Leave Them Alone!

Then Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked, “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat!”
He answered them, “And why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, the one who speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.
But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple”— he does not have to honor his father.’ In this way, you have revoked God’s word because of your tradition. Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:
These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.”
Summoning the crowd, He told them, “Listen and understand: It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”
Then the disciples came up and told Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard this statement?”
He replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted. Leave them alone! They are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
(Matthew 15:1-14 HCSB ©®)

Jesus did not seem to be interested in revival – raising something that had died back to life. He did seem to be interested in bringing life to those who were hungry. He seemed to love most of all when those who were least likely to hear and see came to Him in faith, looking for fulfilment of promises and satisfaction of hope: the centurion who understood the power of using authority by faith; the Syrophoenician woman who knew He had the power and authority to deliver her daughter, and that He was full of mercy; later, Cornelius the centurion, who called his household and friends together to hear the words of life promised to be delivered to them through Peter.

Every generation can see the work done in and through the next generation. Because it is new and different, it is rejected by most. Those who see the difference and newness as fire in a bush, and step aside to interact with it, are drawn out of the past and into the future.