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INTRODUCTION
SLIDE 1 Do you have any family traditions? When I was growing up the tradition was to have a Christmas Eve party with my mother’s side of the family. We also gathered on the 4th of July and Thanksgiving. As my cousins and I grew up and started having families those gatherings grew close to a hundred. Sadly, they don’t have them like they used to.
I came across these interesting family traditions.
SLIDE 2 Jason Baily and his father Christopher were big fans of Walsall soccer team and attended nearly every match together. After Christopher had passed away, Jason began took his father’s dentures to a playoff in 2001, where Walsall won against Reading. Ever since then, he’s brought dad’s false teeth to every match he attends. He made the news when he pledged to attend a Walsall match vs. Bristol City with the teeth and even give them a kiss for extra luck. Sadly, Bristol City easily won the match.
SLIDE 3 Mike began having his picture taken with a mall Santa in 1980 when he was just one. Even joined the in four years later when he was born. They’ve had their picture taken with Santa every year since. More than thirty years later the brothers are still having their picture taken but now include their own children in the photo.
SLIDE 4 The Gose family of Brownsburg, Indiana started a photo tradition in 1958. It started with Charles Gose who wore this sweater for his class photo and then a couple of his cousins wore in their class pictures a few years later. In 1982 his son Chuck wore it and here is Chuck’s son Brady sporting this sixty year-old sweater for his class picture.
SLIDE 5 If you think that sounds funny it doesn’t hold a candle to Smith’s family tradition that began out of necessity but continues to this day. In 1950, the Smith family was too poor to pay for a new pair of pants for their eldest son’s high school graduation, so Poppa Smith lent his pinstripe pants to his son. He did the same thing for his other two sons, creating a Smith tradition that has lasted four generations. So far, 15 members of the Smith family have worn these same pants, which have had quite a bit of wear-and-tear over the years. They are now in a closet until the next of the clan graduates in 2023.
This last tradition is similar, but I think more dignified.
SLIDE 6 This Victorian-styled dress was first worn by Mary Lowry Warren in 1895. Abigail, pictured here, was just 5-years-old the first time she saw it. It was worn by an aunt – the 6th wedding at which it was worn. By the time she was ready to marry, it had been worn by four other brides and was in terrible shape. With the help of a dry cleaner and over 200 hours of restoration, Abigail walked down the aisle on October 17, 2015. This wedding gown has now been passed down for eleven generations. That’s something to be proud of.
Maybe you’ve heard the story of the newlywed who called her mother asking directions for cooking a pot roast. When her mother said the first step was to cut the roast in half she asked why. Her mother said she didn’t know, but that’s what her mother had taught her. So she called her grand-mother and asked why she always cut her pot roast in half. Her grandmother said she didn’t know but that it was how her mother had taught her. Since her great-grandmother was still living she call and asked her why she always cut her pot roast in half before cooking it. Her great-grandmother replied, “When I first got married I didn’t have a pot large enough for the pot roast so I would cut it in half. Three generations later her granddaughter was still cutting her pot roast in half even though she had a pot large enough.
Some traditions are good, some are funny, and some just don’t make sense.
SERMON
SLIDE 1 Our text this evening comes from Matthew 15. We finished chapter 14 last week, but I skipped the last few verses. So before we watch the video with tonight’s passage I want to read those last three verses. These take place after Jesus walked out to the disciples on the water.
34When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. (Matthew 14:24-26)
When the men of the region recognized Jesus, they sent into all of the surrounding area for the sick and needy. This was a contrast to the attitude of the people of Nazareth. In Nazareth we’re told Jesus was unable to do many miracles because of their lack of faith. But here in Gennesaret the people come flocking to Jesus for healing. These are a people who believe. In fact, their faith is his ability to heal is so great that they are convinced if they only touch the hem of his garment they’ll be made whole. This is the reaction of the people, but in our passage tonight we will see the reaction of the religious leaders who have made a four day trip from Jerusalem to come and see Jesus.
Video
The main theme in this story is hypocrisy. Some religious leaders – Pharisees and teachers of the law – have come to see Jesus. Jesus refers to the religious leaders as hypocrites. Jesus referred to hypocrites in chapter 6 in the Sermon on the Mount when he talked about some religious practices. The hypocrites, Jesus said, loved to give money so everyone could see them and applaud them. The hypocrites loved to pray out on the streets where everyone could see and hear them. And hypocrites love to fast in a way that everyone can see them and think well of them.
As I’ve mentioned at that time, the word hypocrite originally referred to an actor on the stage. A hypocrite was someone who pretended to be someone they were not. We like actors. I think of John Wayne and some of the roles he played. Or maybe Johnny Depp and some of his memorable roles. When actors do a good job of pretending to be someone else we applaud them and give them awards. It’s a good thing. However, the word came to describe anyone who pretended to be someone they were not. And that’s exactly what Jesus was saying about the scribes and Pharisees. They pretended to be right with God when in fact they were not.
These religious leaders had traveled a great distance in order to see Jesus. The religious leaders in Galilee had not been able to contain him so they same to see if they could. And they begin by accusing his disciples of breaking a tradition. They don’t accuse Jesus of breaking it, but they accuse his disciples.
A ultimate goal of a disciple was to become like his teacher. Jesus had said in chapter 10:
It is enough for students to be like their teachers. . . . (Matthew 10:25a)
If a student did poorly it was a reflection on the teacher. So when the religious leaders called out the disciples they were in effect casting aspersions on Jesus. “Why,” they asked, “don’t your disciples wash their hands before they eat? They are breaking the traditions.” They are at least recognizing that the washing of hands was a tradition and not a law.
How many of you were ever sent from the table and told to go wash your hands before you ate? Probably most of the guys were told that at least once. Maybe even once a week. When your mother told you to go wash your hands it was because you had been outside playing and your hands were dirty. That’s not what the religious leaders were talking about. You could have just taken a bath, but you would still be required to wash your hands. It wasn’t a physical cleaning they were concerned about, but a spiritual one. And they had precise guidelines you were to follow in order to wash correctly. But here were the disciples of Jesus ignoring these traditions. If they started there, where would they end? Society would crumble.
I’m not sure what Jesus’ reaction to that was, but I know what mine would have been. I would have rolled my eyes. The disciples had already been accused of breaking the law when they picked grain on the Sabbath. Now they are being charged with breaking some traditions.
Jesus responds to the charge the way he usually responds to things like this. He doesn’t address it outright, but points to some thing else that will actually get to the heart of the issue they are raising. The real issue was their traditions. Were you a better Jew because you kept the traditions? Were you a worse Jew if you didn’t?
Jesus asks them about their own traditions that cause them to break the law. The disciples were not breaking the law when they broke the tradition, but they were breaking the law when they kept some of their traditions. Specifically, he was talking about the tradition of dedicating something to God – called corban.
Corban was the practice dedicating some money or property to God. For example, if I owned a house I could dedicate my house to God. I would continue to live in it, but when I died everyone would know that the house would go to the church. Or I could dedicate my checking account to God. I’ll continue to use it, but after I die everything remaining in it would go to the church. That’s not a bad thing. People still do that today though we don’t call it corban.
The problem Jesus was pointing out was they used their declaration of their money being dedicated to God as an excuse for not helping their parents. There were no retirement plans and no social security. As you grew old it was the responsibility of your children to help take care of you. That’s one reason it was beneficial to have lots of children. In the Old Testament law God had also commanded his people to take care of their parents. But the religious leaders were using this tradition of dedicating their valuables to God as an excuse for not providing for their parents. “I would love to help you, but all the money I have has already been dedicated to God.”
Jesus is often portrayed as meek and mild – and he was – but he was also not afraid to say what needed to be said. And here Jesus comes out and calls the religious leaders just what they were – they were hypocrites.
7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 8“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” (Matthew 15:7-9)
The problem was the Pharisees had a high view of tradition and a low view of God’s word. They valued their history and their traditions more than they valued God’s laws.
The accusation of the religious leaders was the disciples of Jesus weren’t taking seriously the traditions. They weren’t washing their hands before they ate like they were supposed to.
Joseph Parker, a popular theologian and preacher of the late 1800s was approached after a sermon. The man said, “Dr. Parker, you made a grammatical error in your sermon.” He then proceeded to point out the error. Joseph Parker looked at the man and said, “And what else did you get out of my sermon?” Some people look only for errors.
It started off with a letter printed in the British Weekly, which went like this
Dear Sir: I have been attending a church quite regularly for the past thirty years. To my consternation, I discovered that I couldn’t remember a single sermon. I wonder if a minister’s time might be more profitably spent on something else? Sincerely. . . .
For weeks, a huge storm of editorial responses ensued. The uproar finally was ended by another letter.
Dear Sir: I have been married for thirty years. During that time, I have eaten 32,580 meals – mostly of my wife’s cooking. And suddenly, I have discovered that I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet, I have received nourishment from every single one of them. I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death long ago. Sincerely. . . .
Judge Harold Medina said,
Criticizing others is a dangerous thing, not so much because you may make mistakes about them, but because you may be revealing the truth about yourself.
The criticisms the Pharisees and teachers of the law were making told more about themselves than it did about the disciples. It showed their high regard for their traditions and their low regard for God’s laws.
The traditions they were referring to were the explanations of the law that had been handed down generation after generation. These traditions had become a fence around the Law of God to keep people from breaking God’s law.
If you want to keep your children out of the street you put up a fence. That what the traditions did. If breaking the law was playing in the street, the traditions kept you several feet from the street so you couldn’t play in it. The idea was that it was far less dangerous for a person to transgress the fence around the law than to transgress the law itself. The problem was that this “fence” had become a law unto itself and these traditions meant to help people understand and apply the law of God had become legalistic.
Legalism is when human opinion is elevated to divine standard. It was a problem in Jesus day and can be a problem in our day if we’re not careful.
A group of women approached the preacher with a problem after the service. It seemed a woman who had just started attending the church did not wear stocking. They were shocked by the indecency and asked the preacher to talk to her about it. The preacher responded, “Did you know that Mary didn’t wear stockings?” Well no, they had never thought about it. “Do you know where stockings first came from?” he asked. They didn’t didn’t. “Stockings,” he said, “originated in Italy where they were worn by the prostitutes trying to attract the attention of men.” That ended the conversation.
We need to make sure we don’t place our traditions above the word of God. Traditions can be helpful. They can being comforting. They can help create community. But we can’t allow our traditions to become more important to us than God’s commands.
A few weeks ago I was approached by someone who doesn’t attend here and asked about how often someone should take communion. It sounded like he was attending a church where communion is taken every week. We think that’s a good thing. The problem he was having is he was being made to feel like it was a sin if he didn’t take communion every week. Is it a sin to miss communion? Are we commanded to take communion every week?
Almost twenty years ago we went on a cruise. We thought we were leaving on a Sunday afternoon so we were making plans as to where we could go to church that morning before boarding the ship. However, when the papers arrived in the mail for the trip we discovered we would be boarding the ship on Saturday which meant we’d be on the ship on Sunday. That wouldn’t be a problem though. Once on the ship we’d get some crackers and grape juice. How hard would that be? It was easy to get the crackers but we never could find any grape juice – at least not the unfermented kind. We asked. They didn’t have any. What do you do?
Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying:
23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-25)
When we eat the bread and drink from the cup we should do so in remembrance of Jesus and his death for us, but how often should we do it? We think every week is good and we think so because of the example of the early church. In Acts we read:
On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. (Acts 20:7)
This is the example we have. We don’t have a command, but we do have this example. And so our tradition is to take communion every Sunday. Do I think it’s a good thing to take communion every Sunday? Yes. Do I wish other churches would take communion every Sunday? Yes. Are they less of a Christian if they don’t take communion every Sunday? That’s between them and God. I can’t allow my tradition to become more important than God’s word and there’s no where in the Bible that commands we take communion every Sunday.
A few days ago I was discussing a tradition we don’t practice. I was raised in the Presbyterian church as was my mother and her mother. We were all christened as infants. My mother was raised attending the church. She says she was there every time the door was open. She was a part of the youth group and in high school sang in the choir. After she was married she continued going to church. She continued singing in the choir and for a few years taught a children’s Sunday school class. But she would later say that she wasn’t saved till several years later.
As a freshman at Johnson I took a doctrine class. As part of the class we studied baptism. During fall break I went home and was baptized along with my mother and my grandmother.
Believers baptism isn’t a tradition, it’s a command. Jesus instructed the disciples to go into all the world making disciples. How were they to make disciples? They were to baptize them and teach them to obey everything Jesus had taught them. Most every salvation story in the book of Acts records how the individual or individuals were baptized. It was the command of Jesus and the practice of the early church. That’s why we still do it today.
After calling out the religious leaders Jesus calls the people to him to teach them a lesson. It’s not what goes into your mouth that makes you defiled or unclean and thus separated from God, it’s what comes out of your mouth. It’s what you say and that has nothing to do with washing your hands before you eat. Our standing before God is more than traditions, it is a relationship. When we follow traditions it’s tempting to think we’re OK because we done everything we’re supposed to do. It then becomes about what we’ve done and not about what Jesus did on the cross for us. It’s not doing the right thing that makes us clean, but the blood of Jesus.
Traditions call attention to the outward appearance while ignoring who a person really is. Traditions lead us to judge others by what they look like. But you’ll remember that God told Samuel that he judges the heart.
Mark Schmidt tells the story of attending an outdoor Christian festival. His wife was in a Christian band that was playing that day. During the day he kept seeing all of these rather rough looking bikers and began to wonder to himself what all those heathens doing there? Then he finally noticed their leather vests which simply said, “Sons of God.” They were Christian bikers and they were going around the festival serving the groups that were playing and witnessing to the lost. Mark admits that he was judging them based on what he saw on the outside, but God was seeing them based on what is on the inside. That’s where tradition will lead us if we’re not careful.
When the Pharisees and scribes had left and the crowds went home the disciples approached Jesus. They could believe what he’d told the religious leaders. They made sure Jesus knew how he had insulted them. But Jesus wasn’t concerned. He called them blind guides and told the disciples they’d be better off staying away from them. The religious leaders were talking to the Son of God, their long awaited Messiah and didn’t know it because they were more concerned with their traditions. We can not allow our traditions to become more important to us that our relationship to Jesus.
We aren’t saved because there’s a bumper sticker on our car that says so, or because we carry around a twenty pound Bible, or because we wear a religious t-shirt or wear a cross around our necks. We are saved because of our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus teaches us to focus on the things which matter most – our relationship with him. How is your focus?