Albert Einstein said, "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." Ain't that the truth?

How often have we quit listening because we think we already know the right answers and the correct way of doing things? Instead of listening and learning we find ourselves talking, teaching, and tyrannizing.

Jesus said it this way, "For the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. " (see Matthew 15:2-6) He was running into folks who had strong beliefs, traditions if you will, which had been passed down from their fathers or elders. The conflict got so bad that they actually ended up killing Jesus in order to protect their traditions.

It all depends on how we look at things. Remember when glasses were called

spectacles? And if you go to watch a sporting event you are a spectator!

If you jump up on a table at a party and begin singing and dancing you might make a spectacular spectacle of yourself as there would be much circumspectful inspection and many perspectives about what you are doing.

Rather than continue this speculation let me get to the point. Did you notice all the words with the root word "spect" or "spec" inside of them? It is thought to be a 5,500 year old word "spek" that migrated to us through the Latin language and means, "to observe."

The Latin prefix "re" means "again" or "back to the original place." If we place a "re" the front of our root word "spect" we finally get some respect! Thus a respectful person is one who "looks again" or "looks back to the original place."

So when Jesus said, "For the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God" he was being respectful! He was looking back to the original place, the "word of God," rather than getting trapped in the more recent "tradition" of man.

Perhaps then we could say that for him to have done otherwise would have been disrespectful---not of people, but of God. Nevertheless, those who were locked into their tradition or education repeatedly thought Jesus to be highly disrespectful.

Their traditions are so deeply rooted that they considered any move beyond or behind them to be a sin. Do you think this still happens today?

The Bible says that when we turn "to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Corinthians 3:16-18, NLT) The Spirit of the Lord gives us new perspectives of respect for the glory of his new life!