💀 Dead Traditions | Mark 7:1-8
Tuesday | October 20, 2020 |
Mark 7💀Dead Traditions | Mark 7:1-8
Pastor Shaun Frankland
"Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, 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, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 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?” 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; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” Mark 7:1-8
In your childhood did you ever ask your parent or guardian why they did something the way they did? Did they ever tell you that was how their parents showed them to do it but with no clear explanation as to why? That's tradition.
Tradition can be a dangerous spiritual disease. It can keep you married to ways of doing things that have little to do with how Jesus or the disciples did them.
It can be easy to point out the obvious traditions of other denominations that draw people away from following Jesus. It can be much harder to take a real look at our own and ask if they go back to Jesus and His way of doing things. They may instead be an invention of someone else, handed down to us from someone who thought they had a good idea but may have cut something crucial out in the process.
"And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 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)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” Mark 7:9-13
Tradition is so dangerous because it is deceptive. It can have you checking off all the boxes of what you believe is good to do in following Jesus with no idea that Jesus is calling you to something entirely different. This is why it's so important to study the Scripture yourself and not just take someone else's word for it. We can make the word of God totally ineffective (void) when we follow a religious tradition over what God was really communicating. We need to ask ourselves if we are really following Jesus in that area or if we are being more loyal to the traditions we've been taught.
Examine your life today. How can you follow Jesus wholeheartedly? Is there any traditions keeping you from doing so? If so you'd do well to break from those traditions and pursue what Jesus has for you.
