One of the more interesting Gospel stores from Matthew 15:
1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,
2 "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"
http://www.christianforums.com/#cr-descriptionAnchor-1 3 Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?
4 For God said, 'Honor your father and mother'
http://www.christianforums.com/#fn-descriptionAnchor-ahttp://www.christianforums.com/#cr-descriptionAnchor-2 and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'
http://www.christianforums.com/#fn-descriptionAnchor-bhttp://www.christianforums.com/#cr-descriptionAnchor-3 5 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,'
6 he is not to 'honor his father
http://www.christianforums.com/#fn-descriptionAnchor-c ' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.
http://www.christianforums.com/#cr-descriptionAnchor-4'
http://www.christianforums.com/#fn-descriptionAnchor-dhttp://www.christianforums.com/#cr-descriptionAnchor-5"
10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand.
11 What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,'
http://www.christianforums.com/#cr-descriptionAnchor-6 but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "
Basically the Pharisees had decided that if people wanted to give them money for "God" instead of caring for their parents, that was okay. They 'nullified' the word of God for the sake of their tradition.
Others choose to nullify God's word by claiming Jesus openly disrespected the woman Scripture refers to more than once as his 'mother'. This is for the sake of their tradition -- Mary must not be seen as anything special.
For those interested in why Jesus really referred to Mary as woman, I suggest they research the Old Testament 'type' for who else had the name of "woman".
Other than that, I've spent way too much time here running through other people's same circus hoops. Out of here.
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