Critically Important Contrasts Series

Introduction:

A. Many years ago, the Washington Post carried a story about a man who was working on his farm in Wisconsin, when suddenly something dropped out of the sky into a field near him.

1. The object was blue, frozen, and mysterious.

2. Excitedly, the man chopped off a huge chunk, put it in his freezer, and called the sheriff and some geologists from a nearby college to examine it.

3. For a long time everyone was stumped about what had fallen from the sky.

a. Was it a meteor or was it a piece of a glacier carried by the jet stream?

4. All they could deduce is that it was a hard, blue, and frozen object that smelled terrible when it melted.

5. Finally, someone solved the mystery – this frozen, mysterious, blue mass from outer space was blue “potty fluid” accidentally ejected from an airplane toilet at 36,000 feet and had frozen.

B. If what happened to that man happened to you or me, we’d probably have done the same thing that he did, which was to assume it was something valuable that needed to be preserved and protected.

1. But think for a minute about how many things have dropped into our lives that we feel compelled to preserve and continue.

2. How many of our family or church family customs and traditions fall into this category?

1. We assume it is the right way to do it, or the only way to do it because its our tradition.

2. But if we are not careful, our traditions might keep us preserving smelly, frozen, blue “potty fluid” rather than real treasures.

3. You’ve probably heard the story of the young newly wed who was cooking her first ham and her husband noticed that his young wife cut off about one inch from both ends of ham.

1. The young husband asked his wife why she was cutting off any of the ham, it was a waste. 2. The young wife replied, “Because that’s the way my mom prepared the ham.”

3. He asked, “Why did your mom cut the ends off?”

4. His wife didn’t know, but called her mom to find out why she cut the ends off of the ham.

5. Her mom said, “Because that was the way my mom prepared ham.”

6. So the young wife called her grandmother and asked her the same question.

7. Her grandmother replied, “I cut the ends off so the ham can fit into the baking pan I own.”

4. Some traditions may not be bad, but they also may not be necessary.

C. If you’ve seen the musical, “Fiddler on the Roof,” then you are familiar with the musical’s opening song called “Tradition” that is sung by the older “papa” of the family.

1. The song shows how the whole Jewish community was built on long-standing, unbreakable traditions.

2. The theme of the musical is how these age-old traditions were being uprooted, challenged, and changed by the unrest of that day.

3. The musical portrayed the grief, sorrow, and hardship that are experienced when traditions are upset.

D. In our text for today from the Gospel of Mark, we will see a confrontation occur between tradition and truth, which includes a critically important contrast between inward and outward righteousness.

1. Mark draws a stark contrast between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees.

2. These Jewish leaders had missed the point of religion and Jesus wanted to point the way from human religious tradition toward heart-shaped righteousness.

3. The immediate and burning issues of the controversy addressed in today’s passage have long passed us by, but the principles which Jesus laid down continue to guide His followers.

4. These principles are vital to our relationship with God and the whole essence of righteousness.

I. The Traditions

A. Mark wrote: 1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him. 2 They observed that some of his disciples were eating bread with unclean—that is, unwashed—hands. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, keeping the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with ceremonially unclean hands?” (Mark 7:1-5)

1. This paragraph introduces the power and effect of traditions.

2. Word was spreading about the popularity of Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees were disturbed about these reports, so they came to Jesus with the specific intention of finding something in the ministry of Jesus that they could use to oppose Him.