Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16B)

August 25, 2024

Text: Mark 7:1-13

            The problem isn’t tradition.  The fact is, you have many traditions you hold sacred and inviolable.  Family traditions.  Holiday traditions.  Traditions that unite you with others, and fill your time together with meaning.  A tradition is simply a thing which has been handed on, or perhaps handed down from a previous generation, from the Latin tradere, which means to hand over.  I’ll bet you have one tradition which isn’t all that different from the Pharisees and Scribes.  Your mother handed it over to you.  That is, wash your hands before you eat.  If that isn’t your tradition, it should be.  Gross!  But not because “Thus saith the LORD.”  Not as a matter of merit before God.  Not for the reason the Pharisees observe the custom.  Not as a matter of protecting yourself against the uncleanness of Gentiles and sinners.  Rather, because that is how you protect yourself and your neighbor against the spread of germs.  Or, at the very least, because in this way, you honor your mother, which is your Fourth Commandment duty.

            But we Lutherans often make a false distinction between Scripture and tradition.  It is true, not all traditions are scriptural.  Rome and the East add human traditions (as well as the magisterium) to Scripture as a rule and norm for their doctrine and life.  We should not do this.  Some traditions may be sinful, in which case we ought not participate.  But other traditions may be fine and good, but neither commanded nor forbidden in Scripture.  In that case, they are a matter of Christian freedom.  We call the adiaphora. 

            But strictly speaking, beloved, by definition, Scripture itself is a tradition.  The Bible has been handed down to us.  And all within the Bible is the handing down to us of God’s self-revelation.  God hands it down through previous generations of the faithful.  It is literally tradition.  St. Paul, for example, uses the word in any number of places.  Here are just two examples from First Corinthians.  First, with regard to the Lord’s Supper, 1 Corinthians 11, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you,” handed on, παρέδωκα in Greek, tradidi (tradition!) in the Latin Vulgate, namely, “that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,” etc. (v. 23; ESV), whereupon follow the Words of Institution for the Lord’s Supper.  The Words of Jesus, recorded in the Gospels, and the Supper itself, are traditions handed down. 

            Okay, second, from the great resurrection chapter, First Corinthians 15 (v. 3 ff): “For I delivered to you,” handed on, παρέδωκα, tradidi, tradition-ed to you, “as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas,” etc.  Sounds like the Creed, doesn’t it?  The Creed, whether we’re talking Apostles’, or Nicene, or Athanasian, our creedal faith is a tradition, handed down to us, from previous generations, yes, and from the Scriptures themselves. 

            And here is the point: These are divine traditions, not over against the Scriptures or the Commandments of God, but they are the Scriptures and Commandments of God.  It is important to keep this in mind in light of our American Lutheran inclination toward anti-traditionalism.  Some traditions are from the Bible, and it is a sin not to keep them.  Jesus isn’t preaching against these in our Holy Gospel.  The Ten Commandments, including the Fourth Commandment, are traditions handed down to us in Scripture.  The Lord’s Prayer is a tradition handed down to us in Scripture.  Much of our liturgy is just the singing of Scripture as it has been handed down to us.  Don’t hear in this Gospel that you should never keep traditions.  That is just the rebelliousness of your sinful flesh. 

            Then, as we said, there are helpful and godly traditions not handed down in Scripture, but propagated by the wisdom of previous generations.  We already mentioned family traditions.  Perhaps we could have mentioned civic traditions, like singing the national anthem.  For our purposes, we can think also of religious and Church traditions: the folding our hands and bowing our heads for prayer, kneeling, making the sign of the cross.  The furnishings of the Church.  The robes on the pastor.  And so on.  These are matters of Christian freedom, to be sure.  We adopt some, and forego others without sin.  We dare not insist on these things as a matter of merit before God, or the test of orthodoxy.  But here G. K. Chesterton’s warning is apropos: If you don’t see the use of something… in his analogy, it is a fence… don’t just tear it down.  Go away and think about what the use might be.  Ask.  Investigate.  Then, if you know the use, you have the freedom to tear it down.  But you just might agree, once you know the use of it, that the fence, the tradition, is a very good thing.

            But if the problem isn’t tradition, then what is Jesus preaching against in our Holy Gospel?  Two things: First, the hypocrisy of honoring God with the lips, while the heart is far from Him.  And second, preferring the traditions of men over the commandments of God, thus making void the Word of God by those very traditions.

            The Pharisees and Scribes honored God with their lips.  “We observe these traditions, like washing our hands, our pots and kettles, our dining couches, because of our great piety.  In this way, we display our righteousness, especially over against the common people, and these ignorant disciples of Jesus, who dive right into the meal before the ceremonial washing.”  What is the issue?  Not the washing.  Go ahead, wash your hands.  Again, I encourage it.  But the thinking that such washing makes you righteous before God, and the comparison of your show of righteousness over against others.  Self-righteousness is the issue, self-justification, rather than justification by Jesus Christ alone.  And the tearing down of others to make yourself look good in your own eyes, in the eyes of others, and in the eyes of God.  How do we do that?  Maybe not with washing our hands (although maybe that, especially in recent years).  How about, “I make the sign of the cross, and that guy doesn’t, therefore I am a better Christian than he is!”  Or, “That guy makes the sign of the cross, the show off!  The Pharisee!”  “I do what I do because I am more righteous than that guy, who does what he does.”  Repent of that, beloved.  Repent of that.  Mark this: Any shred of self-justification, as opposed to justification received as a free gift in Christ, by His righteousness, betrays a heart far from God.

            Second, the Pharisees taught their own man-made traditions as doctrine, even over and above the Commandments of God.  So Jesus gives the example of Corban, saying to one’s parents, “Sorry, Mom and Dad, I can’t help you in your old age, because whatever money I would use to do that, I’ve given to the Church.”  Now, giving money to the Church is a good and noble thing.  But not over and above our Fourth Commandment duty to care for our mother and father.  That makes void the Word of God in favor of a man-made tradition.  How do we do similar things?  How about (just for example), “I know what the Bible says about sexuality and marriage, but I have to support my sister living together with her boyfriend, or my son’s homosexual relationship, because, you know… love!”  That is making void the Word of God by a rather popular social tradition.  “I know what the Bible says about God’s gift of life, but I have to support my daughter in procuring an abortion, because she’s too young to be saddled with a kid.”  That is making void the Word of God by the tradition of conventional wisdom, which is anything but.  Where have such deceptions taken root in your heart, beloved?  Repent of that.  Repent.

            Hold fast to what God has handed down to you in Holy Scripture.  Not traditions over and above the Word of God, but the Word of God itself handed down to you.  Christ died for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.  Christ is risen for you, for your justification and life.  He alone is your righteousness.  He restores you to the Father.  He pours out His Spirit upon you.  His Words are Spirit and Life (John 6:63).  Keep them.  Guard them.  Observe them.  Do them.  Treasure them.  And then, yes, keep the best traditions of men in service to what is handed down from God.  The robes.  The furnishings.  The folding of the hands.  Find out the use of the thing.  Keep whatever is good.  Discard the rest. 

            And honor your mother by washing your hands, because that is what she told you to do, and it is good.  But above all, rejoice, that whether you washed before the meal or not, you and your neighbor are clean, because you’ve been washed in Jesus.  Baptism.  And having been washed in Jesus, it’s time to eat.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.