Rev. Cary M. Richert

15^th Sunday after Pentecost (Series B)

September 17, 2006

Die-Hard Traditions

Mark 7:8

My sainted brother-in-law, “Uncle Mike,” loved Michigan football traditions, especially the pre-game!  The drum cadence.  The marching band strutting out from the tunnel and forming the “block M” on the field.  The baton twirlers.  The drum major, removing his hat at the north end of the field, arching backwards and touching his head to the ground.  A rousing rendition of “Hail to the Victors” … “Let’s Go Blue” … and the Alma Mater. The M-Club raising the banner.  The Wolverines running out of the tunnel, jumping like popcorn to touch the banner.  All to the cheers of 110,000 fans dressed in maize and blue.

Families have traditions.  Churches have traditions.  Traditions bring richness and meaning to life.  Tradition’s a good thing, when it’s seen for what it is.  But, when traditions become more important than the higher things in life, especially life as a child of God in His kingdom, tradition becomes a distraction … a deterrent … even a detriment.  Remember father Tevye, in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” as he turned his back on his daughter, who’d married outside the Jewish faith?  He refused to bless his daughter.  He kicked her out of the house.  He declared her as dead to him. Her name was never again to be spoken in his home.  Tradition trumped love.  A father and a daughter were forever separated.

          Today’s text is about valuing man-made religious traditions over God’s higher principle and commandment of love.  A delegation of fact-finding Jewish religious leaders from Jerusalem were investigating Jesus’ activities in Galilee.  They observed that some of Jesus’ disciples were eating with unwashed – and therefore, ceremonially unclean – hands.  As indicated by the Gospel writer, Mark:  the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders,  and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, [7:3-4a].

          This washing wasn’t the simple, healthy “get the dirt and germs off your hands before you put food in your mouth” washing.  It was a ceremonial washing, indicated in the Greek text by the word commonly translated “to baptize.”  A man-made ceremonial washing that was a hedge against any defilement a person might’ve encountered without knowing it.

Of course, Jesus wasn’t advocating eating with dirty hands.  He was pointing out, especially to the religious leaders, that their man-made religious traditions had taken the place of God’s own commands, especially His command to love.  That their outward appearances had become more important than the inward washing and cleansing of their hearts.  Jesus pulled no punches in rebuking them:  You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! [7:9]

Their religiosity … their zealous commitment to man-made traditions … had become more important to them than their religion.  Their outward appearances trumped inner faith and love.  Their earthly reputations outweighed the importance of their names being written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  It was such a sad state that, as Jesus went on to point out, they even made up religious excuses for not helping their elderly parents! That’s what happens when sinful mankind seeks to create a system of belief and practice based on religiosity, which is really works-righteousness in disguise.

In today’s Old Testament Reading Moses spoke God’s own warning about the temptation to set aside His Word and His holy commands in order to create our own system of belief:  Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you, [Deuteronomy 4:2].

God’s holy Word is completely sufficient for our lives as His people.  We dare not add anything to it.  Nor are we entitled to remove anything from it.  How brash are those who, in the sinfulness of their thinking,  suppose they can determine what Jesus said and didn’t say.  How presumptuous Thomas Jefferson was to compile his own version of the Gospels by removing anything from them that even hinted at the miraculous!  Tinkering with God’s Word and His commands is simply an act of sinful pride and arrogance.

You hypocrites, Jesus called the self-righteous Pharisees, [7:6].  The Greek word translated hypocrite literally means “one who makes judgment from under a cover.”  The Pharisees pretended to be holy and close to God and, under the cover of their pretension, judged others to be sinners.  It’s sad that, what the religious leaders pretended on the outside wasn’t true of them on the inside.  While they may have been well-intentioned in their observance of the Jewish traditions, and in their attempts to honor God, Jesus attacked their hearts.  Lip-worship doesn’t guarantee heart-worship!

The destructiveness of the Pharisees’ die-hard, man-made religious traditions was that, they promoted salvation by good works.  They misled people into thinking they could earn their way into God’s graces by observing the “traditions of men.”  Any religious tradition that would lead people to trust in their own good works for God’s forgiveness and salvation … is a tradition that should die quickly!  For the Scripture teaches us:  by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. [Ephesians 2:8-10]

Faith alone in Jesus Christ as Savior is the only way of salvation.  Anyone who’d suggest otherwise and insist on some form of works-righteousness … no matter how religious, no matter how generous, no matter how helpful the good works may seem … is claiming a different Gospel, [Galatians 1:6-7].  There’s simply no room for the hypocrisy of works-righteousness in God’s plan of salvation!

While our Lord truly wants for us to live a life of good works done in His Name and to His glory … we mustn’t be deceived by the devil into thinking that our good works somehow contribute to our salvation.  The good works our Lord would have us do are revealed in His Word … not in the die-hard traditions of men.  Works pleasing to the Lord are summarized in one word: LOVE.  Love was the thing lacking in the ancient Pharisees, who held on tightly to their die-hard, legalistic religious traditions.  It need not be lacking in us, for, as Jesus teaches:  If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him, [John 14:23].

True love of God rooted Jesus … that’s what moves His people to live above die-hard, man-made traditions and to live in faithful obedience to our Lord’s holy commands.  May our Lord fill you with that kind of love and faith.  For Jesus’ sake.  Amen.