When you travel to a foreign country you often have to obtain some of the local currency. This isn’t usually a problem for us these days. You just go to the local ATM, put in your card and enter your PIN, and out comes local currency at the bank’s exchange rate. This exchange rate, the price of one currency paid for in another currency, is constantly changing. When you can purchase more of the local currency in your own money your purchasing power goes up. It becomes less expensive to visit. If you buy less with that same amount of your own money, things get relatively more expensive.
When people exchange one thing for another there is always a risk. We do it every day when we use money. We exchange our labor for goods and services using money as the medium of that exchange. We work, they give us money, then we spend the money and get what we want and need. You give your money hoping that what you receive is worth what you paid. You just never know.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were involved in an exchange that in the end would disappoint them. They would never get what they hoped for. Let’s take a look at their exchange.
The religious leaders thought they could say the right things and keep a very strict set of rules and that would win them God’s favor. If they just said and did all the right things, then they would be in good with God. They thought their outward look would lock in their destiny.
Jesus enters their lives. He flips everything they believe on its head. He is with His disciples and they are not keeping the carefully prescribed set of rules that govern daily life. They don’t ritually wash their hands after coming home from being among non-Jews. They don’t wash the religious contamination off. They just eat.
Jesus begins to point out their hypocrisy by quoting the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. He was God’s spokesperson at a critical time in Israel’s history. And every one of these religious leaders would have recognized Jesus’ quote. And this quote goes right to the heart of the problem with any system that requires outward performance measures that validate a religious level of purity. They all fail.
We can hide under our words. Politicians have perfected this art. They carefully craft their statements to ensure they have plenty of wiggle-room. Currently is seems as if all their hearts are bent on getting power and keeping power. They are not carrying out our wishes. They are doing “what’s best for us” in hopes we will like it enough to keep them in power. This attitude is very condescending. Since when do politicians know what is best for us! And then they have the gall to exempt themselves from this “best.”
These religious leaders could only deal in one currency at a time. They either obeyed God or kept their own set of rules. They could not do both. We can’t do both either. We can either rely on our ability to do the right thing as a means to relationship with God, or we can rely on His ability to rescue us from our failure. We can’t hold onto both.
The Arnold Journey 