Jeremiah 30:12-22

Psalm 102:23-28

Matthew 15:1-14

Observance: John Baptist Vianney, priest of Ars, France (d. 1859)

The Bible is full of common idioms we still use today: phrases like “can a leopard change its spots?” and “there is nothing new under the sun” originated in Holy Scripture.

And so it makes me wonder if what Jesus was talking about today is the inspiration for that phrase uttered by every mother: “if your mate told you to jump off a bridge, would you?”

The Pharisees have asked Jesus a critical question about why his disciples don’t wash their hands according to proper religious tradition. He turns it back on them and asks them why their religious traditions aren’t according to the Law of God they supposedly reflect. He specifically brings out this issue of honouring one’s mother and father. While that Commandment would suggest that the right thing to do would be to support your parents in their old age, the Pharisees have decided that if you instead say that money is for God (“corban”), then you don’t have to give it to them. Isn’t that curiously relevant for today. There are a lot of funny ideas going around the Church, claiming that those ideas are what God wants, and yet they directly contradict what God has explicitly says he wants in his word.

Jesus’ whole point in this interaction – his “teachable moment” for us – is that we should not follow people just because they say they know what God wants us to do. We should be thinking for ourselves, checking what God actually says, and then deciding whether we should follow them. Jesus talks about “the blind leading the blind”, and both of them falling into the Pit. In other words, if the Pharisee told you to jump off a cliff, would you?

So let us be a discerning people with regards to God’s will and purpose. If someone makes a claim about the Lord, don’t just take it on face value – think for yourself first. Check the Scriptures, check what Church Tradition has understood those Scriptures to mean, check with the Holy Spirit who dwells within every Christian and leads us into all truth.

Jesus said that every plant that his heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. We need not be blind people following blind guides telling us to jump off bridges. Because Jesus also says that he is the true vine, and we are the branches, if we abide in him. So let us abide in him, for he is the truth and the wisdom and the righteousness of God revealed to us.