The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Mark 7:1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, 2 and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) 5 The Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?” 6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. 7 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ 8 Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” 9 He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death’; 11 but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ 12 you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; 13 thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.” (NASB)

The assigned Old Testament and Gospel lessons assigned for this morning are rather well known Bible verses among some Christian traditions. They are often employed by Christians’ whose tradition it is to shun formal traditions in the church. These folks will often quote Isaiah 29:13 “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote.”
Some argue that using formal liturgy, saying creeds, speaking the Lord’s Prayer, and focusing on the sacraments are all the trappings of human traditions and harmful to Christian faith. But the historic biblical liturgy is the very words of God in song and sun form. The Creeds are nothing more than a short statement of Who God is and what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have done for us and for our salvation. We were instructed by Jesus Himself to speak the Lord’s Prayer. He commanded the church to baptize, to forgive sins, and to partake of the Sacrament of the Altar. From start to finish the historic biblical liturgy and church service is saying back to God and to each other what God Himself has given us to say and sing.
In the Mark 7 Jesus invoked the Isaiah text against the Pharisees who confronted Him over an alleged violation of the law. Jesus said 7:6 “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. 7 But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. 8 Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”
Jesus scolded the Scribes and Pharisees for holding on so rigidly to (and I quote) “the traditions of men.” 8 “‘Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.’ In verse 9 He clarifies what He meant. 9 He was also saying to them, ‘You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.’” It is the setting aside of what God has said and taught in favor of the pursuit of sinful man’s philosophies and teachings.
A tradition after all is “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way.” In other words, a tradition is a way to teach and pass on beliefs and rituals over time. So a tradition in and of itself is nothing more than a servant to something other than itself.
A tradition can serve a positive purpose or tradition can serve a destructive purpose. Traditions are just part and parcel of normal human communication, teaching, and learning process. Even Christians who shun obvious liturgical traditions end up creating their own routines that shape how they worship and what they believe. When the old traditions are overthrown by the modern congregations, all they are doing is replacing with new less theological and more harmful traditions. Very often they are setting aside the words of God in replacing them with their own words. It is simple human nature. The less we think and use the words of God, the further away we get from the Word of God.
Lutherans are a biblical, traditional, and liturgical church. Our church services are written down. I have my parts to say and do and you have your parts to say and do. We follow a certain form of worship and in so doing we are teaching ourselves and others what Jesus teaches in His Word and what we believe. These services have been handed down from generation to generation. Many of the elements of the services go back thousands of years. We follow a church calendar that emphasizes various seasons, such as Advent, and Christmas, Lent, and Easter, and the like. Each season teaches us about the person and work of Christ and what it means to be Christian in the world.
The traditions we follow are good, helpful, and beneficial to Christian faith. They serve the Word of God. They do not eclipse the Word of God. They focus on Law and Gospel because and root us in the foundation set in place by God through the prophets and the apostles.
As for the Old Testament and the Gospel lesson, they do not reject the use of traditions to communicate the faith. That is a misreading of what the text. Isaiah 29 and Mark 7 do not reject traditions. They reject replacing God’s Word, His person, His work, and the true work of the Church with the precepts and religious notions of sinful man. The word tradition here here is paradosis, which means to give over, to pass on from generation to generation percepts and doctrines. It does not merely refer to customs, rituals, and rites. It is a reference to the entire process, especially the “what” of that which is being passed on.
Listen again, 6 And [Jesus] said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. 7 But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ 8 Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”
The whole problem began because the religious leaders replaced the teachings and commands of God with their own teachings and commands. They grew up traditions that re-enforced their twisted understanding of the religion of the Old Testament.
“1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes . . . had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.)” These rules and regulations were all about feeding a religion self and works righteousness. Their doctrine and practice had nothing to do with “the washing of regeneration” that welled up to everlasting life–Holy Baptism.
Jesus tells the Pharisees, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.” He gave an example of how they had replaced the Word of God with their own ideas. While God’s Word commands that they honor father and mother and take care of the same in old age, the religious leaders taught they were to divert their resources for purely religious purposes and forsake their parents, 13 “thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition.”
In Matthew 23:7 Jesus said “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”
They had long forgotten the doctrines of the Old Testament and replaced them with their own teachings, then created traditions to re-enforce and pass on their religious beliefs. They had gone so far a field that they were leading people away from God and His promised Messiah and away from the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. They trust less and less in God for salvation and more and more in their own works and traditions.
The Bible makes it simple. Traditions are bad when they lead us away from Christ and His Word. They are good when they communicate God’s Word and draw us to Christ.
Our fathers in the faith handed down the traditions of the church. Listen to how St. Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 15:3 “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” St. Paul didn’t create doctrine. He simply passed on what He had been taught by Scripture. At the time he wrote 1 Corinthians the Scripture consisted of the Old Testament.
He also wrote these verses too. (1 Corinthians 11:2) “Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.” Traditions he had received he delivered to them. (Colossians 2:8) “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15) “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.”
Starting all the way back with the Apostles, God preserved His church and spread the Gospel throughout the world by His Word embodied in paradosis, godly traditions. The traditions were God’s word put into various forms. As time went on many ungodly traditions, percepts of men crept into the church and eclipsed the Gospel.
The Lutheran reformers understood the potential of traditions. They instructed us on how we are to treat tradition, including the form of worship. In the Augsburg Confession and the Defense of the Augsburg Confession we have Articles dedicated to the right use of traditions. “With regard to (traditions) that have been established by men, it is taught among us that those traditions are to be observed which may be observed without sin and which contribute to peace and good order in the church . . . Yet we accompany these observances with instruction so that consciences may not be burdened by the notion that such things are necessary for salvation. Moreover it is taught that all ordinances and traditions instituted by men for the purpose of appeasing God and earning grace are contrary to the Gospel and the teaching about faith in Christ.”
We follow certain worship forms on Sunday morning, not because they make us acceptable to God, or because they are necessary for our salvation. We follow them because they contain the words of God and speak God’s Word to us. For “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.”
The scribes and Pharisees were all about ritual washings that cleaned only the flesh. But Jesus came to give a different washing. St. Paul himself gave up all those useless ritual washings and wrote this in the Epistle lesson. Ephesians 5:25 “As Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”
This Baptism is not a tradition of the elders. It is the Word of Christ. This is the water and the word, the washing that gives forgiveness, holiness, blamelessness. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? . . if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Romans 6:3,5)
The scribes and Pharisees were right in thinking that washing was important. They were wrong in thinking that it was the washing of the “tradition of the elders” that pleased God.
The important washing is the washing away of sin for the sake of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. In the tradition of Holy Baptism the Holy Spirit delivers the forgiveness of sins. In the tradition of the Lord’s Supper He remits your sin. And in the tradition of Confession and Absolution, He forgives your sin. “Today, in the stead and by the command of Christ, I forgive you all of your sins. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life Amen

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AMEN.
MAY THE PEACE THAT SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEART AND MIND IN CHRIST JESUS. AMEN.

Paradosis, Tradition!

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