January 15
Matthew 15: Honor Your Mother and Father
Genesis 16; Matthew 15; Nehemiah 5; Acts 15
We must understand this first section of Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees because it describes our generation, too.
The Pharisees charge Jesus with breaking the traditions of the rabbis, which was to wash hands before eating (2). Jesus responds (paraphrasing): why do you break the command of God in order to justify your traditions? After all, God’s fifth commandment says that one should honor his mother and father (Exodus 20:12). Moreover, Jesus reiterates the negative command that one must never revile their parents (Exodus 21:17).
Yet the rabbis permitted that when your parents age out of working and they need your help, if you gave gold to the temple, that could “count” for “honoring” your parents. And so when they came to you for help, you could just say, “I gave at the office, er, the temple.”
Note how Jesus applies these two commandments from Exodus. First, to “honor” meant more than speaking words. The word “reviling” means to “speak evil,” and yet Jesus applies it to real-world actions. This must be for two reasons. First, real honor gets shown in the physical world, the only world we have - in this case, providing for them as they age and can no longer work.
Secondly, the command still applies to us today. Paul applies it directly to children in Ephesians 6:2-3 without any modification. And he will later tell Timothy that if someone does not care for their aging family, they are “worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).
No wonder then that Jesus castigates the Pharisees:
7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
How then shall we live?
We should honor our parents, and we should expect that command to apply in all kinds of ways. Yes, it means children obeying their parents the first time with a joyful heart. It also means providing for our parents’ as they age, even while we are accountable to God and loving our own families first. Boundaries can exist with honor.
Yet our country has fathers, in the form of the founders. We honor them by reading them. And we have fathers in the form of the magistrate. We honor them with our lawful obedience.
If we don’t, well, welcome to our world today. When a people does not honor their parents, they reject the very fabric of civilization and devolve into the most insane cruelties. The way back is not easy, but it is simple: “Honor your father and mother.”