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BUDGETS REVEAL PRIORITIES But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition (Matt. 15:3-6).
The theocentric principle here is that God is honored more by obeying His law than by obeying man's law. Tradition must be rejected when it is found to be in opposition to God's Bible-revealed law.
First Things First The commandment to honor parents takes precedence over gifts to the temple. This point is made even clearer in Mark's account: "But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free" (Mark 7:11). Corban was a gift to the temple. When Judas returned the thirty pieces of silver, "the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury [corban], because it is the price of blood" (Matt. 27:6).
The Pharisees' personal pattern of expenditure reflected their commitment to a particular view of law. Jesus warned them that their budgets were in error. Their budgets revealed that the law to which they were committed was not God's moral law, as revealed by the commandment to honor parents.
Undermining Authority The Pharisees had criticized Jesus' disciples in an attempt to undermine His authority. If He allowed them to get away with something, this meant that He approved of their actions. It was safer for His critics to attack His subordinates than to attack Him directly. Yet it was clear who the target was: Jesus.
Jesus took a more direct approach. He undermined their authority by attacking their hypocrisy. When it came to their pocketbooks, they placed second things first. They placed their public reputation above their familial responsibility. They gave to the temple, not to their parents. They were trying to be holier than God's law.
The Pharisees had constructed an elaborate system of law around the Mosaic law. They built legal "hedges" around the law. To keep people from violating the law, they added extra laws that supposedly would make the violation of a Mosaic law more difficult. This system was a failure, Jesus warned. It made hypocrites of those who enforced it. They became more concerned about the hedges than about the core ethical principles of the Mosaic law.
But then He went beyond this first-stage criticism of the hedge system. He rejected a distinguishing principle of the Mosaic law: the law of defiled food. He announced that this law had been a temporary principle of holiness. To this extent, it had been a hedge. It had segregated Old Covenant Israel from the nations. But that separation was about to end. The gentiles were about to be called into the church, and the kingdom transferred to the church (Matt. 21:43). Jesus here announced a moral principle that undermined the judicial authority of the Mosaic food laws. It therefore undermined the Mosaic law's separation of Jew and gentile. This is what God told Peter in Acts 10, just before the arrival of Cornelius, a gentile.
The Economics of Obedience Jesus was not here undermining the Ten Commandments. On the contrary, He appealed to the commandment to honor parents as having superior authority to gifts to the temple. Jesus used an example with economic implications as His means of undermining the Pharisees' authority. They had criticized the disciples' ritual negligence; He criticized them for elevating supplemental gifts to the temple over debts owed to parents. Jesus was saying that how people spend their money reveals more about their loyalties than the issues of religious ritual.
Money is the most marketable commodity. It can buy more things than any other commodity can. So, a budget reveals the budget-maker's priorities. He can use money to buy many things. By seeing what he buys, we can see what he regards as most important. The Pharisees' budget revealed that they regarded their acceptance at the temple as more important than support of their parents. Jesus had warned His listeners:
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly (Matt. 6:1-6).
In private, His critics refused to support their parents. In public, they gave gifts to the temple. It was clear where their priorities were: the praises of men. "Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:42-43). Paul later warned against this: "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God" (Rom. 2:28-29).
There was no doubt that Jesus was publicly undermining the Pharisees' authority. "Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch" (Matt. 15:12-14). He was warning His listeners not to follow the Pharisees. If they did, they would wind up in the ditch. They would wind up being rooted up by God. This prophecy was fulfilled in A.D. 70.(1)
Conclusion The budget is a revealing document. It is normally kept very private. People rarely discuss their pattern of expenditures with others. To see a man's budget is to invade his privacy. But God sees each man's lifetime budget. He knows where men's priorities are. He can determine from the budget whether a man seeks God's praise or other men's.
The budget that God requires of each man must reflect God's priorities for him. God's law must be reflected in their pattern of expenditures. This begins with a tithe paid to the local church.(2) This expenditure, more than any other, is to be the mark the covenant-keeper. The budgetary pattern of obedience extends to the support of aged parents. It also extends to the poor. God's presence among men and authority over men is to be reflected by His people's pattern of expenditures.
Footnotes:
1. David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Ft. Worth, Texas: Dominion Press, 1987).
2. Gary North, Tithing and the Church (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1994).
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