Truth over Tradition

Introduction

Tonight we are picking back up where we left off in Mark. We have been seeing amazing miracles and Jesus showing the real issue that we are dealing with. At camp we saw a lot of people, some of you included, walk from death to life. This is an amazing thing and is something to be celebrated! Whether you are just starting your Christian walk or have been on it for a while there are a few things that you need to be careful of. These things are tradition and legalism.

The religious high ups got caught up in these things and by Jesus’s time everyone was caught up in it. These issues are still just as relevant today and are just as big of an issue though it may look a bit different. Let’s read today's passage as we start.

Mark 7:1–13 ESV

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.” 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.”

The Jews of this time made rules that acted as a fence to keep them from even getting close to breaking God’s law. The only issue is that they got excessive and they started regarding it as God’s law and at times even higher than his law. I think that it can be helpful to put barriers up between yourself and sin. Maybe you struggle with drinking alcohol so you decide that you are not even going to go within a block of the liquor store, that can be a good thing that can help you. I do not struggle with this and just so happen to live within a block of the liquor store, it would not be right to make me obey your barrier as though it were law. This is what the religious authorities had done, it started off with the best intentions I believe, but then became terrible sin.

This happens far more often than I think we care to admit, we get wrapped up in how we have always done things to the point that we think that is the only possible correct way to do it. Or maybe we become more legalistic than anything and care more about our simple actions than our heart. We certainly don’t want Jesus saying of us that we honor him with our lips but our hearts are far from him.

I want us to think deeply tonight about our views of tradition and our view of the rules that God lays down for us. With the right views we can live Christ exalting lives but with the wrong ones we can do the exact opposite.

Pray

Tradition

This passage uses the word tradition six times in the ESV. When we read the Bible and see a word repeated this much we need to listen up because it holds importance. So what does this word tradition mean? A tradition is something that is handed down from generation to generation. What are some traditions that you have in your family? My favorite tradition that we do in my family is Christmas morning before we do anything else we read the story of the birth of Jesus, this is one that I started doing with Courtney and I. So we see that traditions are not always something bad, a lot of the time they are good. In this passage though they are seen in a bad light, why?

Mark 7:1–3 ESV

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,

So we see that there was the tradition of washing your hands before you ate and they did not do it, they were judged right away. We see in the next verse that this is not the only tradition like this that they have. They then proceed to ask Jesus in a condescending way why they do not do this. Jesus immediately replies by quoting Isaiah 29.13 “And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,” It is all seen in Mark 7.8 “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”” This is the sin, they disregarded God’s commands for their traditions.

Jesus then goes on to show other examples of this to show it is not some isolated issue but rather a deeply rooted one.

Today we get caught in tradition all the same, whether it be the baptist tradition or the reformed tradition or the southern tradition. We begin to do things that are not explicitly wrong but we begin to walk and talk like anybody who does something different is wrong. We get into the thought of this is how I have always done it so this is the right way mentality and we do not leave room for the thought that we might have been wrong the whole time.

The scariest thought that happens all to often is the tradition of Christianity. People saying that they are a Christian because everyone in their family has always been Christians. There is no tradition of Christianity, it is a choice for each generation. There can be a tradition of bringing your kids up in a Godly way but you can’t be a Christian because you were born into a Christian family.

If you have never personally put your faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior then you are not a Christian, you are not saved. Nobody can do it for you, it’s not a tradition that you live in. It is something that is between you and God with nobody else involved.

Never let tradition get in the way of what God is doing. Truth over tradition always.

Legalism

Because of these traditions and the way that these men held to them we can easily see that they were legalist. Legalism is dependence on moral law rather than on personal faith. They rely on upholding the law over faith for salvation. This is going away from the work of Jesus and trusting in the work of self.

This one hits close to home for me because believe it or not I get called a legalist. One of my favorite authors phrased things this way, “legalism is man-centered; discipline is God centered.” R. Kent Hughes. Things I have heard are things like reading your Bible every day is so legalistic, or why do you not like what these people are doing are you a legalist, and the like. I don’t read my Bible daily because I think it will get me to heaven or some bonus points with Jesus, I read it every day because I have been disciplined to do so because I see great value in spending time with my savior daily. I stray from sin not because I am legalistic but because the Bible tells me to. You see though these things can turn it just depends who is in the center.

Legalism can become a problem if you let yourself creep into the center but with God in the center it will look like disciplined obedience.

The Real Issue

There is only one real issue in all of this. Did you catch it in the Isaiah reference? What is the issue? their heart is far from God. When we begin to be legalistic or focusing on tradition over the truth of scripture then your heart is far from God. This is easy to do and I am sure many of you have felt this before, you are somewhere that you feel close to God and things are great then you go back to somewhere and you are not as faithful and you are not living for Jesus as much as you should. You feel yourself drifting, that is because you are getting sucked back into your old ways.

People wonder why they feel so close to God at Falls Creek then it all goes away when they return home yet they do not do the daily quiet time and skip church every week. This is the problem, you have never done a quiet time so you keep in that way. Your heart is not near God in these instances, it is far from him.

Often we see that the real issues that we deal with get back to our hearts. That is the real issue that is going on here, their hearts are far from God.

Conclusion

I don’t want you to think for a second that churches are perfect. I have heard several times here in Cordell that “this isn’t how we do things” my response is typically pointing towards the Bible. You come on Sunday and there aren’t many hands up in worship because there never has been. Many people here don’t read their Bibles every day. Many people come every week but never serve because they never have. You youth have more power than you think to influence the church. One example of this is that the highest attendance Sunday for each class started when the youth Sunday School started to grow and people were talking about it and then their classes started to follow in the same way. Imagine if you were worshiping with all you have in there and talking about your daily Bible study and actively serving. You can break the years of a tradition of staleness in some and literally change the culture in the church.

Tradition is not always bad but it can easily become that way. To the point of legalism. All of these issues really get back to the heart. When our heart is not close to God then these things are to be expected.

Maybe tonight you would say that your heart has never even been close to God. Those good times that we have talked about have never happened, this is because of a thing called sin. We all have the problem of sin and it is a big problem that we need forgiveness for. This forgiveness comes from Jesus. After we broke our perfect relationship with God he sent Jesus to make a way for forgiveness so our relationship can be restored. This was accomplished through Jesus’s death on the cross where he eventually rose from the grave. To accept this forgiveness and be brought back into right relationship with God the Bible says that you have to put your faith in Jesus and repent of your sins. It is through this that you can have your heart close to God and it is through casting aside legalism and traditions that you can keep your heart close to him and the truths of the scriptures. If you want to make this decision tonight do not hesitate to come talk to me or any other adult.

Always remember, put truth over tradition.