Tradition... TRADITION! Mark 7:1-13

Tradition… Tradition!

Mark 7:1-13

Introduction: In “Fiddler on the Roof” Tevye says,

“A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous? We stay because Anatevka is our home... And how do we keep our balance? 

That I can tell you in one word... Tradition." Chorus: “Tradition…!”

(Tevye continues…)

“Because of our traditions, we've kept our balance for many, many years. 

Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything... how to eat, how to sleep, even, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl... This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, how did this tradition start? I'll tell you - I don't know. But it's a tradition... Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do."

What does God expect us to do? Do we approach Him on the basis of traditions developed by humans, or on the basis of the Truth revealed by God himself?  Do we allow our traditions to come in alongside of Scripture, or even to rise above it as our authority? This was a problem in Jesus’ day, and it can be a problem today. We like tradition. It makes us comfortable to do what we’ve always done. We know what to expect. And we know what is expected of us. There is no problem with that, as long as our traditions don’t conflict with God’s word, and as long as we don’t require others to obey our traditions if they are not specifically taught in the Bible. Our preferences and our practices should always be examined against the absolute truth of the Scriptures. Humans like to have a way to measure their acceptability to God, something they can manage and measure.

The Maine* Idea: The Gospel focuses on faith in Christ and trusting in His grace, not man’s traditions. Let’s stay “Gospel focused”!

I. The Hubris of man: Foolishly exalting tradition as our spiritual authority (7:1-5).

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, ² they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.  ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, ⁴ and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)  ⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" 

       What’s the problem with washing hands? We just came back from visiting our grandchildren (and daughter and son-in-law!). The kids occasionally need to be reminded to wash their hands (even that can be an adventure with the three-year-old!).  “Again grandpa? Why?” I remember one nephew when he was small, after a hard day of playing, being told by his mom that it was bath time. He replied, “I just took a bath yesterday, this is getting ridiculous!” Hygiene is a good thing, right? I remember once many years ago we took the same nephew when he was little to some kind of outdoor event. He went in and used the porta-potty and came out, and took Mary Ann’s hand as we walked. He then proudly announced, “There was nowhere to wash my hands, so I spit on them and rubbed them together!” Oh well! The issue wasn’t cleanliness with the Pharisees and the scribes. They practiced a “ritual” of handwashing that, according to their tradition, rendered their hands ceremonially “clean.” Ray Stedman explains…

…scholars tell us that it was the rigid custom among the Jews to wash in this way: The hands had to be held out, palms up, hands cupped slightly, and water poured over them. Then the fist of one hand was used to scrub the other, and then the other fist would scrub the first hand. This is why the fist is mentioned here [v.3]. Finally the hands again were held out, with palms down, and water was poured over them a second time to cleanse away the dirty water the defiled hands had been scrubbed with. Only then would a person’s hands be ceremonially clean.

It was the outward ceremony, the ritual, that was viewed as indispensable for pious Jews. One rabbi even determined the amount of water to be used: one and a half egg shells!  This didn’t come from Scripture, it was rabbinic tradition that was viewed as inviolable. The tension between God’s revealed truth and human tradition was at the heart of the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees particularly. Jesus came to reveal the way of Grace and to be Himself the propitiation for the sins of all who would believe. The Pharisees had embraced a religion of works, essentially believing they could follow the rules that had developed.

       Notice that Mark tells us that some of the opposition that aligned itself against Jesus and His disciples had come from Jerusalem (v.1). We are being reminded that it is the religious leaders, represented by the geographical center of Judaism that was opposing Jesus. The opposition came from Jerusalem and it would eventually be in Jerusalem that Jesus would be handed over to the Romans to be crucified. (Mark is always telling his story of Jesus with an eye toward the Cross of Calvary). In the centuries between the last of the prophets and the time of Christ the rabbinic tradition had continually expanded. The rabbis were essentially “building a hedge” around the Law to make keeping the Law attainable. Their intentions may have been good, as one writer said,

“…The Jewish traditions did not arise out of a desire to inflict spiritual harm on people, but out of a desire help them not break the law of God. Yet, they came to view their traditions as on par with Scripture, and that led to spiritual disaster…”

God gave us the Law as a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. The Law was intended to expose our weakness and to show our desperate need for the grace of God. The multiplication of man-made “rules” gave a false assurance that outward obedience to these traditions could make us right with God. On the contrary, God says that by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. Why? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, because there is none righteous, no, not one (Rom 3:23; 3:10).  By the way, the fact that Mark takes the time to explain the practice and traditions of the “elders” is one indication that Mark is writing to a primarily Gentile audience, or at least one that has far removed from the Jewish practices of Jesus’ day. The church in Rome, with a mixed, but primarily gentile community would be a good fit. So is Boothbay, Maine by the way! Mark speaks to us.  The Gospel focuses on faith in Christ and trusting in His grace, not man’s traditions. Let’s stay “Gospel focused”!

II. The Hypocrisy of “[false] religion”: God predicted that human tradition would supplant the Word of God in the hearts of many (7:6-8).

⁶ And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;  ⁷ in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’  ⁸ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 

        The exchange here between Jesus and these religious leaders is fascinating. The Pharisees are focused on the failure of Jesus’ disciples to adhere to certain rituals that had become viewed as outward expressions of their religion. They were not saying the disciples had violated the Law of God, but that they failed to keep the traditions of the fathers.  Rigorous obedience to these rules marked the Pharisees. Most of the people viewed them as pious and holy men. Jesus calls them hypocrites… actors wearing a mask, playing a part.

      God is concerned with our heart, more than our words or our appearance.  Elizabeth Elliot reported the following conversation between two men…

A young man asked, “I am in earnest about forsaking ‘the world’ and following Christ. But I am puzzled about worldly things. What is it I must forsake?” The answer, “Colored clothes, for one thing. Get rid of everything in your wardrobe that is not white. Stop sleeping on a soft pillow. Sell your musical instruments and don’t eat any more white bread. You cannot, if you are sincere about obeying Christ, take warm baths or shave your beard. To shave is to lie against Him who created us, to attempt to improve on His Work.”

Elizabeth Elliot then commented…

“Does this answer sound absurd? It is the answer given in the most celebrated Christian schools of the second century! Is it possible that the rules that have been adopted by many twentieth-century Christians will sound as absurd to earnest followers of Christ a few years hence?” (The Liberty of Obedience, Nashville, Abingdon, 1968, pp. 45-46).

      The point: Human traditions are not doctrine! The Pharisees and scribes no doubt felt their expectations were reasonable. Every Jew knew that the ritual washing before eating was to be done, and done in the right way.  It seems the question of why it was done this way, or where the “rule” had come from, was irrelevant. Remember the story of lady preparing a roast for a family gathering…

A little girl noticed that every time her mother cooked a roast she chopped a piece off the end of the roast before putting it in the oven.  Intrigued, she asked her mother why she did this.

     “Well to be honest, I do it because that’s the way my mother always does it” came the reply. “I’m sure she must have some good reason for it.”

At the next family gathering, the child decided to satisfy her curiosity.     

     “Grandma, why do you always chop the end off the roast before cooking it?”

      “Well to be honest, I do it because that’s the way my mother always does it” came the reply. “I’m sure she must have some good reason for it.”

     A week or so later the little girl was visiting her 90-year-old great grandmother. She explained that mummy and grandma always chop the end off the roast before cooking it, but couldn’t remember why. Did she know?

     Great-grandma answered, “Imagine the two of them doing that! Why, I only cut the piece off because my pan was too small!”

       Why do we hold to our traditions so tightly? It’s what we’ve always done, even if we forget where they came from! Remember the Fiddler on the Roof, “…how did this tradition start? I'll tell you - I don't know. But it's a tradition…”! Listen, tradition is not in itself bad, but too often we allow religious “tradition” to come in and to be established alongside God’s revelation. If we start to view it as “law,” that is as the necessary way to live the Christian life and come to God we are supplanting the Word with tradition and undercutting the Gospel. We are told in the Bible, for example, to celebrate the Lord’s table. it is an ordinance Christ gave to the church until Jesus returns. That is God’s Word. Does the Bible say it must always be on a first Sunday? Or once a month? That is part of our tradition. We are flexible with that, but for some churches it can be viewed as “law.”  For many churches it would be unthinkable to meet at something other than 11 AM. “We’ve always done it that way!” Or reading from a different English language version would cause controversy, “If the King James version was good enough for Jesus it is good enough for me!” You get the idea? It’s not about what we’ve always done. Traditions are not necessarily good or bad. Do our traditions conflict with the Word of God? Do they rise in our thinking to the level of Scripture? That is what happened with the Pharisees. The Gospel focuses on faith in Christ and trusting in His grace, not in human traditions. Let’s stay “Gospel focused”!

III. The Heart of God: His will is revealed in Scripture, while human desires may be shrouded in tradition (7:9-13).

⁹ And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!  ¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’  ¹¹ But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban' (that is, given to God)-  ¹² then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,  ¹³ thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do."

       Jesus uses an example to show the problem with elevating tradition to a level equal to or above Scripture. It is a well-established biblical principle that God’s people (then and now) are to honor their parents. Being sure that an elderly parent is cared for and that their needs are met is something that we should all embrace. It is really not the responsibility of the government to take care of our parents, it is our responsibility. The rabbis had developed a practice of allowing people to declare some property “Corban,” that is, dedicated to God. It remained under their control, they could derive income from it and live off of it as long as they lived, but on their death it would go to the Temple treasury.  This became an acceptable excuse for not taking care of parents: “Sorry, I can’t help, all my property is in this irrevocable charitable trust.” Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for this: “You have a clever way of getting around God’s Law!”

       Remember Jesus in the sermon on the mount repeatedly looking behind the letter of the Law to its heart, “You have heard it said… but I say to you…” He says adultery is sin, of course, but what is going on in your mind, in your heart? You say “Murder, I would never!” Really? Are you angry with your brother? You get the idea. We all desperately need the grace of God. Trusting in Jesus and His finished work is our only hope of being justified before Him. That is the Gospel!

What is God saying to me in this passage? The Gospel focuses on faith in Christ and trusting in His grace, not human traditions. Let’s stay “Gospel focused”!

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Are there any situations where our traditions have assumed a place of such authority in our thinking that we inadvertently blur the lines between “what we have always done” and Scripture…? First of all, don’t misunderstand, traditions aren’t necessarily bad, they can in fact be helpful. But we always need to be careful to discern the difference between our traditions and the Bible. We must not make our traditions, the things we do that are not scriptural, as our supposed measure of spirituality.  We certainly shouldn’t circumvent the clear teaching of the Bible with our man-made rules.  We might not all wear only white. Some of us might shave our beards. You might prefer white bread… or even a different style of music than I do. Let’s not judge each other on our preferences. What does the Bible say? Jesus summed it up: Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. That is the kind of “religion” that will be attractive to our neighbors. And then we can be ready, always, with gentleness and respect, to give a reason for the hope that is in us!  AMEN.