Thursday
Thursday
The Debate over Tradition
You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!
Mark 7:9
Some Pharisees and law teachers had come from Jerusalem. Gathering around Jesus, they were horrified to see that his disciples were eating their food with unclean hands. This was a question not of hygiene but of ceremonial purity according to the tradition of the elders. “And they observe many other traditions,” Mark explains to his gentile readers, “such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles” (v. 4).
So the Pharisees lived under the authority of traditions handed down from generation to generation. And they followed them slavishly, even if they came into collision with Scripture. It is this for which Jesus criticized them. Three times he repeated the same criticism, using almost the same words—for example, “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men” (v. 8). Jesus clearly regarded tradition as the word of men and Scripture as the Word of God. The Pharisees were allowing their traditions to stifle the Word of God instead of allowing the Word of God to reform their traditions.
This was the main issue during the Reformation. The medieval Catholic Church had smothered the Word of God with a mass of unbiblical traditions. So, just as Jesus swept away the traditions of the elders, the Reformers swept away the traditions of the medieval church, that the Word of God might be supreme. The Reformers taught the supremacy of Scripture over tradition. And Reformed churches still do, including the Anglican Church. It is often said that the Anglican Church has a threefold authority—Scripture, tradition, and reason. But this is not so. To be sure, tradition and reason have a vital role to play in the elucidation of Scripture. But what shall we do when Scripture, tradition, and reason are in conflict? The answer is that Scripture has supreme authority. The followers of Jesus are called to a radical nonconformity to tradition and convention in order to honor the supremacy of Scripture and the lordship of Jesus Christ.
For further reading: Mark 7:1–13