#11 Question: What’s Up with Traditions?

How would you feel if some massive financial loss or other disaster caused you to have to cancel all the usual family traditions such as Memorial Day at the lake, the July 4th trip to the seaside, and the relatives visit on Labor Day? Or all birthday celebrations for the year and Christmas had to be cancelled? Those would be tragedies. Announcing this to your family would surely bring questions and perhaps tears, because those are traditions we hold dear.

Jesus was confronted by the scribes and Pharisees and asked as to why He did not teach His disciples to follow the ‘tradition of the elders,’ Mark 7:5:

“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?”

They did not realize it, but they had asked two questions: 1. Why not keep the tradition of the elders? and 2. Why do they eat with unwashed hands?

Jesus answered by applying a statement of Isaiah’s, Mark 7:6-8:

“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.”

The Jews had developed rules called ‘the traditions of the elders’ which they taught as commands that must be followed. Jesus attacked that practice. He called it hypocrisy because it was an attempt to worship God by adding commandments of their own and not by exactly obeying what God had said. It was certainly not correct worship from the heart.

Then Jesus gave an example, Mark 7:9-12:

“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.”

This tradition of the elders allowed adult children to forego caring for their parents by placing some money in the temple treasury box and saying, ‘That’s the money I would have used to care for my parents.’ Jesus calls this vain worship because it was not what God had commanded in Moses’ Law. It was a human idea practiced for so long it became regarded as a law.

Then Jesus dealt with the second question by talking to everyone, Mark 7:14:

“And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

Jesus explained that the evils that came from the heart were the sins about which they should be concerned, not the cleanliness of their hands while eating.

Today, similar traditions are followed as religious practices. For example, the baptism of infants is a subject not found in the Bible. The silence of the Bible on this subject means that the baptism of infants is not a religious rite authorized or commanded by God.

A second example is the mode of baptism. No Bible passage authorizes sprinkling or pouring as baptism. Instead, the Bible word for ‘baptize’ means the subject is completely submerged in water —an immersion. Neither sprinkling nor pouring duplicate Bible baptism.

Likewise, many people celebrate Christmas and Easter as religious holidays. Again, such a practice is not found in the Bible. Instead, we are commanded to assemble each Sunday for worship, Hebrews 10:24-25:

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

This assembly is not a tradition but a command, because the Bible directs us to not neglect the assembly of the saints on the Lord’s Day.

So, what can be learned about traditions?

  1. Traditions are not Biblically binding. They are the ideas of men.
  2. Christians must obey the commands found in the New Testament on how to live and worship.

#traditionElders #humanTradition #CommandsGod #baptismImmersion #babyBaptism #easter #Christmas #religiousHolidays #ChristiansAssembleSunday #Hebrews10:24-25 #Mark7:5-8,14 #NewTestamentCommands