Let me take you back to May, 29A.D. A meal is in progress hosted by one of the Pharisees. It’s interesting to watch the preparation. Not only was Kosher food carefully prepared and the room readied…but around the room were a series of clay pots with even bigger refilling pots beside them. Each pot was ceremonially washed before the meal.

As the guest arrived they would stand in front of as bowl and immerse first one and then the other hand completely under the water, wipe them off.. then sit down to eat. Most of us tend to wash our hands before we eat (sometimes). But this obviously wasn’t about cleanliness because they didn’t use soap…. And after each person finished each course they would get up and double-dip their hands again.

Enter the teacher, Jesus and his disciples…. Peter sees the fried chicken and dives for the bowl. John starts munching on a leg of mutton.

The Pharisees are really ticked off. What wrong with your excuse-for-disciples? We took all the effort to ceremonially wash these water bowls so they could double dip and they went right for the fried chicken like a pack heathen unbelievers.

Now Jesus is ticked…. In a divine sort of way: You Pharisees can search your Bible (Old Testament) from end to end and, nowhere, in there, does it say we must wash before we eat. You made those rules up and wrote them down in your rule book (the Mishnah) and now you are trying to pass them off as God’s rules.

Jesus is getting fired up: While we are on the subject of ignoring God’s real commands and making your own rules in God’s name… let me get another item off my chest:

Matthew 15:3-9 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 evil of father or mother must be put to death.' 5 But you say,`You don't need to honor your parents by caring for their needs if you give the money to God instead.' 6 And so, by your own tradition, you nullify the direct commandment of God. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was prophesying about you when he said, 8 These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. 9 Their worship is a farce, for they replace God's commands with their own man-made teachings.' (NLT)
   

Can you imagine: many people view Jesus as this sweet-talking… love-spreading antithesis of the tough talking Old Testament God, but I don’t think the Pharisees, that day, would have agreed. I’m telling you…..I admire this. We live in a day when our government leaders will look right at you and vomit out “spin” that they know full well …. it’s a pack of nonsense. Statesmen spin out carefully worded sentences designed to say nothing concrete and offend no-one. When we see a politician who stands on conviction, and says what he means, we’re not quite sure what to do with him.

Jesus, looked you right in the eye and spoke truth…… the real “No Spin Zone”! Jesus is condemning the Pharisees for breaking the fifth commandment. I explained to you that in nine of the Ten Commandments, Jesus takes the Old Testament rule and He:

Ratifies

This is important: When you see Jesus, who Paul says “came to fulfill the law, He cancelled the written code nailing it to the cross”…..When you see Jesus reaching back and reinforcing one of those laws, in his teaching… you know, for sure, that he is promoting it as part of God’s timeless, universal moral code.

Let me paint you a portrait of family in Old Testament times.

Hebrew society, by God’s design, was a paternal society where the father, particularly the oldest father in the household was the absolute authority. He has under his control not only his wife/s but his children, their children; along with any aunt, cousin, animal, servant, or “free” foreigner living under his roof.

It’s into that setting that this 5^{th part of God’s Moral Law…. Part five of God’s Constitution for Living comes…..}

For some reason…. in God’s eternal moral code, He chose to include the honoring of one’s parents as absolutely essential, and promised that obedience to this command would bring positive results into the life of the honor-er.

While we are at it lets toss in some New Testament verses:

    If you would indulge me as I ponder here for a minute:

God wasn’t afraid to mention the negative…Like the honoring of the Sabbath Day… the penalty for dishonoring one’s parents was severe…

    Solves the problem of juvenile delinquency!

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Let’s see here if we can get a grip on what God expects of you. Some of you here from Seniors to teens are probably thinking:

God gave them two words to describe what their attitude toward their parents was to be. The first we have already seen:

This particular word does not carry with it the idea of obedience. There are other commands (directed to young children) that command obedience…but not this one. This one means:

Consideration, appreciation, nurture (back) forgiveness

Why does God care what our attitude toward our parents is? From God’s perspective there are three people involved in the formation of a new person.

God seems to put weight in this three-fold union that brought you onto this earth, and he expects you to reciprocate with honor…. first off, to Him as you Heavenly Father (He also requires obedience but that is not part of honor) and secondly to your earthly parents.

In God’s infinite wisdom he knew that some parent’s sins would lead them to treat their children wrongfully, yet he did not let anyone off the hook here.

In fact God gives us a second word to describe what must be present in our attitude and actions toward our parents:

There are no easy answers to how this plays out in the lives of you who had abusive parents but our attitude seems to need to be something like this:

Remember, your honor and reverence of your parents is not based on what they deserve but on the union they had with your heavenly father in bringing you into this world, and whatever nurture they provided to make you into an independent adult.

Not exactly Scripture: (Grimms Fairy Tales)

There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his ears

dull of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at table he

could hardly hold the spoon, and spilt the broth upon the table-cloth

or let it run out of his mouth. His son and his son's wife were

disgusted at this, so the old grandfather at last had to sit in the

corner behind the stove, and they gave him his food in an earthenware

bowl, and not even enough of it. And he used to look towards the

table with his eyes full of tears.

Once, too, his trembling hands could not hold the bowl, and it fell

to the ground and broke. The young wife scolded him, but he said

nothing and only sighed. Then they bought him a wooden bowl for a

few half-pence, out of which he had to eat.

They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years

old began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground. What

are you doing there, asked the father. I am making a little trough,

answered the child, for father and mother to eat out of when I am

big.

The man and his wife looked at each other for a while, and presently

began to cry. Then they took the old grandfather to the table, and

henceforth always let him eat with them, and likewise said nothing if

he did spill a little of anything.