Mark 7 gives us some insight into Jesus' battle with the Pharisees. "Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is without washing them. (For Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, 'Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?' He said to them, 'Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.'" (Mark 7:1-8).
The rest of Mark 7 deals with the issue of human tradition vs. God's commands and what it actually means to be "unclean". Later in the chapter, after Jesus journeys north to Gentile territory, he encounters a Syrophoenician woman whose daughter is possessed by an unclean spirit. Being a Gentile, many Jews would have considered the woman to be unclean as well. Jesus hits this issue head-on, even using a common "racial" slur that Jews would throw around regarding Gentiles (dogs). Jesus' tactic really brought the message home! He points his disciples ahead to a time when the global reign of the kingdom of God will extend far beyond the borders of Israel. God's kingdom will be for male and female, slave and free, Jew and Gentile. His disciples needed to know that it wasn't just the religious leaders who had held onto some cherished traditions that Jesus was more than happy to dismantle.
And that brings us back to the value, or lack-there-of, of tradition. Are traditions valuable? Do they play an important role in society and church? Or are they "merely" human teachings that must be discarded at the first opportunity? It depends.
It's been said that "tradition" is the living faith of dead people and that "traditionalism" is the dead faith of living people. In other words, if we hold to tradition, simply for the sake of the tradition itself, we've probably missed the point. But if we utilize the tradition to either remind us of the main point, or to use the tradition to aid us in achieving the main point, then the tradition is probably worthwhile and a benefit to us and our communities.
I've also heard tradition being described as a vessel. Let's imagine that you have some very valuable cargo that you want to get from one side of the river to the other. The water is deep, and the current is fast and there's no way you can get these valuable goods across without some reliable boat. So, you use the barge as long as it's in good condition. If it springs a leak, you fix the leak. But if it gets to a point where the boat is no longer river-worthy, then it might be time to get a new vessel - a new tradition. You see, what's most valuable is the cargo that you are transporting across the river, not the vessel. The vessel is valuable, because of the purpose it serves, but it isn't valuable in and of itself. It exists for the sake of the cargo, not vice versa.
The Pharisees that Jesus confronted in Mark 7 had flipped the script. They had made the "tradition" the main thing. They believed the cargo existed in order to facilitate the use of the vessel. But their boat had sprung an unfixable leak, and it was time to get a new watercraft that might better handle the loads of the coming kingdom of God.
So, what about us? How do we discern the value of our traditions? How do we know when it's time to fix a leaking vessel and when it might be time to get a brand-new boat? How do we avoid making the tradition "the thing" - in other words, how do we continue to see the forest for the trees? I think it takes three things. Study, reflection, and prayer (in the context of community).
To understand what we believe and what we do, we need to understand why we believe it and why we do it. It is unwise to simply discard traditions that have served God's people well simply for the sake of novelty. So, we need to dig down to the roots under the tree, before we uproot the tree. To mix metaphors, we need to uncover and test the foundation, before we demolish the building.
And then we need to reflect on what we've learned. We need to consider God's larger purposes and how our past traditions may have faithfully served those purposes. And then we would want to critically examine our current world and context, to see if those past traditions are capable of continuing to serve their older purposes. It may be that we need to uproot an old plant, it may be that we need to bulldoze a dilapidated structure, and it may be that we need a brand-new boat. Or maybe the tree just needs to be groomed a little. It may be that we should restore the old building - renovate it. Our old barge might simply need some TLC.
As we reflect, we must commit ourselves to prayer, individually, and even more importantly, collectively. We must never forget that traditions serve whole communities, not just us as individuals. Any changes we make affect more than ourselves, and so we must be wise in making those changes. Some of those changes will happen swiftly, while others may take more time. No two situations are exactly alike, so we must consistently study, reflect, and pray as our communities evolve.
And at the end of the day, we are not involved in building our own personal, or even our own collective kingdoms. For followers of Jesus, it's all about him and his Father. It's God's kingdom, not ours. That's why we pray, "Your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven." That's a tradition we should definitely hold onto! - Shay
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