The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 103

as at other timos, by another question, "Why do ye also transgress the command- ment of God by your tradition?" His disciples had, indeed, transgressed the tradi- tions of men j but their accusers had transgressed the commandments of God, and that, because of these traditions. 'fhey had dared to bring these traditions into direct opposition to the holy Law of God. (2) The instance. They had contrived to evade the force of the fifth commandment. A man had only (they wickedly Raid) to pro- nounce the words, "It is II gift," to be freed from the duty of supporting his parents. It was good to give, and to give freely, for the service of the temple--the Lord com- mended the poor widow for doing so-but it was not right to neglect the nearer duty of caring for father or mother even for the temple's sake. And these hypocrites, it seems, held that the pronunciation of the word "corban" absolved a man from the duty of supporting his nearest relatives, even if he did not really give the property so dedicated to the service of God. Thus they made the commandment of God of none effect. They put these miserable traditions above the eternal laws of morality, above the written Word of God. Well might the Lord denounce them as hypocrites; they were acting the part of religious men, but they knew not what religion was; they had no love for God, no care for his glory; they loved the praise of men. 4. Bis quotation from Isaiah. The Lord applies to the Pharisees what the prophet had said of bis con- temporaries. Prophecy is for all time; it is fulfilled again and again in the history of the Church. God's words spoken by Isaiah extended, in their prophetic range, to the scribes and Pharisees of our Lord's days. They honoured God with their lips, but their heart was far from him. Such worship is in vain. It is no true worship; it is false, counterfeit. Worship is the adoration of the heart when it loses sight of self in the contemplation of the glory of God. The worship of the Pharisees was full of self; they sought not the glory of God; they put the commandments of men above his holy Word. In truth, they worshipped themselves, and not God; for it was their own profit, their own advancement, their own honour, which they loved with e.11 their heart. And that which we love with the whole heart is the object of our worship. Let us take heed to ourselves. II. THE :MULTITUDE. 1. The Lord, called them. Perhaps they had stood aloof. "!'hey honoured the Lord; they bad been taught to reverence the Pharisees; they were in perplexity. But now the Lord turned away from the Pharisees in holy indignation at their hypocrisy, their perversion of the truth of God. He called the multitude to come nearer; he would not have them lose the lesson. "Hear, and understand," he said; He bespoke their attention; for he was about to enunciate a great principle--a principle which seems simple enough to us; but it was new and startling then; it was contrary to accepted doctrines., It struck at the minute observances of the scribes and Pharisees; .it swept them away by the application of one wide-reaching rule. And it did more than this; it pointed to the coming abrogation of the ceremonial law. 2. His leaching. "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." The words might be understood, according to the well-known Hebrew idiom, as meaning only that morel defilement was far more serious and important than ceremonial defilement (compare the twice- quoted passage of Hosea, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice;" or our Lord's words in John vi. 27, "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but fur that meat which endureth unto everlasting life"). But probably the Lord's meaning went further. It was an anticipation of the coming change. According to the reading of the most ancient manuscripts, as explained by Chrysostom and several modern commentators, St. Mark represents our Lord as saying this, "cleansing all meats" (Mark vii. 19). If this be correct, the Lord anticipates here the Divine announcement mado afterwards to St. Peter, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common" (Acts x. 15). The Lord's utterance was not so decided now. 'l'he Jews were not yet able to bear a peremptory declaration of the abolition of the laws respecting meats. The distinc. tion between clean and unclean was to them of immense importance and signiliconce, one of the marked characteristics of their religious life, one of the barriers between them and the Gentiles. 'l'hey could not have endured to see e.11 this elaborate system swept away al; once; the disciples themselves were not ripe for such a change. Long afterwards St. Paul found it nocessary to deal very tenderly with consciences that might be troubled by similar scrnples. The Lord now indicates the coming abolition  10(.1 THE GOSPEL ACOORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [ea xv. l--89.