Thirteenth Sunday
after Pentecost August
26th, A.D. 2012
St John and Trinity
Lutheran Churches Fairview
and Sidney, MT
Mark 7:1-13 Vicar Jason Toombs
Grace,
Mercy, and Peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Is it wrong to hold to
traditions? This needs to be talked
about now more than ever. There are
people who like to claim that all traditions should be abandoned. They try to apply what Jesus said about
holding to the tradition of the elders to all tradition. Is that what Jesus was talking about in
today’s lesson? No. Jesus wants to know
what His hearers will hold onto. Will
they hold to the tradition of the elders or will they hold to Him?
Each one of us has traditions
that we follow. Some of these traditions
we realize when we do them, others we don’t.
Some of our traditions are handed down by our families. My family celebrates Christmas at
Thanksgiving on my dad’s side of the family so they can be with the other
family at Christmas. Some are handed
down by the culture in which we live. On
the first day of school there is a special breakfast and pictures taken here in
Montana. Others are handed down by our
American forefathers. Even the church
has traditions. It is not wrong to hold
to traditions, but we need to know why traditions are followed. If traditions are followed for the wrong
reason, then they could be wrong traditions, and should be though about before
following them.
One of the traditions that needs
to be avoided at all cost is blind tradition.
Blind tradition is tradition that is followed without question. This is the easiest tradition to abandon. Whenever someone is following a tradition,
they should ask, “What is the purpose of this tradition?” If they cannot think of an answer to that
question, then it could be a blind tradition.
But we don’t normally call something blind tradition, it goes by a
different name.
The name that it commonly goes by
is blind faith. This is when you believe
something without any proof, any rational reason, or anything else. When you simply believe something without
knowing why it is that you believe it.
There needs to be a reason why something is done, otherwise it is simply
a blind tradition, or belief, that should be abandoned if you cannot find a
reason for it. You might not know the
answer. If that’s the case, please talk
to other people about it before abandoning it because there could be a good
reason behind this tradition: phone a friend, poll the audience, or even do a
web search. Even Wikipedia can get the
answer right sometimes.
Today’s gospel lesson does not
deal with blind tradition or blind faith.
It deals with something closer to us.
It deals with historical tradition, the tradition of the elders. “For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not
eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the
elders.” The Pharisees pointed out that
Jesus’ disciples were eating with defiled, that is, unwashed hands. Their hands were not cleansed according to
the tradition of the elders. No good Jew
ate without washing their hands. But
this isn’t the same as telling your kids to wash up because suppers almost
done.
The Pharisees were talking about
a ritual washing that was handed down from the elders. If you went to the marketplace you hands were
considered unclean, defiled, or common.
Money was traded for goods in the marketplace. Your hands had come into contact with money,
with dirt, and possibly even with Gentiles, the common people. A good Jew had to ritually wash their hands
to make them clean again. After all,
they were the set apart people of God.
They traced their lineage back to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. They were not common people, they were clean
people.
In the Law of God handed down to
Moses there were many ways to be considered unclean or defiled. A few examples include: touching any dead
animal or person, going into a house where a leprous person was, touching an
unclean animal like a pig or a mouse, and many others that were handed down by
God. If you were unclean, you would be
cast off from the people and had to make a sin offering before you could join the
congregation at worship. But that’s
where it ends with the Law of God. The
only time that God specifically calls for a ritual washing is for the priests
who served in the temple. Only the
priests had to perform a ritual washing in order to serve the people.
The ritual washing that the
Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of not following was a tradition of the
elders, not a tradition handed down by God.
The disciples were not holding to the ritual washing handed down by the
elders. They did not ritually wash their
hands, not to mention the cups, the pots, the copper vessels, or even the
dining couches. The disciples had eaten
the bread with common hands. What a
blasphemous action that Jesus’ disciples were doing in the eyes of the
Pharisees. They had come to the table
with unwashed hands. The Pharisees and
the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the
tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
Jesus answers their question with
a reference to our Old Testament reading this morning, “Well did Isaiah
prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘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.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold
to the tradition of men.” Jesus heads
right to the point of the matter, will they hold to the tradition of the elders
or will they hold to what God hands down?
Jesus rightly pointed out that in all of the Law of God handed down to
Moses the ritual washing before a meal never comes up for the Pharisee and
Jew. The Jews were holding to the
tradition of the elders rather than to what God had commanded them. The Jews had played lip service to the Torah,
the Law of God, but their hearts were far from Him. Jesus condemns them for it.
Are we any better off? We don’t hold to tradition for tradition
sake, do we? Lord willing we don’t. There have been times that we have modified
certain traditions within the church. We
have updated the Bible translation that we use because of more modern language
and wanting to stick closer to a natural translation, rather than a
paraphrase. We have updated our hymnals
to include some new songs that proclaim the gospel in song. Lutherans hold to certain traditions because
they were handed down by God. The
traditions that we follow fall into two different camps, those based directly
on Scripture and those through Scripture.
We echo the words of St. Paul
from First Corinthians 2, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus
Christ and Him crucified.” We hold fast
to Jesus, the crucified one. We cling to
the cross because Jesus went there for you.
He loved you so much that He suffered and was crushed by your sins upon
the cross. He paid for your sins there
and has taken them from you. You should
no longer cling to your sins. Instead,
cling to Jesus on the cross.
We also agree with St. Paul from
Romans 6 because we were also baptized into His death. This tradition was handed down by Jesus in
Matthew 28. He washes you clean of all
of your sins. The word for the ritual
washing is the same word that is used for baptism. But this washing is no mere ritual washing
passed down from the elders. This was
instituted by Christ and is His tradition.
He has all the authority of heaven and earth and baptizes us with water
and His Word. In your baptism you are
baptized into Christ. You are made one
body through Him, you have been engrafted into His bride, the church.
He also commands that we teach
the baptized. We have the kids learn and
recite Luther’s Small Catechism. Some
claim that this is simply a tradition that has been passed down and should be
avoided. They miss the point when they
claim this. Luther’s Small Catechism is
nothing but a basic summary of the Bible.
Luther formulated this so that parents, godparents, and everyone could
help the children learn what God has done for them in Jesus Christ. The Small Catechism keeps the focus on what
God has done for us, sending forth His Son to die upon the cross for your
sins. The catechism allows all people to
know what the central teachings of the Bible are: the Ten Commandments, the
Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, Confession
and the Office of the Keys, and the Sacrament of the Altar. These six chief parts are summaries of what
God has given to us, a true confession of what the Bible teaches.
This is also what the liturgy is
designed to do. Some people like to
claim that “Traditional, Liturgical Churches” are simply following a tradition
passed down from men. They claim that
the liturgy is “old fashioned” and should be avoided. This was a charge given to those who gathered
to bring together the Lutheran Service Book.
If you open the hymnal to almost any page you will see in smaller black
print the scripture verses that are directly quoted or paraphrased. Even the hymns have this wonderful
feature. Most of the parts of the
liturgy are scripture verses that God has handed down to His people. The liturgy forms these into sections and
puts them into the mouths of the speakers.
We are basically saying, chanting, and singing the Bible, God’s Word,
back and forth to one another.
We have seen that the church has
been washed in the blood of Christ and made His bride. She has also been given His Holy Word to
hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.
This is the chief reason that the scriptures are read in the service. We are to hold to Jesus by holding fast to
what He has given us. He wants us to
know His saving truth. This was the
reason that God inspired the scriptures.
They are not the musings of men, they are the very Word of God. They have been penned by the saints who have
come before us, some who have seen God, while others have heard His voice.
The apostles heard God speaking
to them in Jesus Christ. They were there
with Him when He instituted His meal for His people. He took bread and gave it to His disciples. Over the last few weeks we have heard that
Jesus is the true bread from heaven.
Keep this in mind as His body is true food for His bride. He also gave true drink to His bride so that
she would never thirst again. He poured
out His blood on the cross for you and gives it to you in His Supper. We hold fast to Jesus when we partake of the
meal that He instituted for the forgiveness of your sins.
The church holds fast to Jesus
and what He has given to her. She holds
fast to baptism, the washing of water combined with God’s Word. She feeds her members with Our Lord’s very
body and blood in His Supper. The
pastors proclaim the absolution because Christ has handed over the keys to
loosing and forgiving these sins.
Everything that is done within the church service is done to the glory
of God. We do these things because we
honor the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Everything that we receive from the Lord is His gift given for you. Amen.
The
peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
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