Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” (Matthew 15:12-14)

Too Many Plants

The teachings of Jesus were radical to the minds of the Jewish leadership. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees were constant thorns in His work as they challenged His authority and tried to dissuade the people from following Him. For centuries, the Jewish elite had crafted a model of traditions that became the foundation of Jewish teaching when Jesus entered the scene. The sermon on the mountain was a divine thesis against the teachings of the Jews passed down from generation to generation. When the scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus complaining that His disciples did not follow the tradition of the elders and ate bread with unwashed hands, the Son of God rebuked them severely for their hypocrisy.

It was clear Jesus was directing His teaching toward the traditions of the elders that had been placed above the law of God. Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that their teachings conflicted with the commandments of God. He calls them hypocrites because they honored the Lord with their lips, but their hearts were embedded in their traditions. They did not follow the will of the Father. Their worship was in vain and became a useless exercise, teaching the commandments of men above the commandments of God. Jesus was very plain and direct in His response to the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders.

When the disciples of Jesus heard His burning rebuke of the Jewish nobles and leaders of the people, they were concerned that the Lord had offended them. Jesus took no quarter with such religious fervor rooted in the carnal trappings of human wisdom. The scribes and Pharisees had created a religion within the teachings of the Law of Moses that was never sanctioned by God. Jesus reminded His disciples that there was only one truth. God has never approved of human wisdom establishing divine authority. The word of God is settled in Heaven by the authority and teachings of the Father. Anything outside of that is apostasy and false teaching.

What the scribes and Pharisees had done was to plant another religion in the minds of the people. Jesus rejected this by showing there is only one vineyard of the Lord, planted by the authority of the Holy Spirit. If the Father did not establish truth, there is no truth. Every teaching that is not established in the word of God will be rooted up. When men teach doctrines contrary to the will of the Father, they are blind leaders guiding the blind to destruction. The defilement of apostasy can look like the truth, but it is not the truth. A plant can look like a good plant and be a poisonous plant. Jesus was bold in teaching that anything that conflicts with the word of God will be pulled up by its roots. There will be nothing left.

The religious world would do well to heed the words of Jesus. There are many churches in the world today claiming to be the body of Christ. Like the scribes and Pharisees, they have established the commandments of men above the commandments of God. They follow traditions more than scripture, and they draw near with their mouths and honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far from the truth, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. They are false plants that will be rooted up. The world has too many plants that look similar to the real body of Christ – but they are not. They are blind leaders leading blind followers who will find the wrath of God against them because they are not the true “plant” of the Lord. If God did not plant the church you are a member of, that church will perish because you are in an apostate church. Seek the one church that Jesus died for. There is one church, which is the body of Christ.