Tradition
Luke 7:24 – 30
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H Koplitz
Luke 7:24 When the messengers of John had left, He began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 25 “But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces! 26 “But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet. 27 “This is the one about whom it is written:
‘BEHOLD, I AM SENDING MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU,
WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.’
Luke 7:28 “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29 When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. 30 But the Pharisees and the 1alawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.
Tradition! What a wonderful song that starts the movie “Fiddler on the Roof.” That movie was full of the traditions that Jewish people in Western Russia had at the turn of the 20th century. If you have not watched the movie, it is worth doing because you can learn so much about Jewish tradition in Western Russia and how each of the traditions is related to some Scripture.
Why am I starting with tradition while we’re looking at this narrative found in Luke’s gospel chapter 7 verses 24 to 30? This narrative deals with Jesus telling the people who John the Baptist was all about. As a biblical research scholar, one thing I had a learn to do first was to move the church traditions off to the side. Why, may you ask? That’s a significant question. It is because we have learned the gospel story as a harmony of the four separate Gospels. Also, through the centuries, the church has been developing some of its own traditions about what happened in Jesus' life. Some of it is biblical and honestly, some of it isn’t. That is normal for religion to do.
It is also cultural that Semitic people would develop stories about their teacher after that teacher had died. The stories conveyed the spiritual awareness and lessons that the teacher had taught the students over their study time. Usually, the stories were created with a lot of hyperbole. In other words, lots of exaggeration. Also, they would include stories that would tell us about the traditions and the culture of their time and what their teacher liked and didn’t like.
If you take the gospel Luke and read it as a standalone book, you find that there are a lot of church traditions you may question because they’re not found in the Gospel of Luke. That does not mean that the tradition is wrong; it simply means that it is not from the gospel of Luke. That all being said, we come to this narrative where Jesus says to the people that are around him that John the Baptist is the messenger that the prophet Malachi called for. In Malachi chapter 3 verse one, the prophet said that God would send a messenger who would introduce the Messiah to the world.
In the other Gospels, we have Jesus coming down to John in the Jordan River and being baptized by him. When I read these verses in chapter 7 and a few of the previous ones in chapter 7, I said to myself I don’t remember reading that John baptized Jesus. In the previous chapter, that would be chapter 6, Herod imprisoned John. Therefore, John could not have baptized Jesus. I went looking into the gospel and I even went to the AI programs on the Internet to find out if I was having some kind of stroke and couldn’t remember what I read.
Luke does not describe Jesus being baptized by John. Why was I thinking it should be there? Because of the harmonization of the Gospels and something we call tradition. Church tradition says John baptized that Jesus, and a dove came down from heaven upon him. Every Christian knows this story if they go to church. Actually, there are probably many that know the story who don’t go to church. That’s because they probably learned about it in Sunday school.
So, Luke has not told us anything about John the Baptist when we reach chapter 7. We then have two of John’s messengers coming to Jesus, asking if he is the one. The question is, the one what? John wanted to know if Jesus was the Messiah. This also flies in the face of church tradition because, in the other Gospels, it is pretty clear John knows Jesus is the Messiah. We even have the story in Matthew about Mary visiting Elizabeth and her baby jumping for joy because the Messiah was there in Mary’s womb. But again, if were reading the gospel Luke by itself it doesn’t say that.
Therefore, for biblical research you have to be able to put traditions off to the side. That was very hard for me to do at the beginning, but I learned how to do it. When you are reading any book of the Bible, you should read it as a standalone book and not bring in church tradition or the other Gospels or Paul’s letters or Peter’s or John’s letters into your understanding. The four Gospels tell us that John the Baptist was important, and Jesus thought he was the messenger, the Elijah, that was supposed to come before him. None of that is in dispute, in fact, John was the messenger that was supposed to introduce the Messiah to us.
Tradition is a really cool thing because it gives us rituals that help reinforce what our faith is all about. I bet your family has traditions you follow. One tradition that my family has is within a week of Thanksgiving, there has to be the Christmas tree set up with the ornaments ready to go. Not here in 2024. There’s only about three weeks in a couple days between Thanksgiving and Christmas therefore the tree may actually go up before Thanksgiving. I leave that tradition to my lovely bride who takes care of those things.
Traditions are things we do that can hold our family together. Another tradition my family has is that we get together to celebrate everyone’s birthdays. With three kids, spouses, and five grandchildren, that’s a lot of celebrating, but it’s our tradition that we love to do. Now we may not celebrate the birthday on the actual day of the birthday, but within a week it’s done. It’s an opportunity to bring us all together as a family and extended family.
Traditions hold the church together in the same way as a family. How many of you who are attending a church can spout off all the special events that occur every year? For example, one church I was with every second Thursday of August was the community picnic. It was a grand tradition because it brought the church people together to work on a social event and they reminded the community that Jesus was there and if they did not know Jesus that we would be thrilled to introduce him to them. The church had other traditions which I would call cyclic, meaning that they would run every year pretty much at the same time.
Cyclic traditions exist not only in the church, the family, and in the nation. Every July 4 the country celebrates our independence from Great Britain and the birth of the United States. How we celebrate events have traditionally changed over the years, but if we look at the core, it’s the same. Every July 4, I can count on seeing fireworks in almost every town that surrounds my town. Usually, there is a barbecue with hot dogs and hamburgers and all kinds of July 4 food.
Every Christmas after I get the third copy of the Swiss colony catalog, I purchase the torts that we have for Christmas. I have been doing that for over 30 years. About four years ago, I did not do it and Christmas time just didn’t feel the same. We did the same thing we always did and had the presence and the gathering and the dinner. But not having that Swiss colony dessert just didn’t feel right. So now it being November I’m going to get out my catalog and order my Swiss colony for Christmas.
John the Baptist's tradition is that he came to announce the Messiah. It is our tradition as members of the faith to take up John the Baptist's mantle and go out and announce to the world that Jesus Christ the Messiah has come and grants forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Jesus also wants us to live in peace and would it be great if we could get the piece that he wants us to traditionally have. So perhaps during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which the church has created a tradition around called Advent, you might go out and tell the world what it means to have a faith and love in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
