Every plant not planted by my Father shall be rooted Up- Matthew 15

Jesus was very quick to reprimand the Pharisees, those who knew the scriptures and law so well but often misinterpreted and misapplied it. When they asked Jesus why his disciples didn't follow the tradition to wash hands before eating, Jesus replied, "why don't you follow the commandments of God because of your tradition?" This certainly didn't please them, but he pointedly explained how their traditions kept them from God rather than bringing them to God.

Jesus was very willing to correct those who wrongly judged, particularly those passing what they thought was "righteous judgement". That definitely created some enemies, but that was acceptable rather than letting clear truths continue to be trampled/ignored.

May we always be willing to express the truth when needed. Here's the verses explaining the encounter with the Pharisees:

3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your ^atradition?

4 For God commanded, saying, ^aHonour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, ^blet him die the death.

5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It isa ^agift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;

6 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.

7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their ^amouth, and^bhonoureth me with their lips; but their ^cheart is far from me.

9 But in vain they do ^aworship me, teaching for ^bdoctrines the^ccommandments of men.

10 ¶And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:

11 Not that which goeth into the mouth ^adefileth a man; but that which cometh out of the ^bmouth, this defileth a man.

12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?

13 But he answered and said, Every ^aplant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

Showing Love at All Times - Matthew 14

Jesus greatly cared for his cousin, John the Baptist. When John was killed by Herod, it affected Jesus and he went away into the mountains. However, despite his pain, Jesus still helped the people (Matthew 14):

13 ¶When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.

14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with ^acompassion toward them, and he healed their ^bsick.

I find this to be a remarkable example of his love, despite his pain. Another example is certainly his healing of the servant's ear that Peter cut off just after Jesus' suffering in Gethsemane, and Jesus' concern for the Roman soldiers nailing him to the cross. What Jesus was going through did not affect how he acted towards others. He was always compassionate. In fact, it seems that when Jesus was suffering, it only made him more aware of the pain others felt when they were suffering. He appears to be even more compassionate when He is in pain or sorrowing.

He Healed them All

Matthew constantly tells how many people Jesus healed. I can think of two reasons for this although there's definitely others as well:

1) He's helping us understand the role of the Savior to heal all people of all things both in his life on earth and after it.

2) He's showing that all who come unto Him will be healed, while at the same time those who do not come unto Him do not receive those blessings.

Look at all these verses mentioning healing multitudes of people, all from only Matthew:

• Matthew 4:23

  23 ¶And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

  Matthew 4:24

  24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

  Matthew 8:16

  16 ¶When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, andhealed all that were sick:

  • Matthew 9:35

    35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healingevery sickness and every disease among the people.

    Matthew 12:15

    15 But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all;

    
    

    Matthew 13:15

    15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

    Matthew 14:14

    14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

    Matthew 15:30

    30 And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them:

    Matthew 19:2

    2 And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.

    Matthew 21:14

    14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

    Note Matthew 13 - those who do not come to him are unable to see and understand and be healed. May we always come to Him, every day.

Purpose of Life - to understand God's role and become little children again

My friend and I were talking about how being a kid means you don't have any worries or responsibility and that all of our responsibility is what wears on us many times. I agreed with this whole-heartedly.

An interesting question though is why? Why do kids have such an easy life? Will we have an easy life at some point like they do? In the post-mortal world, I believe our lives will be very similar to our kids' lives now, although we will still have responsibilities.

Consider this verse about the spirit world in Alma 40:

12And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of ^ahappiness, which is called^bparadise, a state of rest, a state of ^cpeace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.

Now we also know that when we die there is a lot of work for us to still do. When Jesus died, he went and organized his missionary work in the spirit world so that missionaries (members of the church when they were alive) could teach the gospel to those who did not accept it while alive. See D.C. 138 and also Pres. Eyring's talk in April 2005. So, we're still going to have responsibility and work after we die. So why will it be a state of rest and peace?

I think it's because we'll be much closer to heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Just like my kids are not worried about things in part because they don't know any better but in part because they have an implicit trust in their parents, when we are closer to God and Jesus Christ and know all the things they are doing to help us and take care of us, we will no longer worry about things like we do. In that way, once we see our parents again, we will become like little children. Interestingly, this life seems to be a time where God gives us the opportunity to be as much like him as we can: we have responsibility, it's hard for us to see exactly how involved he is, etc. Then, if we pass this life well, we'll get to go back to him, but this time having a great respect for all he does since we've tried doing it ourselves. This will likely make us act like little children again in the sense that we are very trusting in our heavenly Father (and Jesus) and his ability to take care of things. The difference between our acting as children in the pre-mortal vs. the post-mortal life is that in the post-mortal life we'll have a much greater understanding of how hard a job heavenly Father has after we have tried to be autonomous in this life. He's given us a perfect environment to learn to be like him and also to come to respect him.

In this context, consider the following verses from Matthew 11:

28¶^aCome unto me, all ye that ^blabour and are heavy laden, and I will give you ^crest.

29Take my ^ayoke upon you, and ^blearn of me; for I am ^cmeek and^dlowly in ^eheart: and ye shall find ^frest unto your souls.

It is clear that when we try to come under the watchful care of Jesus in this life, he will also comfort and sustain us. It's not that our pressures and responsibilities will go away; instead, it will be that we completely trust that Jesus will take care of us. We will still have work to do in the post-mortal life, but we'll trust that heavenly Father and Jesus will always be there to take care of things and make sure all will turn out well in the end. We will once again become like little children.

Have a great day.