Traditions That Condemn

November 29, 2009 Preacher: Randy Smith Series: Matthew

Scripture: Matthew 15:1–9

Transcript

Traditions That Condemn

Matthew 15:1-9
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Pastor Randy Smith



I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

If you are like most Americans, you celebrated the holiday with some time-honored traditions - things your family does year-after-year for a variety of reasons to commemorate the special day. Some traditions are passed down through the generations. Others are ones we adopt ourselves either by suggestion or personal invention.

Here are the most popular Thanksgiving traditions:

  1. The Turkey! Possibly some have shifted to turkey burgers, but most Americans (95% to be exact) still follow our ancestral roots that date back to the Pilgrims. As for our family; stuffing, cranberry bread and pie can also be added to the list.
  2. Football. Second only to the turkey is football. And now we are up to three games every Thanksgiving Day! The tradition dates back to the first intercollegiate championship held on Thanksgiving Day in 1876.
  3. Parades. From the local Manasquan parade to the granddaddy of them all, the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, which pulls in more than 46 million people each year in person and on TV. Parades are a Thanksgiving Day favorite.
  4. The wishbone. The basic tradition dates all the way back to the Etruscans of 322 BC. It eventually went to the Romans who gave it to the English who carried it to America. Though we as Christians should not believe in a "lucky break," it is still fun nevertheless.
  5. Giving thanks. A shame this comes in at number five - after all, the day is called "Thanks-giving." Thanksgiving is a time that we are to reflect on and be grateful for our blessings over the past year. Yet when we remove God from the equation, we don't really have anyone to thank but ourselves.

Should traditions be cherished? John Piper's wife, Noel, devoted a whole book to the value of traditions. In their book, Disciplines of a Godly Family, Kent and Barbara Hughes devoted a lot of space to the topic of traditions. They said, "But why this disciplined emphasis on tradition and memory? Because of the rootlessness of today's culture. The contemporary world's post-Christian mind-set, its confusing pluralism, its broken families, the high rate of divorces, and the nomadic mobility of so many have produced a generation without memory or tradition. And frankly this is where many Christian families are - especially if they have not come from Christian backgrounds. These Christians feel rootless, alien, and insecure. This is sufficient reason from every Christian family to take conscious and disciplined measures to cultivate tradition and memory. But there is an even more compelling reason. Namely, God's Word dramatically recommends that all believing families cultivate both spiritual memory and spiritual traditions to commemorate and celebrate God's goodness" (p. 44).

Traditions are good and I encourage all families to preserve your traditions, and if you do not have any, to generate them.

Yet with all that said, traditions can also be bad. And I say this without overstating the point - traditions have the capacity to send a person to hell. And though some wives might like me to put nine hours of Thanksgiving Day football in that category that is not what I am talking about. What I am talking about are the religious traditions we hold to adamantly thinking that by following them we are earning favor with God when none of it can be supported in the Bible. This is so true for all world religions, without exempting Christians, without exempting Evangelicals.

Today's passage from Matthew 15 is a classic text that clearly spells out what God thinks about our man-made religious traditions and our diligent adherence to them without any involvement of the heart.

1. THE COMPLAINT

Let's first begin with the complaint. Verse 1, "Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem."

We have seen that Jesus has been facing growing opposition from the religious establishment. They had a major problem with the Man, and their problem centered on spiritual matters. Today we will see the specifics of their concerns, concerns that led them to plot and orchestrate His execution. Even by this time as we already saw in 12:14 that thought was already on their minds.

For now I want you to see how serious our Lord's opponents addressed this conflict. Verse 1 says both the esteemed Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem, the capital city of temple worship and scholarship. This special delegation composed of the religious elite, left their ivory towers with all the authority of first-century Judaism and came to a remote village with the specific intent to confront Jesus. They were ready for a fight and no doubt they felt equipped to handle any battle that might come their way.

Here is the complaint. Look at verse 2. "Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." There it is. That is the first thing out of their mouths. Their traditions were being violated by Jesus' disciples and not only was Jesus failing to correct them, He was responsible for teaching His disciples to break these very traditions.

The traditions were basically religious rules that were handed down from one generation to the next. The Jewish people took the Old Testament law and began to collect their interpretations and applications of it. And you can only imagine the bulk of religious rules they accumulated over the years while pulling from the whole field of the Pentateuch. What started off with good intentions grew into a collected system that became equal to and eventually surpassing the Word of God.

In Jesus' time these traditions were largely oral. By the second century (135-200 AD) these rules were brought together in a codified work called the Mishnah. Soon there became a commentary on the Mishnah (rules to explain the rules) called the Gemara. Eventually the Mishna and the Gemara came together to form what the Jews call the Talmud.

Again, the Jews highly valued the law of God. And all of this was intended to be good. Unfortunately what was intended to draw people to God became the very thing that led so many away from God. Still, the Jews took all these matters very seriously, and the volcano erupted when they heard that the teaching of Jesus was contrary.

They had rules for everything. If you don't believe me just examine all the stipulations that were necessary for a proper observance of the Sabbath! But the one they singled out this time is recorded at the end of verse 2. The Jewish leaders in complaining to Jesus about His disciples said, "For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."

Sounds strange to us today that this would be such a big deal. Children, maybe your ears perk up remembering the constant call of your parents to wash your hands before dinner. That kind of washing is OK and that kind of washing was not the point of the Pharisees. Their focus was not on physical cleanliness but on spiritual cleanliness.

You see, the Old Covenant laid out specific requirements for spiritual cleanliness. And one of those requirements was for the priests to wash their hands before ministering (Ex. 30:17-21). Humans took God's law, and probably with good intent, concluded that what was good for the priests must be good for the people. Then they devised several factors (one of them being touching a Gentile) that could lead a person to have spiritually impure hands (cf. Mk. 7:2-4). Then touch food with those hands and the food becomes impure. Then consume the food and you become impure. Hence the need to wash your hands before you eat. And hence the reason Jesus says in the following verses (that we will cover in our following sermon) it is not what goes in but what comes out of our heart that defiles a person (Mt. 15:15-20).

The Jewish scholar Edersheim wrote, "Water jars were kept ready to be used before every meal. The minimum amount of water to be used was a quarter of a log, which is defined as enough to fill one and a half eggshells. The water was first poured on both hands, held with the fingers pointed upward. It must run down the arm as far as the wrist and drop off from the wrist, for the water itself was now unclean having touched the unclean hands. If it ran down the fingers again, it would render them unclean. The process was repeated with the hands held in the downward direction, the fingers pointing down, and finally, each hand was cleansed with being rubbed with the fist of the other, and a strict Jew would do this before every meal and between every course in every meal."

So the Pharisees were caught up on this very point: You must wash your hands to be spiritually pure. Sounds rather silly to us, but do we get caught up in these traditions even though the actual practices may change? And the answer is: yes. Let me see if I can explain how it happens.

Recently I received the following e-mails (only a few sentences from each). E-mail number one: "I believe that children of all ages should be encouraged to worship with their families. I am sure that whatever noise a child may make, Randy can speak above the child." E-mail number two: "Without a doubt, the noises were distracting at least some people from concentrating on the sermon. Which is more important: providing an atmosphere where everyone can fully hear the word of God or trying not to offend a newcomer? Without a doubt, I side with the first. For me, that was nearly a lost sermon."

I testify that both these men love the Lord and are committed to the church and have good intentions. Yet we have two contradictory beliefs, and unfortunately as a church we are unable to meet both of their requests. But that is not my point.

My point is that these men have developed strong convictions about church etiquette based not upon feelings or political correctness, but rather on biblical precepts to be applied in the corporate worship. Number one says that children and family togetherness are to be valued and promoted above all. Number two says that children and family togetherness are to be promoted but not at the expense of distracting from the teaching of God's Word either for the speaker or the listeners.

This is how we personally form our convictions. And allow me to be very clear that forming personal convictions is to be encouraged. We should have personal convictions as to what constitutes modest dress and when we allow our children to date and what kind of music we listen to and what stance we will take regarding alcohol and how we will school our children and whether or not we will attend the movies and what television shows (if any) we will view and what we will do regarding Halloween.

So here is the progression. I have seen it times without number. We get saved and follow the law of Scripture. Then we realize that the majority of our daily decisions are not spelled out specifically in the Word of God. Yet we realize that every decision is a spiritual decision so we begin to take principles in the Word, seek wise counsel, pray, follow our conscience and the leading of the Spirit and develop convictions for ourselves and our family. Eventually we become very passionate about our convictions. Everything so far is OK.

Now, here is where the line gets crossed. Soon we begin to see these convictions as equal to what the Bible teaches. We begin to judge others for not following our convictions. Then we begin to tell others that they must adopt our convictions if they are to grow in their walk with the Lord. And finally we begin to think that following our convictions, let's say our "traditions" (again, principles not spelled out in the Word of God), is necessary for salvation. This is what the Pharisees did. The code word for this is: "Legalism."

I have battled these points with people trying to bring this stuff into our church until my knuckles were bloody. I have had folks from the Catholic persuasion doubting my ministry because certain nonbiblical aspects are not revered in our presence. And I have repeatedly on a personal basis fought the tendency to hold my convictions up as a nonnegotiable standard for others.

This was the heart of the apostle Paul prior to his conversion. Galatians 1:14, "And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions." But after his conversion he wrote in Galatians 5:1: "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." And in Colossians 2:8 he said, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."

2. THE CONDEMNATION

Let's move to point two: The Condemnation. Back to verse 3 of our passage: "And [Jesus] answered and said to them, 'Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?'"

I love that response. It's like the guy in college who looks down his nose at you because you eat meat on Fridays while he is sleeping with his girlfriend. Jesus doesn't even dignify their complaint with a response. He saw no need to defend His failure to observe a ridiculous man-made tradition. So rather than deal with specifics, our Lord states the general and the obvious. "You guys accuse Me of breaking your traditions when I follow the commandments of God. I'm going to accuse you of breaking the commandments of God in order to follow your traditions (cf. Tit. 1:14)!"

The same point is made in verse 9: "BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN."

So in verse 4 He gives them an example: "For God said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.'" A clear command from the Word of God. Honoring your parents: Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16. Not speaking evil of them: Exodus 21:7 and Leviticus 20:9. The interpretation is simple: as children, regardless of our age we are commanded to treat our parents with dignity, respect and care.

While I believe the evangelical church has a long way to go in this area ourselves, the command was even more sacrificial when it was applied in the first century. We are before the days of Medicare and Social Security and 401-K's and pensions and Hospice and retirement homes. We are talking about a society where most work available was manual. If parents in the first century happened to live a long life, there would naturally come a point when they could no longer support themselves. Therefore it was incumbent on the children to personally care for their physical needs. Obviously this could result in a major financial strain.

Yet some Jews had a way around it, which Jesus spells out in verse 5. "But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, 'Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God.''" It was called "Corban" (Mk. 7:11). "Mom, Dad, would love to help you, but all our money, though still in our possession, has been dedicated to God. Sorry!" It all sounds so pious! They followed their traditions and ignored the commands of God. Yet the sin of omission is not giving to your parents the help that they need and the sin of commission is greed.

In verse 6 Jesus calls it what it is. And such a practice He says "is not to honor his father or his mother." And therefore He throws it back in their faces by concluding, "And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition."

Bottom line: develop convictions. Pursue your convictions. But always allow your convictions to come from the Word of God and not take superiority over the Word of God.

3. THE COMMENTARY

But Jesus is not finished. Let's go to the final point which I am calling: "The Commentary" - the complaint to the condemnation and now to the commentary. In verses 7-9 Jesus will specify what He really expects.

Thought the Pharisees are gone, the principles of Pharisaism never die. The puritan, Richard Baxter once said, "Men think God's laws [are] too many and too strict, and yet make more of their own, and are precise for keeping them." We all have a tendency, because of the subtle temptation toward self-righteousness, to make our own laws and expect people to follow them.

And we also have a tendency to even take God's true laws and follow them with improper motives - trying to earn more love from God, trying to look better than others, trying to fulfill a religious duty. All of these are insufficient. So as we close off this section, Jesus leaves us with what He expects from a person in relation to keeping His true commands. And what He expects is a heart commitment.

Verse 7, "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you." In verse 8 He quotes from the Old Testament prophet: "THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME." We are going to get a whole exposition on this when we get to Matthew 23.

Beloved what God wants is your heart! The spiritual message is always about the heart. As J.C. Ryle once said, "What is the first thing we need, in order to be Christians? A new heart. What is the sacrifice God asks us to bring to him? A broken and a contrite heart. What is the true circumcision? The circumcision of the heart. What is genuine obedience? To obey from the heart. What is saving faith? To believe with the heart. Where ought Christ to dwell? To dwell in our hearts by faith. What is the chief request that Wisdom makes to every one? "My son, give me your heart."

Heartless worship is unacceptable worship, even if we claim to look religious by performing all the outward requirements. The examples are legion in the Old Testament. At times the Jews were simply going through the motions. They were simply "cranking it out," and while they did what God required, our Lord was disgusted with what He observed.

"I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Am. 5:21-24; cf. Isa. 1:11-16, Mal. 1:10).

When we understand who God is and what He has done for us in Christ, we will begin to see the blasphemy of wanting anything above Him. We will see the need to engage all that we are in all that He is. We sing because we love to praise His name. We attend church because we love to hear the preached Word. We read our Bibles because we love to hear from Him. We serve because we love to minister to His people. And the list continues. If we are doing any of this for any other purpose, our heart is not in it, and we have adopted the attitude of the Pharisees.

So what have we learned? God is slighted when our laws supersede His. And He is not impressed with our lip service. So may our spiritual traditions be based on Scripture, and may we follow the teaching of Scripture in an effort to love God with all of our heart.


More in Matthew

May 1, 2011

The Great Conclusion

April 24, 2011

Resurrecting Hope (2)

April 17, 2011

The First Prerequisite To Resurrection