And He said to them, “You do well to set aside the commandment of God, so that you may keep your tradition.
In these words a sharp and painful rebuke is heard. The expression “Well done” here has a mocking force. They were making great efforts to keep their traditions, but in reality they were using that zeal to nullify God’s commandment. The human heart, when it is far from God, is very crafty. It can give a religious appearance to its disobedience and even pretend that it is defending something lofty, while in fact it is rejecting the will of God. The Lord exposes this self-deception. They had not strayed by accident, but had actually built a system by which they could keep their customs and at the same time avoid living obedience. This is a serious danger for all times. When a person loves his tradition more than the word of God, in the end he will inevitably begin to interpret, narrow, or bypass the divine commandment for the sake of his preference.