Honor Thy Father and Mother

“For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother…”  Matthew 15:4

Some of those hostile, jealous, and unscrupulous scribes and Pharisees, once again trying to catch Jesus in some sort of hypocritical situation, asked Him why His disciples broke the tradition of washing their hands before eating.  Before you say “ooh, gross” about eating with dirty hands, the religious leaders had made washing hands a burdensome ritual.  It had to be done in a specific manner involving several steps.  If it was not done according to the rules, the hands were not clean.  Knowing that the religious leaders couldn’t care less whether the disciples washed their hands or not (mainly because the leaders were always looking down on the disciples from their view atop their high horses), Jesus turned the enquiry around to them, which He often did to make them think.  He asked them why did they break God’s law in carrying out one of their traditions involving the care of elderly parents.

They had made up another rule, one skill in which they were really proficient, that any money that could have been used to care for aging and/or infirm parents could instead be set aside for “religious” purposes, but they still had control over the money.  Talk about hypocrites.  Jesus reminded them that God’s law commanded folks to honor their parents which includes respect, obedience, and caring for their needs as they age.  Their attitude was selfish.  Still having control over the money wasn’t like putting money in the collection plate to be used for ministry, church maintenance, missions, etc. like we do with our tithes and offerings.  They could still spend the money on themselves.  I suppose that they could say that they needed new clothes to wear to the synagogue.  (You know how people rationalize how they spend their money.)

Societies never change.  They are still just as selfish as they were 2,000 years ago, actually maybe more selfish.  The way it is supposed to be in the normal progression of life, the grown children should take care of the aging parents.  After all, most parents spent a lot of time and money rearing their children.  However, nowadays, it seems that some adult children expect it to be the duty of the parents to continue to care for them.  The baby boom generation can also be called the “sandwich generation” because they are caught between caring for aging parents and pulling adult children out of tight spots.  (Sometimes it is necessary to help our children, but it shouldn’t be a permanent solution for them as long as they are able to care for themselves.)  I suppose a lot of this has to do with how the children were brought up so it may not entirely be their fault that they are too dependent upon their folks.  I call these adult children the “Blue Ribbon kids” because so many received blue ribbon awards whether they earned them or not.  Neglecting to teach children to be able to stand on their own and deal with a complicated world will come back to bite parents on the rear end eventually.

Even so, God calls us to honor our parents, to not neglect them and to do what we can to help them as they age.  They won’t be here forever.  When we honor, care for, support, and love our parents, then we will be doing what is right and not have to suffer regret.