We live in a time of ‘out with the old and in with the new.’ Not that this is a new notion, but it especially troubling to this generation. And not that it is a completely useless idea, for change can surely be good thing at times. Yet, for the church it is important to understand the balance between what is past and what is present. We cannot simply dismiss tradition because it is old and at the same time we cannot follow it just because it is old. Obviously we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, but never completely on one set of shoulders (save those of our Savior). No, instead, we consider carefully the traditions of the past and seek to determine their place in our present time. But the question then becomes, what measuring rod do we use to determine godly traditions and teaching against that which is ungodly? In this passage in Matthew, we find Jesus offering some guidelines that help us perform this very task. Hopefully we can adopt the philosophy of ‘out with the false and in with the truth’ and allow our tradition to serve that end.
Before we look at the guidelines, I do want to offer a small disclaimer. I am not going to attempt examine all the current debatable traditions in the body. We could be here all night discussing specific traditions in the church and whether or not they belong. Rather, I want to glean some guidelines from this passage that will help us weigh the difference between godly and ungodly traditions. Hopefully, these guidelines will, in the end, serve to help us in examining the specific traditions when they arise in our lives and in the life of our church. I am not here to call churches or people out for the traditions they hold or do not hold. It would be more helpful I think to simply see how Christ deals with traditions that are not correct. That is what we will attempt tonight.
The first guideline in the passage is simple: Follow the Scriptures. If there is one truth we need to understand about tradition it is this: the very purpose of Christian tradition is to uphold and preserve Scripture. That is the beginning and the end of our tradition. Where those who have gone before us follow the Word, we will follow them. Where they do not, we will not. If St. Augustine himself came and taught us to reject the idea of honoring our father and mother (which of course he would not), we would humbly but sternly not stand by him in that respect. Any tradition which directly breaks a commandment of God is sin, there is no way around it.
This is exactly what has happened here in Matthew 15. Look at verses 2-6 again. The Pharisees and scribes had developed a very meticulous interpretation of how to follow the Old Testament law. It had been passed down from generation to generation and is here referred to as the ‘tradition of the elders.’ Again, it was very specific. In fact, there is a whole section, entitled Yadaim, which deals only with the washing of hands. It seems that Jesus and the disciples were not keeping this tradition of the elders and that was just not acceptable. So the Pharisees came to question Christ about it.
Christ, in typical fashion, answers the question by asking one of His own. He has already questioned the Pharisees interpretation of the Law in Matthew 5. Here He does it yet again. It seems that part of the tradition of the Pharisees allowed someone to pledge their money to the temple, thus to God, which relieved them from taking care of their parents with that money. Jesus points out that this tradition directly violates one of the ten commandments. Obviously this idea is wrong because it is not biblical. Their tradition does not negate their responsibility to the commandment of God. Yet, they have allowed for it to do just this. Jesus finds this unacceptable. Thus, we see very clearly Jesus' emphasis of commandment over tradition. It is the Bible which is our measuring rod. By it we weigh that which is godly and that which is ungodly.
An obvious conclusion should be to study the Word the God. How else will we know how to judge tradition and teaching? And know this, just because teaching is unbiblical, does not mean that it will be taught poorly. We must beware of good, yet unbiblical teaching. We cannot be fooled, as the Pharisees were, by good teaching of old traditions. A clear example of this happened to me just last semester at Union. During one of our classes we went and heard a guest lecture. The man who taught was kind and gentle and very well-spoken. He argued logically and drew seemingly (to me at least) Christian conclusions. After the lecture, we returned to our classroom and began to discuss what we had heard. The errors the speaker had made were pointed out in the first five minutes of our discussion. Although his mannerisms were kind and gentle and his arguments logical, his conclusions were simply unbiblical. I had been fooled (which is not so difficult to do) by a nice voice and smooth words. Again, we cannot afford to live in this age as biblically illiterate followers of Christ. If the Bible is our guide (and it is), then we must strive to know it and apply it to every situation and idea that comes our way.
The second guideline Jesus offers is found in His quotation of Isaiah: we must avoid teaching/believing the precepts of men as doctrine. Jesus says it plainly in verse 9. Paul says the same thing in 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.” This can be tough because it is often difficult to draw the line between man’s opinion and the truth of Scripture. Because of this, usually the conflict comes in the areas where Scripture is not crystal clear on a specific subject. There is nothing wrong with discussing these issues and digging for truth. It is when personal precept is put forth as doctrine that we cross the line. Obviously we need to always speak the truth and stand firm on Scripture, but we are to do this in love with the interest of others even before our own. We never compromise on the major teachings of Scripture, but we should avoid brewing hatred over the minors.
The danger here is disunity in the body. This is something with which the church will continue to struggle, but we cannot forget fighting against it. Jesus prayed for all believers that we would be unified. Unfortunately, the church has struggled again and again with being unified. Not all the time, but often these struggles have been over insignificant matters where men begin to assert their own precepts as doctrine. Let us not be guilty of that. We have covenanted together to place others spiritual well-being over our own. Let us practice that by being aware of our opinions and avoid presenting them as doctrine. We desperately need unity in the body and much of it begins here. As long as we continue to argue over style in worship, we will miss Spirit and Truth. If we continue to place so much importance on appearance, whether it be skin or clothes or something else, much of the body will remain segregated. Again, unity is a commandment of Scripture and we cannot break this commandment in order to follow our traditions. In the end, we simply need to let the truth of Scripture rise up against the opinions of men and take its rightful place of authority in our lives and in the life of the church.
The last guideline I see in the passage is this: seek a proper perspective. Look at verses 10-20. Jesus returns to the initial challenge of the Pharisees. Their problem is that they have placed emphasis on the wrong thing. While the Pharisees are worried about dirty hands, Jesus is teaching men to examine their hearts. He says that it is not what goes in but what comes out of the mouth that we need to be concerned about. Worry about what really defiles the man, not about just keeping the tradition. It really comes down to being man-centered versus being God-centered. Are we focused on what He is focused on, or simply that which seems important to men, or to us? We have to go after the heart of God and seek His truth.
It is important that we understand that the issue of hand-washing and the tradition of the elders is not something the people take lightly. That is why it is so hard for the disciples to understand and necessary for the Pharisees to object. They have been operating under a system for years that teaches to wash hands before eating. Jesus is questioning the whole system, not because it is entirely wrong, but because it is not entirely right. This is hard for even the disciples to swallow, but it is necessary. They were deep in many of these traditions and totally blind to their error. We are not above their error. We too can become (and have become at some points) so entrenched in our traditions that we lose sight of all that God has called vital. Thus, we preach against dirty hands and are silent about dirty hearts. Again, even when it is hard, we must be willing to sacrifice our traditional perspectives to seek the biblical perspective of God.
Jesus refers to the Pharisees as ‘blind guides of the blind’ in verse 14. As followers of Christ we long to avoid being blind all together. We do not want to be so determined to hold on to our traditions that we break the commandments of God. And we do not want to be so fervent for change that we let go of that which teaches us the truth of the Word, which has and will continue to stand forever. We must realize that we are desperate for the guidance of God which comes through His Word. Thus, let us hold on to the traditions which uphold and preserve Scripture and let all others fall away. Let us seek to unify the body of Christ by seeking the spiritual well-being of others above our own. And in the end, let us seek the perspective of God above that of men, that His glory might consume us.