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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Well, brothers and sisters, this morning we hear this particular word that Jesus uses. The Pharisees used it also, but Jesus uses it really kind of back against them. And we’re going to also not necessarily hear it in the lesson from Isaiah, but it’s kind of back there in the background. And it’s a word that I’d like us to think about, and that word is tradition. And I guess the question I ask first is, well, what do you actually think about, what first comes to mind when you hear this word tradition?
I think in the context of where we are sitting right now and what we’re doing is that maybe our mind would immediately wander to worship practices, traditional worship. And in saying this, I think we probably mean that we are looking back to the historic worship of the Lutheran Church, or maybe really even the entire Christian Church, or really maybe even further back than that. And so we’re talking about things like the liturgy, these old hymns, and really this beautiful sanctuary we have with this maroon carpet that I’m really partial to. But these things are what we would consider things that we care about, things that we think we need to cherish or things that we need to protect.
But for some others maybe tradition or traditional means something quite different, maybe something from the past, something that may be deemed to be outdated or perhaps not even relevant. And we kind of hear this terminology with some of our sister churches today. You’ll hear things like contemporary worship or modern worship; you’ll hear about activities of the church that are relevant. Trust me, I’m not about to get into a discussion about LCMS church practices. But the implication may be that traditional isn’t up to today’s standards in some way or another.
But let’s remind ourselves that even at some point contemporary becomes traditional. And so you can see, I think, that the word tradition or traditional, what it described may very well lead you to have formed an opinion about the word tradition in and of itself. And in this way, tradition can be either something very good, or maybe it can be something that isn’t as good, that it’s a distraction, or maybe that hinders us. And I think it’s most definitely true when we talk about the way in which tradition may serve the Word of God.
And we should know that things definitely go wrong when the traditions of man replace God’s commandments. Many a Pharisee who thought that he had kept the law to the fullest extent, at least his version of the law, had found himself condemned. And unfortunately, also over probably the past 2,000 years, there are many who would call themselves Christians who have been lulled into some kind of false sense of salvation because of a tradition of works through their own beliefs about God and about what will save them.
And so, yes, even, unfortunately, traditions of the church have at times superseded God’s Word. And God’s, excuse me, and man’s tradition and laws continue to twist God’s Word and sometimes they warp as institutions. To kind of take a digression for a minute, for example, today I think that we are mistaken when we say things like the tradition of marriage or even we say traditional marriage. This is God’s estate and God’s institution and it’s just marriage. And for God’s Word tells us what marriage is. It is instituted by him. He created it for man and woman and Paul reminds us of that today.
Now if you’ll excuse me for being a little bit technical for a moment, I’d like to give you the book answer as to this definition of tradition because we see that it can mean different things to different people. And I think that the English definition is the one that helps here, especially with understanding maybe a couple of these verses that we have this morning. So please bear with me.
Webster has a few different possibilities for this definition. Number one, an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behaviors such as a religious practice or a social custom; and along with this a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories related to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable. Does it seem like definitions have gotten longer over the years or is it just me?
Number two, cultural continuity and social attitudes, customs, and institutions. And then the third one, the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instructions. Now, the phrase from that first definition, I know you’ve already forgotten it, the phrase from that first definition, commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable, is important for we must understand and admit that tradition is not always historical. Oftentimes, if you ask somebody, okay, so why do you do something that way? Why is it done in this particular fashion? The answer becomes, because we’ve always done it that way. It’s our tradition. And, of course, that didn’t answer the question why.
It’s also important to note, I think, that that second definition that incorporates cultural continuity into customs and traditions, because tradition is often part of the identity of the specific group or a culture or an ethnicity, and we definitely see both of those are true for the traditions of the Pharisees. But it’s this third definition that has something in it that I don’t want us to miss this morning, and it is this idea that tradition may come to be handed down without written instruction, which means that it’s probably impossible to find its origin.
And so with this, we can now see that this definition, we can see that the tradition of men that Jesus speaks about is obviously not of the Lord. It is something, as Jesus says to the Pharisees, that they have handed down. They and their forefathers before them have put away the word of the Lord and substituted the traditions of their own choosing. They refused to believe what the Lord himself handed down, his word, handed down through the prophets, these spoken and written promises, and indeed they are now trusting their own vain self-righteousness.
And worse yet, they are leading the people into unbelief, condemnation, and judgment, just as their forefathers had. Because we hear in Isaiah, it’s his calling of his prophet the Lord, he was given this task to go to the people of Israel and to go to the people of Judah and preach to them repentance, warning them of the consequences of their unbelief and their unfaithfulness. And though Isaiah himself had been brought into the throne room of God and he had stood in the counsel of the Lord, they didn’t believe his words and so they did not believe the words of the Lord.
Because of their unbelief, the Lord has now poured out on them this spirit of deep sleep so that they will not be able to understand or comprehend the coming destruction of Jerusalem. All the while, as they look to the north and see what’s happening in Samaria and the Northern Kingdom, it’s coming to them. But their lack of faith prevents understanding. So now the false prophets and the false seers who have been constantly reassuring the people that no judgment was coming to them, they will be silent, and the unrepentant people will be confirmed in their unbelief because they have turned their backs on the word of the Lord.
And with this coming siege of Jerusalem would come the eventual destruction of Solomon’s temple, the center of their traditions, and the true object of their faith. And it is clear to the Lord that the people are just sort of going through the motions. He says, they draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, all the while in vain and empty ritual and recitation. Sort of like in Jeremiah when the prophet says that they stand in the door of the temple and cry out, This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. Not as words of praise to the Lord, but as rebellion. For they neither fear nor trust the Lord because of who he is, but rather they give homage to these traditions and to their rules.
So God does call them hypocrites long before Jesus is going to level this same charge at the Pharisees. For these prophets and these seers, they are deceivers and they are putting false faith in the hearts of the people. They are turning hearts against the Lord. And so in their unbelief and their unfaithfulness and their godlessness, they now make themselves their own gods, their own creators, and they are denying the workmanship of the one who has made and crafted them. So the Lord promises destruction to them and to their traditions. So yes, he will confirm them in their unbelief, but he will also restore the faithful by putting his word back into their hearts so that they may rejoice in the promise of the Holy One of Israel, the Messiah to come.
And 750 years later, we see the Messiah still there with these false prophets and teachers, for he’s there with the Pharisees, and the Pharisees are peddling this fake religion of man-made traditions that was opposed to the Word of the Lord. And so like their forebearers before them, they ridicule and they lash out at the prophets of God. And now the Pharisees do the same to God incarnate. No, they don’t come to Jesus with the intention of hearing his words and taking them into their hearts and believing and coming to faith. Instead, they are there to seek him out, to spy on him, to turn the people against him, to twist his words, to build a case against him for his prosecution.
And so when they see the disciples eating with unwashed hands, they spy and they sense an opportunity to jump, to pounce, to put fault on our Lord for their violation of this tradition of the elders. And Mark goes on for us and he describes in detail their obsession with this washing. Washing hands and cups and pots and copper vessels and even the couches that they eat on. Sounds like something we were told four years ago, but this was merely a tradition; it was not God’s command, and now the Pharisees have now placed the importance of this ritual and this tradition of the elders above the law that Moses gave, laws which they themselves have not kept.
And not only have they elevated their own rituals and traditions now above the law, they have actually set the law aside. And so now Jesus does call them hypocrites, and he rebukes them with this prophecy from Isaiah. 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. And then he provides an indictment against them for breaking a commandment not of men, but of God. For they have taken all this money, this money that they are supposed to be using to help their fathers and their mothers, and instead they have given it as this self-righteous sacrifice and offering to the temple, and they explain this way as Corban, a gift that is above and beyond the law, beyond the requirement of the law, and so now they have a way out.
They have this claimed exemption from the fourth commandment, which Jesus reminds them breaking of the fourth commandment merits the death penalty, when all it was for them was a way to avoid dealing with their needy parents, all the while insisting that it was tradition. So Jesus tells them that in these self-serving traditions they are making void the Word of God itself. So the Pharisees have their rules, they have their customs, they have their traditions, but they don’t have faith. And like the ones that came before them, they don’t understand the Word of God because they don’t have faith. They can’t know and understand the gospel and the salvation that it brings, that Jesus, the Messiah, the very one in front of them brings.
Now back to the prophecy of Isaiah, we heard that the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom of darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. And we know our Lord Jesus certainly healed those who suffered physically. Mark goes on to tell us that he healed a deaf and mute man. Later on he will tell us how Jesus restored the sight of blind Bartimaeus. So, true enough, these miracles and these healings, these were part of the wonderful things and the wonder upon wonder that Isaiah tells us about and the Lord promised. But more than that, Jesus is the most wonderful thing. He is, as we often sing in that Advent hymn, a great and mighty wonder, the revealed and incarnate Word of God.
And it is in this Word of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit that many did come to hear and many did come to see, not just physically, but more importantly, spiritually. Their eyes and their ears were opened to the truth of the gospel so that they would be freed from condemnation of God’s law and from the commandments of men. And our Lord continues to pour out this same spiritual healing on us today by his Word and his Spirit.
Now don’t get me wrong, traditions are good and they are acceptable as long as they don’t distract from or do away with the Word of the Lord. But we also know that traditions come and go. And indeed, as we see, traditions are subject to definition and perception. And it is entirely possible that one day all that we hold dear as a tradition in the church might pass away. Some of these things may even be someday forbidden by the laws of man. The day may come when we don’t get to sing these glorious hymns and hear this magnificent organ play. The day may come when we can’t look up and gaze at these beautiful stained glass windows with the scripture in them. That all the things that we appreciate, all the adornments of our worship are gone.
Now God forbid it, but should that day come to pass, we have every right to be sad about it, but we must not lose hope and we must not despair, for the Lord has given us the promise that he has given us his word. Isaiah will say later, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
So brothers and sisters, we have something far greater and better than the traditions and laws of men to cling to, for we have the word of God spoken from heaven. And it is that word that we trust for it is divinely inspired and it is our written instruction from God. We have these great awesome traditions that inspire us, that give us comfort, but it is only because of the word that we have reason to not have to fear the laws of man or trust in the commandments of men.
We trust in the Word of God that he has already accomplished what he has promised to his people if they would only have faith in the Holy One of Israel, in Jesus Christ, the true object of faith, the forgiveness of sins. So, brothers and sisters, may we draw near not just with our bodies, not only with our bodies, not only with our mouths and our lips, but completely with our hearts, our whole heart. For it is our hearts that our Lord desires. Amen.
Now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding. Guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
