In-person services have resumed. We are doing in-person Lord's Day services and will be practicing the appropriate COVID guidelines for churches in Mariposa County.
July 21, 2020 - Today’s text out of the Gospel of Matthew is the opening verses of chapter 15. In verses 1-9, we read of an encounter between the religious leaders of the day and Jesus. These ancient pastors and elders do not approach Christ about an issue with him personally in this text, but they have an issue with the disciples not washing their hands. Yes, it is a good idea to wash your hands (just to get that out of the way.) When we think about the context of the passage we see what was their main concern which was not physical health but spiritual defilement. The teachers of the day were taking ceremonial law found in the Old Testament and applying it as law for all to follow. In other words, in their zeal for holding to the Law they went way too far and eventually propped up traditions of men above the Law of God.
Jesus points these leaders to a far more serious case. If you read the passage, you’ll read about Jesus showing the hypocrisy of the leaders for their man-made loophole to get out of honoring your father and mother. With context in mind, to honor your parents was to take care of them when they were older. A loophole was created by establishing that if you make a vow that your riches are for God then that supersedes the command to honor your parents. So, a man could take a vow and become a Rabbi and then tell his parents his money is all tied up in the Church now.
This was going on but the religious leaders were far more concern about hygiene. They were concerned about the washing of hands more than people washing their hands of their parents. Far more concerned about outward signs of spiritual cleanliness rather than matters of the heart. That will be expanded on in the next section of Scripture.
We, those outside and those inside the church, have seen similar instances of folks being far more concerned about the outer rather than the inner. One can put the world’s most luxurious dress on a pig and it might look like a great pig, but that does not change that it’s a pig wearing a dress (country wisdom.) The Christian message is that we must realize that we are stained with sin. No matter how much we whitewash our outsides, we will at the most resemble white washed tombs. We must point folks not to us and our tombs but to the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we who are unclean are made clean and our forgiven.
Wynter is an Elder at Mariposa Reformed Baptist Church. Find out more at MariposaChurch.org or email him at wynter@mariposachurch.org. Visit Mariposa Reformed Baptist Church on Facebook.
Pastor’s Corner is a column from Pastor Wynter Sturtevant III of the Mariposa Reformed Baptist Church.
The Church has moved locations, services are now held at the Bootjack Stompers Hall (located at 4662 Morman Bar Crossing) across from the Mariposa County Fairgrounds.
Time of service is at 10:00 A.M. on Sunday.
I am happy to announce that MRBC has its own sermon podcast. Please check it out by clicking on the link below or searching MRBC Sermons on iTunes. New sermons will be posted every Wednesday.
https://mariposachurch.transistor.fm/episodes
Note: Area churches interested in submitting Articles of Faith are welcome to contact us.
Please email the Sierra Sun Times at sst@goldrushcam.com for more information.
