Jesus and the Traditions of Men

 As I mentioned here, I've begun journaling through the Gospel of Mark. I started on April 30, and haven't exactly been at it daily, but I'm up to chapter 7 now. 

This is not in-depth study but simply reading a passage and jotting down my thoughts. It's an attempt to let the text meet me where I am. Not that my thoughts are particularly deep or would be useful to anyone else (that's why it's a private journal), but it's my attempt to walk with Jesus. To familiarize myself with his words and ways. 

In chapter 7 the Pharisees are disputing with Jesus again. Mark's narrative goes back and forth between these disputatious encounters with religious authorities, episodes of miracle-working, and parables that serve as teaching moments with the disciples.

Anyway, in chapter 7, verse 13, Jesus says of the Pharisees, "you invalidate God's word through the traditions you teach." That's Wright's translation. In the KJV it says, "making the word of God of none effect through your tradition."

That's a harsh criticism, one Jew to another, wouldn't you say? Or moving to the Church era, one Christian to another.

Did people in the post-Acts era ever think the church, just then in its beginnings, would produce a lot of Christian Pharisees, elevating their traditions above the word of God? I've been reading Tom Holland's Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, and that book indicates we've been elevating tradition in this way from the start.

Which brings us to the question, are we still doing that? My gut tells me yes, because human nature hasn't actually changed in the last 2,000 years, but I don't have an example to hand. Keep in mind, Jesus is not criticizing tradition itself, but the putting of tradition in place of Gods word. Since the two greatest commands of God are to love God and to love one's neighbor as oneself, a tradition that stands between us and the neighbor, that separates and excludes, might be what we're looking for. The Pharisees--one gets the distinct feeling--esteemed themselves better and holier than those people that did not keep the traditions as assiduously as they did. 

What's the conclusion here? Be on your guard, Christian. Whatever comes between you and your neighbor, creating a hurdle the neighbor must cross before you can count him as a loved one, is probably a "tradition of men."