AS in the days when Jesus was on earth, his gospel of healing is continually opposed by the representatives of hereditary doctrines to which the human mind gives the authority of precedent and law. Except for some refinements and variations, these formulations of so-called law are substantially the same as the articles of belief and the erroneous precepts which the Master was compelled to meet and master. When the Pharisees disputed with him they would often magnify the importance of their ancestral codes, in the vain attempt to disprove his understanding of law and of the commandments of God. At one time both Pharisees and scribes united in demanding a reason for the neglect of the disciples of Jesus to walk after the traditions of the elders in eating their repast.
The Master quickly recognized the hypocrisy of his interlocutors and rebuked their rejection of God's commandments, which they evaded in order that they might observe their own pagan traditions. He further told them that their dissemination of these material traditions vitiated the possible effect of the Word of God. He then, as one speaking with authority, commanded his audience to hear his answer and to understand that a man is not harmed by what he may eat, but that it is evil thought alone which injures the moral character or body. He carefully explained, upon a metaphysical basis, that the conditions of mortal man depend on thoughts proceeding from "the heart" (a material sense of life or motives), and not on the effects of asserted physical laws pertaining to the washing of pots and pans, cups and brazen vessels.
Jesus often explained that the traditional codes employed by the religionists of his period for the government of men were valueless to their well-being. He never attached any importance to material symbols in religious affairs; even the watery baptism in Jordan was permitted as a concession to the practices of the period. His whole lifework was a demonstration of the worship of God, Spirit, "in spirit and in truth," and he showed its availability to human needs by healing sickness and destroying sin. Material ordinances or a perfunctory observance of the mandates of mortals, the older thought established by the traditions of men, played no part in the theology of Jesus, nor do they to-day.
