Tradition Vs. Truth

Secular -

A visiting preacher was invited to speak at a small country church. At the entrance, he noticed a small offering box with a sign that read, "For the Poor." Feeling a bit generous and wanting to set a good example, the preacher reached into his wallet and dropped a five-dollar bill into the box.

He then went inside and proceeded to give a sermon that lasted nearly an hour and a half. He shouted, he sweated, and he used every bit of energy he had, but the congregation mostly just stared at him blankly.

After the service, the preacher was walking out with the church deacon. The deacon opened the offering box at the door, pulled out the single five-dollar bill, and handed it to the preacher.

"Custom dictates," the deacon said solemnly, "that the visiting preacher gets whatever is in the box."

The preacher’s young son, who had watched the whole thing, looked at the five dollars and then up at his father.

"See, Dad?" the boy whispered. "If you’d put more into it, you would’ve gotten more out of it."

Same thing goes for services, if the congregants put more into worshipping God they would get more out of it. Church is a place rejoicing in the presence of God and other believers. You should be prayed up and ready to go before you get here.

Historical/Cultural Context -

This Gospel is written by Matthew, also known as Levi who was a former tax collector. It was most likely written between AD 50-60. Matthew left everything behind to follow Jesus. Matthew wrote primarily to Jewish believers—people who knew the Old Testament well. Matthew had one goal: to prove that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, the King of Kings, and the fulfillment of God’s promises. Connecting the Old Testament prophecies to the life of Christ, proving that every word God spoke was coming true in Jesus. The key themes of the Gospel include Jesus as King, The Kingdom of Heaven, Fulfillment of Prophecy and discipleship.

Biblical Text -

Matthew 15:1–20 NKJV

Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”— then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.” So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

-[Prayer]-

Life Principle - Watch Out For Traditions, Examine Yourself & Focus On Things That Have Eternal Value.

Life Point- Don’t Let Your Traditions Override Scripture

Exegetical -

Matthew 15:1–9 BSB

Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands before they eat.” Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he need not honor his father or mother with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”

Homiletical -

So here we have another round of scribes and Pharisees coming to Jesus from Jerusalem and notice that they do not appeal to the scriptures when they come.

They appeal to the tradition of the elders.

Today a lot of churches have traditions. Traditions in and of themselves are not bad so long as they have a purpose. That purpose being to answer one very important question. Does what I am doing reach people for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If we do anything that is not building others in faith or is not reaching people for the Gospel, then we aren’t doing church right.

We should not and do not have traditions for the sake of just having traditions. The words “We’ve always done it that way” or a variation thereof should never depart our lips as a defense of why we do things in our church.

For example: Is it required that we do the singing before the sermon? No. Then why do we do that? To prepare our hearts to receive God’s Word. If we as a church decide that we would rather have the sermon first, then we take what we learn and praise God for it; then we can do that.

What does Jesus reply with, well He comes back with an appeal to scripture.

He is like OK you appeal to the elders, well I appeal higher than you. I appeal to the scriptures and show where you have sinned. They broke the command of God for the sake of their tradition.

Folks never let us get to the point in our church or our lives where we break God’s heart for the sake of our traditions.

Jesus points out an example where they were to honor father and mother with a gift but instead they gave to the temple so they didn’t have to honor their father and mother with said gift.

This is more thoroughly seen in

Mark 7:9–13 BSB

He went on to say, “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), he is no longer permitted to do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.”

Then Jesus calls them hypocrites.

You gotta remember these were the respectable ones in their society. Everyone else, metaphorically speaking if not in reality, was bowing down to them and Jesus called them out for their hypocrisy.

May God bless us that we never teach man’s traditions and precepts as official Biblical teaching. May we only seek to serve Jesus.

Illustration -

A mother prepared her family's Christmas ham by cutting off both ends before placing it in the oven. One day, her curious daughter asked why they did this. The mother replied, "Because that's how my mother always did it." They decided to ask the grandmother, who said, "Well, I did it because my pan was too small!" Sometimes, we hold onto traditions that no longer have purpose, similar to how we might overlook the clear teachings of the Scripture in favor of our practices.

Life Point - Examine Yourself Regularly

Exegetical -

Matthew 15:10–14 BSB

Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “Listen and understand. A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it.” Then the disciples came to Him and said, “Are You aware that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots. Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

Homiletical -

So Jesus after talking with the Scribes and Pharisees calls the crowd to himself in order to impart some truth on them.

The Pharisees were very concerned about their traditions, washings, and other ceremonies. This was common knowledge.

So he says to them it is not what man east that defiles him, but what comes out of the mouth of a man that defiles him.

Well, His disciples go to Him and let Him know the Pharisees took offense.

Do you think Jesus really cared that they took offense? I think He did and He didn’t. He want to shake them out of their religiosity. He wanted to get them to see that the heart, that which is on the inside of a person is what makes them clean or dirty in God’s eyes.

Luke 6:45 BSB

The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Now we know that it is because of the sacrifice of Jesus that we are clean. Because of this we should start bearing fruit. What fruit?

Galatians 5:22–26 NKJV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Now you don’t have to work up and cheer on a fruit tree. It’s going to produce fruit because that is its nature. It is in its’ nature to do so. It is natural to produce fruit.

You are going to produce some kind of fruit. Whether that is the fruit of the Spirit or the fruit of your own evil desires is what is in question.

A sinner cannot produce good fruit because they do not know Jesus. If you don’t have the Spirit of God within you, you can’t help but do sin because that is your nature.

When you are saved you are given a new nature but you still have to contend with the old nature. The sin nature. You get to choose which you will follow, which you will water and give nutrients to it. Some of us need that Miracle Grow stuff to get it going and the Spirit of God can do a miracle in your life if you let Him.

Now that went there, how does Jesus reply to the disciples? With another parable. He is talking about every plant that is not planted by the Father is pulled up by the root. He is talking about the unsaved. Specifically the Pharisees and Scribes as a whole here. That is who is in question. A harsh thing to say, but true nonetheless.

He says to forget about them and their traditions because they are the blind leading the blind. They are in spiritual darkness.

Does this mean useless traditions can lead us into spiritual darkness? Yes, because you, yes even a Christian, can get so hung up on traditions you can’t see the forest for the trees. You can miss the move of God that He wants to do in you, through you and in your church because you are too hung up on tradition.

We should be examining ourselves and our church on a regular basis to make sure that we are not caught in the trap of tradition.

Illustration -

The famous artist Rembrandt was known for his self-portraits. After each painting, he would step back and evaluate his work critically. He didn’t shy away from revealing his flaws; instead, he embraced them to improve. Our lives are much the same. Regularly ‘painting’ our lives through self-examination can help expose areas needing God's touch. Let's be artists of our faith, continuously seeking to create better reflections of Christ!

Life Point - Focus On Things That Have Eternal Value

Exegetical -

Matthew 15:15–20 NKJV

Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.” So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Homiletical -

So Peter, like me, can be a little dense and he asks for an explanation. Jesus then calls attention to Peter that he should be a little more discerning by this point in his walk with Christ and asks him don’t you get it yet? All this moral decay comes from a man’s inner being, not the physical food, but man’s heart is what is in question.

These things are what defiles someone, not to eat with unwashed hands.

The Pharisees had their minds on the wrong things. They thought they were good with God based on their physical actions, not their inner being. You see Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

He came to free us from moral decay. From evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness and blasphemies and every thing that the sinful man lusts after.

We need to get our minds off of the physicality and onto the spiritual. Don’t put your energies into things that have no eternal value.

Illustration -

Historically, the ancient Greeks placed great emphasis on athletic competitions. Olympians sought glory, celebrating fleeting victories. Yet, in contrast, Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 about running the race for an eternal prize—a crown that lasts forever. While medals can gather dust, the treasures we store in Heaven remain everlasting. So, let’s channel our energies into pursuits that echo in eternity.

Life Principle– Watch Out For Traditions, Examine Yourself & Focus On Things That Have Eternal Value.

Call to Action – altar call….