it’s tradition.

Have you ever been with friends or family - maybe around the holidays, or a celebration or other annual gathering - and all of a sudden when someone wants to do something, they shout “It’s tradition!” as a motivating statement to get everybody on board? I’ve certainly said this myself, and have heard it said plenty of times by friends and family, especially surrounding holiday seasons.

During the time Jesus was with his disciples, He was asked by the Pharisees why the disciples “break the tradition of the elders?” (see Matthew 15)

The question itself is interesting, because Jesus didn’t necessarily teach on tradition. He taught in ways that were not fully understood. He broke from cultural norms. He questioned the status quo. He shifted answers from temporal to eternal. Tradition was not His message; salvation was. He was literally creating what we now know as the Gospel. (more on that in another post soon!)

Even so, this is what the Pharisees chose to ask Him. “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?”

Jesus did not answer the question with an answer. He answered this question with an equally pointed question.

“Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?”

The Pharisees had created rules for the people to follow and ultimately added to God’s commandments. But Jesus calls them out as hypocrites because they were nullifying the word of God for the sake of their own traditions.

Then he took this a step further by saying Isaiah’s prophecy was talking about them!

In Isaiah 29:13, Isaiah prophesies “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.”

Wow. Now, that is being called out!

One of the most regarded groups of men in the Jewish community, and Jesus was telling them they were complete hypocrites, far from God, and full of human rules.

How many human rules have we created, adding to God’s Word?

We’ve taken so much from the tradition we’ve been taught, and called it truth from God’s Word, when in fact, it is nowhere to be found in the inherent, infallible words of God. Tradition - in and of itself - is not sinful. But when it negates God’s Word or breaks God’s Commandments, we should be running far from it. Otherwise, we are in the same hypocritical camp as the Pharisees were in Jesus’ day.

Of our beliefs, do we hold any that are only because of tradition? If so, do they conflict with the word of God?

May we never be willing to

break the commands of God,

worship in vain,

nullify the Word of God,

be far from God

…all for the sake of tradition.