Matthew 15:1-20 has been a key passage to point out the danger of vain worship by following man made traditions instead of God's word. I have often heard this passage applied to the activities that we do in our church services, but Jesus' application is actually much broader. So just what is a tradition anyway? Thank-you for asking. Well, a tradition is a routine way to practice what you believe in. We all have them. In fact, what we are doing right now is a tradition. The hours of Bible class and worship services... where did those come from? The order of our services, our church buildings, the songs we sing, having a song leader, the way we do our prayers, the way we dress up for church, the emphasis we put on preaching instead of scripture reading in services, having a paid full time preacher, youth and family minister and staff, the way we pass the trays of bread and the multiple cups instead of all rising and coming to gather at the table, the invitation at the end of the sermon, and basically, everything we do... and everything we don't do: these are our traditions. Can you show me a Bible verse for each of the things we do here? Yes, I can show you a Bible verse for singing, praying, giving, communion, preaching, gathering, fellowship, teaching, learning, growing, evangelizing, etc. But the specifics of how we do it are largely traditions.
Now, we do try to follow biblical principles as we build our specifics. But the Bible actually allows a lot more freedoms in how we perform our church services than many would like. We are not a machine, we are a family of faith. We are a living body with various members. We are a Holy Spirit filled temple of the Lord. The Bible is kind of like a genetic code, it determines an amazing number of our features and characteristics but it also allows for an amazing flexibility to function with variation within many kinds of environments and contexts. It is these functions within those contexts that we would call traditions. Our traditions should be shaped by and formed under the guidance of God's word. And because we are alive in Christ and growing, we sometimes take off certain traditions and take on others.
How many of you wash your hands before you eat? As I grew up when we came to the table to eat our meals I remember being told the same thing. It was a family tradition. Mom would say as she put the food on the table, "Everybody wash your hands and come and eat!" Or, if you showed up to eat before she could give that command, there was the question: did you wash your hands? If you didn't, then the command came: then go wash your dirty hands before you eat! Sometimes the command was proceeded by or followed with the admonition: You know better than that!
And we did know better. It was our tradition! But we didn't always do better. If I had paid more attention to what the Bible says in this passage I might have gotten myself into trouble by saying that Jesus didn't wash his hands before he ate and he said it didn't matter! That probably would not have gone over well in our household in my early childhood. My mom had an honor code about what she called: "Talking back." I don't hear it as much today, but when I grew up "talking back" to your parents was dangerous. It meant you were disrespecting their authority or "disputing their word." By the way, if we said something like, "Do I have to?" or especially something like, "I don't want to," wow! I remember mom would sometimes say, "Don't you dispute my word!" When she said that it meant you were close to being spanked for disrespect because you "talked back" or rolled your eyes or something like that. I learned early in life to talk respectfully to my parents and even show respect by my demeanor or else there was a price to pay. These were some of the traditions in our household.
Our family had lots of traditions like that. Do yours? Traditions become ways that you live and standards and boundaries that you learn to walk in. You can't live without traditions. Some people's lives are traditionally chaotic, or traditionally disrespectful. That's still a tradition. There are good traditions and bad ones. That brings us to Matthew 15:1-20
In our text today, we learn that our traditions must answer to and be under the authority of scripture, not the other way around. This includes more than just what we do at church! Although... that is our traditional way of looking at what Jesus said here. Today, I hope we can see that Jesus meant for this to apply to more than just a few things we do when we gather for church services. I believe Jesus intended for this to apply to all of our lives and especially to our worship.
The laws of Moses were the DNA of the Jewish worship and life. But as we see in our Bibles, sometimes the people could not keep the specifics of the laws. During those times they had to look for ways to do the best they could, even though it was not specifically according to the scriptures. Many traditions were formed during these times that became normal practice. For instance, in Deut. 16:16 the law of Moses required that all the men go to a central place of worship three times a year. During the exile and throughout much of their history, this was impossible. How could they then remain faithful? They formed traditions that preserved their identity until they could return and rebuild. Daniel's three prayers a day are an example of this. It was his tradition and he kept his tradition even at the risking of his life. Also, during times when there was no temple, they could not perform the sacrifices according to the laws. This was critical! The day of atonement when the High Priest was to go into the temple to offer sacrifice for himself and the nation was impossible during exile, so what did they do? They formed traditions that became acceptable and authoritative.
By the time of Jesus, the Jews had codified many of the traditions of their elders. These traditions were interpretations of how to live an obedient life according to the laws of Moses, and sometimes when the laws of Moses were impossible. They handed these down to their children. Somewhere along the way, their traditions became as important and authoritative to them as their scriptures, and sometimes the traditions conflicted with the scriptures and even nullified what the scriptures said. That became a big problem. Sometimes they used the authority of traditions to get their way and do things that were actually against God's word. They were disrespecting their heavenly Father in the process and blindly leading others to do the same.
Jesus saw in the Pharisees and scribes a hypocrisy that made him sick. In this passage he offends them, but later he will openly condemn them. Turn with me for a reading of Matthew 23.
I was talking with Philip and Melissa the other day and I asked Melissa if her basketball coach in high school ever yelled at her. She said, "Oh yeah! He used to get right up in my face and yell and spit." I asked her why she put up with it and she said, "I wanted to stay on the team."
Why would a coach yell in the face of one of his top players? Why? Because he believes that player can do more, do better, and somehow he wants to get that belief into the head of his players so that they do it. And it works!
Can you see Jesus getting in the face of these Pharisees and scribes and yelling these things? I can. Why would he do that? Perhaps he honestly hates them and is defending his disciples against them. Perhaps, but I don't think so. These Pharisees are leading many others along their path and I believe Jesus wants them to hear the truth. I think Jesus wants them to be saved. Perhaps they can't be saved, but Jesus won't let them go down without attempting to break through their hard hearts with the word of God, even if it means saying some of the hardest words in scripture!
Listen to Jesus words in Matt. 23:37-39. Jesus loves these people! But they have turned away from God to follow their traditions. They are satisfied and comfortable in the way they have built their lives around religious traditions.
What have they done with the word of God? They have nullified it with their traditions!
How do you keep your traditions in line with the word of God? You've got to keep your heart open to his voice and in line with it! You can't short cut the calling and commandments of God for a tradition that lets you off the hook! You can't reduce your walk with God to a few hours a week in church. You've got to let Jesus have all authority in your life, not just some or even most of your life, no, all of it!
The terrible danger of religious tradition is that it can become a barrier to God's voice instead of a carrier of God's word. We can think we've done enough by making church services or think we've given enough by putting in a certain percent of our income or think we've prayed enough by following a certain pattern or plan. Traditions can become false standards and false boundaries that actually stand in the way of our relationship with God. How?
God's word says, "Pray without ceasing." What is our tradition and practice?
God's word says, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him." What is our tradition and practice?
God's word says, "Encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that you will not be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." What is our tradition and practice?
God's word says, "Confess your sins to one another and pray for each other so that you my be healed." What is our tradition and practice?
God's word says, "Do not let any unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is good for edifying those who hear you." What is our tradition and practice?
God's word says, "Avoid the very appearance of evil." What is our tradition and practice?
You see, what we do religiously IS our tradition. Do our traditions line up with the word of God?
How can we come to church and offer acceptable worship when we don't practice God's word before we get here?
I grew up understanding this passage to mean that we had to perform the church services correctly according to God's word or our worship would be in vain. I'm sure that's true, but that's not what it says. In fact even in Isaiah from where Jesus quotes this the problem is not that Israel was not performing the worship correctly, it was that they were not living faithfully but kept coming to worship thinking that their worship would be accepted anyway!
Jesus point to the Pharisees is that they have whitewashed outsides but dead bones and rot on the inside. The word he repeats is "hypocrite!"
I saw that word last night and it jumped out at me and shook me to the core. It is so easy to be a hypocrite with religious clothes on. You can do good deeds for personal attention or you can let your light shine so that God is glorified. These can look a lot alike.
Are there any hypocrites here today?
Are there any who are satisfied with enough of God but not enough of something else?
My prayer is that Jesus will get in my face and say whatever needs to be said however he needs to say it so it will cut through and I receive God's word and believe God's word and do God's word and want God's word and hunger and thirst for God's word and speak and walk according to God's word! I pray this for you too.
God's word!!! Oh, Father, help us sinners! Sanctify us by your Word! Your word is truth! In Jesus name, Amen!
