Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Greetings…

Theme for this year on Sunday mornings has been “The Life of Christ.”

Hoping to help us draw closer to our God through knowing our Savior here on earth all the better.

Last week we discussed the “Storms of Life” we go through.

That Jesus sent his disciples into a storm and God will send us into storms as well.

However, he will be there also, to help us through them and guide us into a more mature faith.

Today, we are going to pick up where we left off, on Jesus calming the storm and walking on the water.

Jesus and the disciples made it to the other side.

Now, at this time Jesus’ service or ministry was all about helping and loving his creation while trying to get them to see the importance of God’s actual word which we see in Mark 6:53-56 as Jesus & his disciples get out of the boat.

This is a beautiful picture of this phase of Jesus’ ministry.

He was “helping” his hurt people, to the point that “as many as touched his garment were made well or whole.”

This brings us to our first point…

Tradition & God

Tradition Of Washing.

Now before we get into our text I want us to consider the stark contrast between Jesus and the Jewish leadership that was brewing.

Over the centuries the Jewish leadership had been developing what they would eventually call the Mishna, which was a commentary on the Mosaic Law.

They had become so enamored with it, that this “book of traditions” had become more important than God’s actual word.

Even today, the Mishna is considered “superior” to God’s word because it “explains it.”

Let’s read now Mark 7:1-4.

This paragraph demonstrates the power and effect traditions hold on people.

Obviously, by now, the Pharisees and scribes were seeking every opportunity to “make Jesus look bad” with the hopes of discrediting him.

They come from Jerusalem and find Jesus and his disciples and they have their “ah ha” moment.

The tradition these men sought to capitalize on against Jesus was the, as our text says it, “washing hands properly.”

This was not about hygiene, this was about rigid customs or traditions handed down from generation to generation.

The tradition was to hold their hands with palms up, tipped slightly downward.

As water was being poured over one hand, the fist of the other hand was used to scrub the palm of the other hand, then in reverse.

The tradition then had the hands turn over with palms down, with fingers pointed slightly downward.

Fresh water was then poured over the hands to remove the “defiled water” left from scrubbing.

If this tradition was not done the person was considered “unclean” and needed to perform the proper sacrifices to make them clean again.

Now this was so strongly rooted into Jews that we have on record a Jewish rabbi who was imprisoned and he almost died due to this tradition.

The cup of water that was brought to him to drink with meals, he would use to “wash” first leaving little left to drink, and he almost died of thirst.

Now, there is little doubt, like most religions but false traditions, that these started out innocent in nature.

There are several Jewish laws concerning washings that were to be performed in order to teach people how to handle sin, which was the Old Law’s intent.

Unfortunately, the Jewish priest started making suggestions about the “proper way” to physically do these washings and one interpretation led to another until it became considered “fact” or “law” so to speak.

As we can see in this text it even mentions these strict laws on washing dinner ware or coming home from the market.

To the Pharisees and other Jewish leadership these traditions were the absolute essence of religion.

To observe them was to please God, to violate them was to sin.

This is leads us to…

Jesus’ Rebuke.

Let’s read now Jesus’ response to these men’s accusations.

As we can clearly see, as one brother put it, “Jesus and these men spoke two different languages.”

In this powerful rebuke Jesus is actually leveling two specific sins.

First, they were guilty of hypocrisy as he pointed out Isaiah’s prophecy concerning them, “They honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

Many of the Jewish leadership held hate, bitterness, anger, and enjoyed strife.

Remember the Pharisee’s prayer against the sinner…

Though these men held these bitter and hateful views in their hearts they thought they were righteous because they “kept the traditions of the elders.”

They emphasized man’s outward actions to the disregard of the heart.

Jesus came to correct that way of thinking which was not biblical then or now.

Christianity must be identifiable by our actions.

However, if all we are relying on is our outward actions we are missing the point.

Our heart must be the motivating factor in those “outward actions” and if it isn’t we are not living righteously but merely religiously.

Secondly, this leadership was guilty of “voiding God’s word” with “additions to God’s word” when he said, “in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments or traditions of men.”

These men had given as much importance to their “legal experts” interpretations of God’s word than God’s word itself.

Jesus didn’t mix words here but was amazingly blunt to these men.

When it comes to Jesus’ handling of those who should know his word the best “the Jewish leadership,” Jesus had no sympathy.

In fact he was so blunt that in Matthew account the disciples warn him that he offended the Pharisees.

Jesus’ response to the disciples tells us all we need to know about “offending people” with the truth in love.

When it comes to God’s teachers teaching false doctrine through traditions or other wise Jesus has no sympathy for such things and neither should we, which includes traditions we consider “doctrine.”

Far too many congregations have died off because they held to man’s traditions instead of seeking to be fully and completely spiritual fed and seeking the lost.

In trying to become “stable” they go beyond God’s word and then seek validation of their traditions.

Summary

The opposite of seeking stability, religiously, is when one opts to forgo all semblance of tradition “just to be different” and stand out.

Most often this leads to a multitude of umbilical actions taken such as “praise teams, the partaking of the Lord’s Supper on different days, etc..

We next see Jesus confront…

Tradition & Relationships

What These Traditions Create.

In our next section of text we see Jesus paint a vivid picture of what traditionalism does to one’s basic relationship with people.

The Law of Moses said, “honor your father and mother.”

That commandment meant more than just being nice to them it also meant taking care of them in their old age.

The Jews had worked out a “workaround” so to speak for taking care of their parents in their old age.

The “tradition” became if you said “Corban” which means to dedicate those funds, meant to care for your parents, to God you could not take care of them.

In essence they were saying it’s ok to tell your parents, “I would love to take care of you and wish I could but I already devoted those funds to God, and I must therefore keep my promise to God.”

When something was consider Corban it could no longer be used for “ordinary” means and the vow was irrevocable according to tradition.

What Jesus is point out is that this tradition had missed the point all together.

All of life is Corban or should be dedicated to God.

Jesus clearly points out that any tradition that makes helping another “genuine in need person” from getting help is not a commandment from God but a doctrine of man.

Summary

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Conclusion

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Invitation