Lent Day 23: The Pharisees

Pause

Traditionally, Lent is a season of fasting. What can you give up today to allow your heart to completely focus on God?

Read & Journal

Read Matthew 15:1-20. Ask yourself:

• What do you learn about Jesus’ character from His interactions with the Pharisees? With His disciples?

• What does this passage reveal about Jesus’ mission or purpose?

• How do you see Jesus entering into human brokenness in today’s passage?

• The Pharisees were concerned with handwashing and following rules that made them look outwardly obedient, but Jesus pointed to the heart. When have you focused more on how things looked on the outside than the state of your own heart? Why is it important not to do that?

Ponder

Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus rarely minced words when it came to the Pharisees. In this interaction, He had little patience for the religious leaders’ focus on traditions and outward appearance when their hearts were far from God. Jesus called the Pharisees—among the most important leaders of the Jewish faith—hypocrites and said their worship was a farce.

Jesus saw the ultimate issue at hand, the brokenness that the Pharisees couldn’t see in their self-assurance and self-righteousness: they honored God with words and actions, but their hearts were far from Him. Outwardly, they pursued the things of God, but inwardly they nurtured sin, self-righteousness, and pride. It wasn’t about what they did or how good they looked on the outside, Jesus said. The problem was the focus of their hearts.

In Jesus’ day, the “heart” represented the inner person—the mind and will.1 Defilement or sin, then, came from the inner person, not dirt on their hands or failure to follow an age-old tradition. “The heart is more deceitful than anything else,” said the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 17:9), and whether you have followed Jesus for a day or a decade, you understand that truth. When our hearts (mind/will) are focused on the flesh, the things we do and say reflect that focus. When our hearts (minds/wills) are focused on Jesus, our words and actions will reflect that focus. The life of faith, Jesus tells us, isn’t about appearances or looking good on the outside. It’s about cultivating an inward relationship with Him that changes the way you live. Today, let go of appearances and lay your heart bare before Jesus. It’s time to refocus.

1Stuart K. Weber, Holman New Testament Commentary, Matthew. Broadman & Holman: Nashville, Tenn., 2000.