Unwashed Hands

by Hugh DeLong

Somewhere before the time of Jesus, some of the Jewish leaders had taken the instructions for Priests in Num. 18:8-13, where they were to ceremonially ‘wash’ their hands before eating ‘holy’ food which had been offered as a sacrifice, and applied it to ‘ordinary’ food and ‘ordinary’ people. After a short while, this understanding and application became ‘the rule’. As such, it was viewed as ‘sinful’ not to do it. It had nothing to do with health and sanitation; it simply had become their tradition.

Many ‘traditions’ come about like this. One generation begins doing or believing something, and after a short while, the reason behind the action is forgotten, but the action is deemed ‘necessary’. While it may not be wrong to continue such a practice, here, the practice was being ‘bound’. Everybody has traditions! Yet they are not to be held as God's commandments.

Jesus calls them out on this. They neglected the commandments of God yet held on to their traditions. They set aside various commandments of God and clung to their traditions.

This simply shows that we must be careful to recognize traditions for what they are: traditions. We must also recognize the commandments of God as the commandments of God. This will require some thinking on our part, but it is necessary.