GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 7:10
Rules of the Road
On the day of my sixteenth birthday, my mother took me to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on Edison Avenue in Granite City, Illinois, to take my driver’s test. The test had three parts: written, visual, and driving. To prepare for the written part of the test, Mom got a small book titled “Rules of the Road,” which I read thoroughly. The book covered all the information one needed to drive on Illinois highways: traffic signs, signals, warning signs, exam requirements, information about the visual exam, and the actual driving exam. All these decades later, I don’t remember being particularly nervous, but I suspect I was. In 1958, obtaining a driver’s license was a giant milestone in a boy’s life—a kind of “rite of passage,” a transition from one stage of life to another. Well, I passed all parts of the exam, including the actual driving test. Since that time, I’ve gotten two citations for violating those Rules of the Road—one for speeding and one for turning right at a red light, which was not permitted at that intersection.
Reading about the Jewish delegation of Pharisees and scribes who came from Jerusalem to Galilee to put the new upstart preacher, Jesus, in his place reminded me of that day at the DMV examination office and the little book “Rules of the Road.” The punctilious delegates criticized Jesus for allowing his disciples to eat without undergoing the ritual of handwashing prescribed by their tradition. Jesus turned the tables on them by pointing out that they were concerned about keeping a tradition when they should have been concerned about keeping the law of God. “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother, and the one who reviles father or mother must die the death.’” I know it’s a little out of place, but it’s as if Jesus were saying, “Boys, you need to read the ‘Rules of the Road,’ the official book you should be following.”
These Jerusalem delegates surely knew the Torah, but Jesus said they were trying to superimpose their “traditions” on the official rules—the law of God. Trying to impose one’s own driving tradition in place of the “Rules of the Road” on the roads and highways will elicit an immediate reminder from an observant trooper about the need to get back to the basics—which is what Jesus pointed out to his critics. Getting back to the basics is also a good reminder for every believer.
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