) ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. (9) Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God’” (NLT).
After trying to trap Jesus, He turns the tables on the religious leaders. As you read this, you will notice that the question the religious leaders asked Jesus, He does not answer until Matthew 15:10-11. Having put their traditions on the same level as God’s Word, Jesus accuses them of how their lofty interpretations violate the commandments of God. You can imagine that got a reaction from them and Jesus sets out to prove it. In a legalistic way, His disciples may have transgressed their traditions, but they, (who were supposed to be devoted to protecting God’s Word) had violated it.
To prove this, Jesus goes to the Mosaic Law and not just any law, but the Ten Commandments. He zeros in on fifth commandment which is about honoring one’s parents (see Ex. 30:12 and Deut. 5:16. To “honor” one’s parents included speaking respectfully to them and showing care for them as they aged. The same law is written negatively as you see in Ex. 21:17 and Lev. 20:9. It meant that if you criticized, or ridiculed, or abused verbally, the punishment was to be severe – your death. The natural result of such behavior is that the person will not honor his parents for who they are, will not speak respectfully, and will certainly show no care or consideration to them. Such action carried a severe penalty—a person who cursed his parents could be put to death.
What the religious leaders did was either developed or found a loophole around honoring their parents. “But you say” is Jesus’ way of saying you are violating God’s Law. “Corban,” which means, “offering,” as it was called, was the tradition of giving resources solely to God. New Testament scholar Bruce B. Barton writes this:
“When this happened, the money would be reserved for sacred use and withdrawn from use by anyone else. But the benefits could be used by the donor, much like an irrevocable trust works today. This vow was grossly misused. A man could use an article vowed to God indefinitely but could not transfer it to anyone else. Unscrupulous people would even use this vow to keep from paying debts. Others, as Jesus noted, used it to circumvent their responsibility to their parents. Their devotion to God had stripped them of their compassion for people” (Source: Bruce B. Barton, The Life Application Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 302).
So, the religious leaders were allowing adult children to dedicate money to the Temple that would have otherwise gone to support their parents based on their own false interpretation of Deut. 23:21-23 and Num. 30:1-16. Children were expected to care for their aging parents. Some found a way around this by invoking the tradition of “Corban.” Thus a person who used this, saying, the money was dedicated to God. He would receive status, honor, prestige and recognition for this. Worse, this was an irrevocable vow and if later, a son decided to help his parents, the religious leaders would prohibit it. Jesus said that the religious leaders had made the 5th Commandment void by violating it. They had elevated their traditions above God’s Law and Word, which was a sin. Saturday, we will address this same Scripture again.
Assignment: God is not fooled by our hypocrisy in matters like this. If this is you, then give up being part of a church. Better for you to live like a pagan than a hypocrite influencing others to be like you in the church. OR, give up your hypocrisy and surrender your life totally to God and His word. Live by faith, not by sight. Reflect. Is there any evidence (if you still have your parents) that you are neglecting to honor them? If so, then obey the Scriptures. If your parents are deceased, here is a suggestion – find some parents who are not being honored by their own children and then honor them as if they were your parents. Model before others what should be done out of love and respect for the Lord.
Scripture To Meditate On: Ephesians 6:1-3, “Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. (2) ‘Honor your father and mother.’ This is the first commandment with a promise: (3) If you honor your father and mother, ‘things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth’” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Lord, I want to honor You by honoring my parents. Please forgive me for being selfish at times. Forgive me when I hide behind my offerings to my church while breaking Your Word. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly