The presence of traditions is not the problem. It is the way in which we experience them. And on this day, Jesus reminds us of His presence, so all of us experience His grace.
I once attended a church where the altar guild used a yardstick to measure the placement of the candles on the altar. There was nothing wrong with this arrangement. It ensured the altar candles were consistently placed in the same position and that the position of the candles on the altar aided and did not distract from worship.
Again, there was nothing wrong with this arrangement, to be sure, but there was something wrong with the way it was enforced. Several times there were women who wanted to serve at the altar of God but, instead, suffered on the altar of precision. One Sunday, a new member of the altar guild was serving. After the early service, the chair of the altar guild made a big production of going back to the altar guild room and getting the yardstick and “fixing” the placement of the candles. Unfortunately, the newest member had moved one candle in preparing the altar and she was now made to feel inadequate in her service.
All was right with the altar of God, but something had gone wrong with the altar of the human heart. Priorities were misplaced. Candles were more important than people. Rules and regulations were more important than relationships. And the work God was doing, bringing a new member into relationship with others as they served in the Church, was destroyed.
Why? Because the place of a candlestick on an altar was more important than the place of a child in God’s Kingdom. Holding too tightly to human traditions carries a human cost.
For you, it may not be a candlestick. It could be that time you went to a restaurant with friends from church and started eating before saying a prayer. Your friends patiently waited for you to stop chewing and then suggested everyone should pray. As you put down your fork, you felt awkward like you did not really belong. A subtle distinction was made between those who were really Christians, who always pray before every meal, and those who may need to step up their game.
In following Jesus, God’s people form patterns of life which honor God and His work in the world. These patterns are not wrong. Often, they are good and give shape to our lives. But there is something more important to God than these patterns, and that is His people. God would rather have people without the patterns of religion than the patterns of religion without people. To God, a heart without traditions is better than traditions without a heart.
To God, a heart without traditions is better than traditions without a heart.
In our reading this morning, Jesus confronts this problem with the religious rulers of His day. Jesus is healing the sick. Think about that. The small social spaces in Galilee were seeing the great kingdom work of God. Whether it was a village or a town or the countryside, people were bringing their sick out into the marketplaces and Jesus was bringing God’s Kingdom into their lives. People were seeing God’s gracious rule coming to Galilee in a very powerful way.
But the religious leaders from Jerusalem were seeing something different. Rather than look at Jesus and rather than look at the people who are being healed, they looked at the disciples. They saw these followers eating without cleansing their hands according to tradition. And that small infraction of tradition overshadowed the larger graciousness of God.
The religious leaders ask Jesus to explain His disciples’ actions. Jesus, however, does something else. Instead of explaining the actions of His disciples, He explains the actions of the religious leaders. He uses Scripture to awaken them to the fact that they had loved their human traditions more than God. Their rules and regulations had become so important that they blinded them to the work God was doing among His people.
Jesus reaches back into Israel’s history and quotes Isaiah, saying, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (7:6-7). Whether you are in the eighth century BC, the first century AD, or the twenty-first century, the problem is perennial. Whenever God’s people gather, they have the danger of putting their human traditions before people.
But God does something different. God puts people first. He comes to cleanse not the hands but the heart and that leads to Jesus dying so people could live, without clinging to traditions for their standing before God. When Jesus was crucified, the religious leaders had Pilate remove His body before evening. Why? Because they wanted to keep the Sabbath (John 19:31). When the religious leaders crucified Jesus, they lost their God, but they kept their tradition.
Jesus, however, did not stay dead. He rose and ascended into Heaven, and now rules over all things. He has borne the consequences for any uncleanness and suffered the punishment for any and every sin. In Him, you are forgiven. There is nothing now which can separate you from God’s love. We are His, with or without our traditions.
As we gather in worship today, we do so in the midst of traditions. Whether our worship is historic or contemporary, there are traditions that guide our interaction with one another and with God. Because this is so, it is good for us to hear this story from Mark. Jesus calls us to experience grace. That grace is present for you, with or without traditions, because Christ is present for you, with or without traditions. The presence of traditions is not the problem. It is the way in which we experience them. And on this day, Jesus reminds us of His presence, so all of us experience His grace.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Mark 7:1-13.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Mark 7:1-13.
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Mark 7:1-13.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
