Traditions

Traditions…an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (such as a religious practice or a social custom (Merriam-Websters dictionary)

Do we have traditions today? Yes, of course we do. Are traditions bad? No, traditions can be a wonderful part of our cultural and family heritage. Can traditions be bad? Yes! Traditions can be a deadly trap if those traditions come into conflict with the truth. Let me give you an example of this deadly trap of traditions.

Mark 7:1-5 (NLT)

One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. 2 They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. 3 (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions. 4 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.) 5 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.”

Is hand washing a bad thing? No, your mother tried to teach you the tradition of hand washing when you were a child. But what happens when a tradition comes into direct conflict with the truth? Do we let go of the tradition or let go of the truth?

Jesus is going to use this opportunity to teach a valuable lesson to all of us about religious and cultural traditions. Are religious traditions a bad thing? No, religious traditions in themselves are not a bad thing, unless they come into conflict with the truth. In this scene the tradition of hand washing has come into direct conflict with the Truth. Jesus is that Truth and their traditions are preventing them from seeing Him.

Mark 7:6-8 (NLT)

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. 7 Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ 8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

Jesus scolded the religious leaders because they had allowed their Jewish traditions to replace the truth of God’s Word, the Law. Traditions had become a trap for the Jews and traditions can also be a trap for the church today.

I attended a church years ago that fought a similar battle of tradition. That church had an attendance and offering board hanging on the wall in the front of the worship center. That board must have hung there since the time of Moses (lol). The men of the church would count the people and the offering during the service and post them on the board during the service. This was their tradition.

The time came when someone suggested that the attendance and offering posting during the preaching time was a distraction. The men decided to move that attendance and offering board to the lobby and post the numbers there so people could see them as they leave the service.

Do you know there were people that left the church because of that decision, the breaking of that tradition? Does that sound crazy or what? This is where each of us should be careful. We all have sacred traditions in our minds. Those traditions can be wonderful as long as they don’t compete with truth or with unity in the church.

Traditions can also be a way of saying, “This is how we have always done it and this is the only way I will accept it to be done.” Some people will die on the hill of tradition but take no thought to surrender that same hill of Truth. Traditions can have a tendency to blind people to the Truth. This is the deadly trap. And this is the Isaiah Scripture (below) that Jesus was quoting that day. I suggest that you read and meditate on it carefully.

Isaiah 29:11-16 (NLT)

All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.” 12 When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.” 13 And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.

14 Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites with amazing wonders. The wisdom of the wise will pass away, and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.” 15 What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their evil deeds in the dark! “The LORD can’t see us,” they say. “He doesn’t know what’s going on!” 16 How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The potter who made me is stupid”?

Man made ideas and traditions can never replace the Truth. Jesus is the Truth, and the traditions of man can sometimes keep us from seeing HIM and

knowing HIM.

Maranatha, Hosanna, Hallelujah and Amen,

Terry Cooper