Mark 7:1-13, "Issues with Tradition" (Part 2)

Mark 7:1-13

The Pharisees and some of the Teachers of the Law (from Jerusalem) gathered around Jesus, for they saw some of Jesus' disciples eating food with unwashed hands.  See, the Pharisees and all the Jews wouldn't eat until they gave their hands a ceremonial cleaning, for it was the tradition of the elders.  They also observed many other similar traditions, such as ceremonial cleanings of cups, pitchers, and kettles.  So they asked Jesus why His disciples don't live according to the traditions of the elders, and wash their hands before eating.

Jesus replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites: 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship Me in vain; their teachigs are merely human rules.'  You've let go of God's commands, but are holding onto human traditions.  You have a fine way of putting aside God's commands in order to observe your own traditions!  (For example,) Moses said 'Honor your parents, and anyone who curses them is put to death!'  But y'all say that it's OK for people to tell their parents, 'sorry, I can't help you, for I've vowed to give to God what I could have given to you.'  You let them disregard their needy parents.  As such, they break God's Law in order to protect your own tradition.  And this is just ONE example...there are many, many more."

Jesus isn't saying that one shouldn't wash their hands before eating with them.  Heck, we all mostly wash our hands today, right?  Because our parents ingrained it into us, yes, but our reason is for better health, for in dirt you'll find germs and parasites.  The Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, however, didn't wash their hands for the reason of hygene, but for the sake of keeping with their man-made tradition.  So understand what's going on:  They weren't just asking out of curiosity, but in an accusation-sort of way. 

• 'Why don't they wash their hands first?'
• 'Why don't they follow the traditions of the elders?'

Keep in mind, that the Elders didn't do a very good job in devoting their lives to God.  If they had, then God wouldn't have had to send all those prophets, the Israelites wouldn't have lost so many battles, they surely would not have suffered as they did, their kings wouldn't have been so evil, they wouldn't have been conquered by Babylonians, and above all, they would've been the best example of God's people that the world had ever known.  But they weren't because they continued to go against God's Will and Law, and filled their practices instead with traditions, often not of their own making, either, but of the sinful nations around them.

Now, not ALL traditions are bad, but if you get too caught up in them, you risk losing sight of why you do them, and begin to turn the glory onto the traditions instead of onto God.  

Paul stated in his letter to the Romans that if you live to follow the Law, then you must follow ALL of it.  The Pharisees weren't.  Instead, they'd put tradition above it.

Sometimes, traditions are just what others did, and passed on to others, and don't have anything to do with glorifying God.  I've served in a few churches where tradition was held so strongly that many actually declared it a sin to not follow them.  For example, the format of the services, dress-code, clapping vs. not clapping, the type of bread used for communion (bread, pitas, or wafers), certain prayers, certain fundraisers and events, etc.  The problem though was that if you looked real closely at some of these traditions, you'd realize that they didn't really make any difference either way, and some actually HINDERED worship and giving full glory to God.

So Jesus wasn't throwing them an "oh yeah, well YOUR disciples..." thing, but was showing them that what they were following were traditions, not God's Law, and they were following them so strictly that when faced with God's Law, they actually break it to keep with their traditions.  This needs to be prevented and avoided.

Discussion / Reflection Questions:

1. Every culture has traditions.  What are some traditions that the world, your culture, nationality, country, etc...keeps to?  What do these traditions resemble, and how do they do so?
2. Look at some of the traditions you follow in your daily life.  How or why were they started?  What was the point of them, and if you still do them today, why?  Is the reason today the same as it was when you began it?  If not, how has it changed, or what is it now?
3. Many denominations were started by somebody.  For instance, for Lutherans it was Martin Luther, Presbyterians it was Calvin, United Methodists John Wesley, and Catholics, Constantine (or later Popes).  Who's responsible for the starting up and building of traditions in your church/denomination?  What are some of these traditions? 
4. Cleaning your hands before eating is good, for it washes away the dirt and germs that could be lurking on them.  The problem with the Pharisees' question was not only that they were keeping to traditions over God's Law, but that they were using their traditions as a means of accusing Jesus and His disciples of sin, hoping to trap them. Take a moment to pray, asking God to show you what traditions you may keep that might be hindering your worship of Him.  Also, use this moment to repent for any times that you may have held tradition above Him and His Word, and/or judged others who didn't keep to these ones that you thought were so important.