Tradition

Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7: 1-23; John 7:1

Matthew 15: 6

 ⁶So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. 

As we have been reflecting upon over the past weeks the words of Jesus and their practical application to our lives provides the disciple with the holistic assessment of human need, the explanation of that need, the plan to meet need and four levels of help required to put the plan of God into practice in our lives. We have looked at explanations of need and the frustration of need by considering the Sermon on the Mount and the three part form of the teachings of Jesus: current situation, present outcome and transformative participation in the Kingdom inaugurated by Jesus.  The four levels or domains of intervention given by the words and practices  of Jesus; the Word of God; can be direct in practice that is, we hear His word and obey it (the call of the disciples Mark 2: 13-14); we can receive intervention through others for example a disciple (the call of Phillip and then Nathanael in John 1), intervention in our lives can be ‘collective’ a form of advocacy ( Feeding Five Thousand Mark 6: 30-44) and intervention can be instructional (Parables with explanations for disciples Matthew 13).  The Kingdom becomes present and releases its transformative power through our willing participation on these four levels. They each represent an interdependent exchange of grace; through the faith of participative obedience to the words and practices of Jesus. In our passage today Jesus offers us the opportunity to learn how to avoid disempowering the Word of God. Avoid tradition! Religious disciples are just that; the offer discipline in a tradition of religion. This, on the surface appears to meet our needs but it’s a con, it’s the hand is quicker than the eye; it’s an appearance that all is well but the outcome is: self-reliance, pride and legalism. Religion interprets the words of Jesus but does not obey them. That’s why it’s so dangerous. Religion offers us something else in the place of obedience to Jesus; it offers ritual. The way we dress, the way speak with holy jargon, the way we put our money in the collection but not our lives; the way we defend the unborn child (and so we should) but refuse to speak out against war and the taking of human life once the child is born and in this world. Religious ritual is the ultimate addiction of humanity; it offers the perfect alternative to applying the words of Jesus: there is no need for living with ordinary people in community, no need to actively and personally read and apply the scriptures and religious ritual does not want us delving too deep in to the biblical story and hearing the words and seeing the practices of Jesus up close. Jesus was not a religious studies lecturer! Jesus taught us that our religious practices are the problem; we are the real problem and not the solution; Jesus taught us that our personal assessment of life must start with our assessment of the ‘Heart’ and the recognition that we are in a state of desperately meeting of our own needs our own way. Are we ready to give up our religion for the sake of a transformed life? As a movement there were no more religious and ritually pure than the ‘Pharisees and Scribes’ but it was from the teeth out. Jesus offers us a transformed heart, mind, body, relationships and community; but will we participate with Him in its fulfilment?