Mind Meld of A Different Kind

MARK 7:1-13
One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions. Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to—such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.)

So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”
Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,

‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’

For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

Age Old Tradition Are Addictive
Too bad Jesus didn’t have a little more compassion on the Pharisees. Age old traditions and the sincerely spiritual are like two powerful magnets gripping each other with a force almost impossible to break!

The Pharisee sect had been around hundreds of years by the time Jesus came on the scene – long enough to build very meaningful traditions. The Christian church has been around 2000 years – long enough for the same reality to become true of Christians. We have many meaningful traditions.

From organs and “Sunday-go-to-meeting” dress, to the use of bronze crosses and closing our eyes for prayer, traditions of all kinds have shaped our expressions of spiritual values.

Age-old traditions are not in and of themselves bad. But the way Jesus bites into the spiritual leaders of his day, suggests that traditions can be as equally dangerous to spiritual wellbeing as they can be helpful. Like them, most of us, never really stop to critically assess our traditions.

We must, though, if we are to faithfully reflect Jesus’ conflict with tradition. We must critically evaluate tradition in light of scripture. We must ask if our traditions overshadow Jesus Christ so that our culture only sees them rather than him. Without flinching, we must examine our hearts to discover if we have unwittingly compromised our love for Christ by clinging to our traditions.
The older I get, the better I understand how hard it is to keep traditions in their proper place, to replace them when they begin to get in the way of an authentic relationship with Jesus, or to modify them when they begin to hinder our ministry to society. But I cannot escape the reality that Jesus came down hardest on those for whom tradition was the most meaningful.

Perhaps organized Christianity should re-examine this aspect of Jesus’ ministry and what it means for our many traditions, especially with the growing perception that the church is so wrapped up in itself, to have become totally irrelevant.

Jesus, examine my loyalty to the traditions I find meaningful. Speak the hard truth I need to hear. - Mike Leamon

Tradition
Our desire to do something because we have always done it that way is a powerful motivating force. There is comfort and peace in knowing something is going to work out OK since it always has. Following our traditions does not require rethinking why we are doing something; we just do it because we always have.

Most traditions we engage in are harmless, but some are good. I have found that when it comes to tradition we react like a wildly swinging pendulum, either defending all our traditions as though they were sacred, or abandoning them for something new and improved without thinking. Jesus calls the Pharisees to something much deeper here.

To me the central criticism Jesus makes is that the Pharisees have not been honest with their thoughts surrounding the “why” question. The traditions have kept them from thinking about what they are doing. We in the church are no less culpable today. How often do we stop to ask why we do something and think if there might be a better way to help people experience God’s grace. Instead of being critical with the people who ask “Why” we should embrace the discussion. Thinking about what we do and why we do it is as important as doing it.

Father, help me to think about what I do and why I do it. Help me not to over-react against tradition, but also to avoid the easy way out when others challenge my traditions. - Dan Jones