In Matthew 15:1-9, Jesus says that if a child doesn't honor their father and mother he or she should:
A: be put to death
B: be chided as with the local customs
C: be brought before the head priests
D: be banished
I said I want my juicebox and I WANT IT NOW!
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!”
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’[a] and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[b] 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. 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 merely human rules.’[c]”
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’[c]”
In case you find the above passage cryptic, it's about Jesus dealing with criticisms from local holy men. He wasn't cleaning his hands with the tradition and it upset the local elders.
Jesus comes back at them, pointing out that Pharisees are trying to put laws of humankind on the same level as the laws of god. He calls their man made laws of making parents offer their children as devotions to the temple as hypocritical and a violation of the commandments. The children are of no use to the parents, and therefor are not honoring their parents...thus breaking god's law.
The punishment for the children who have been shanghaied by man made laws into breaking this commandment?
STONING
I would love to tell you that this photograph of a child of Palestine was fake. I cannot.
I try to keep this blog lighthearted. But the disgusting nature of this law does not allow me to. If this photograph makes your stomach turn over as much as it does mine, please just remember where this law comes from.
Jesus defended himself from criticism from not washing his hands by creating a technicality and twisting the law in order to turn the it back against the Pharisees. Effectively putting himself and ahead of the lives of a handful of innocent children.
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