GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 7:12
Sorry, Mom
A minister told the story of a young woman who became a committed follower of a TV preacher. She attended some of his meetings, occasionally traveling long distances with the attendant expenses. She heard the preacher promise a “hundredfold blessing” for “sowing” a financial seed into his ministry. Her parents, in their 80s, were struggling with medical expenses and care. She pulled together as much money as she could and sent it to the ministry, convinced that the offering would please God more than helping her parents would.
According to another minister, a young couple became heavily involved in youth ministry. They attended every youth camp, conference, and event. A storm in the area heavily damaged the husband’s parents’ home, so the father began making the repairs, needing all the help he could find. At the same time, there was a youth camp. The couple said they could not help because hey believed God needed their time and resources at the youth camp.
Another story involves an elderly mother who lived on a fixed income and couldn’t afford her medication. Her son, who had substantial means, was committed to his church. When the church decided to build a new sanctuary, he donated a large sum to the building project, telling his mother, “This is my gift to the Lord.”
When an official delegation of Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem made the approximately one-hundred-mile trip from Jerusalem to Galilee, they wanted to discredit the new preacher. When they saw his disciples eat without ceremonially washing their hands, they criticized him before the crowd for allowing such a violation of tradition. Jesus, however, pointed out the fallacy of their own tradition of “Corban”—dedicating their possessions to God so that “No longer do you permit him to do anything for his father or mother.” (Mark 7:12)
Jesus’ message to the piously correct critics was that commitment to tradition—using Corban, sowing financial “seed,” committing time to God’s service, making large financial gifts, or the like—must never transcend the law of God.
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