Truth Or Tradition

Truth or Tradition? By Steve Keeler

Matthew 15:1-20

"Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from

Jerusalem and said,"Why do Your disciples break the

tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their

hands when they eat bread." And He answered and

said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the

commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

For God said, 'honor your father and mother,' and, 'he

who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to

death.' But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or

mother, 'Whatever I have that would help you has been

given to God,' he is not to honor his father or his

mother.' And by this you invalidated the word of God

for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites, rightly did

Isaiah prophesy of you: 'this people honors Me with

their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in

vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the

precepts of men.'" After Jesus called the crowd to Him,

He said to them, 'Hear and understand. It is not what

enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what

proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.' Then

the disciples came and said to Him, 'Do You know that

the Pharisees were offended when they heard this

statement?' But He answered and said, 'Every plant

which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be

uprooted.

Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And

if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a

pit.' Peter said to Him, 'Explain the parable to us.'

Jesus said, 'Are you still lacking in understanding also?

Do you not understand that everything that goes into

the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?

But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from

the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart

come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,

thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things

which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands

does not defile the man.'

***********

Guess who popped in for a visit? It's the heads of the

local major denomination. They are heavy hitters, the

scribes and Pharisees. They have come to Jesus on a

fact finding mission, to try to validate whether they

should put their approval on Him or not.

Isn't it interesting that Jesus had more problems with

the religious people than the lost? They were always

trouble for Him, these were the same ones who

crucified Him.

These men made religion an outward thing instead of

an inward experience. Truth was being trampled by

tradition. And it's still goes on today!

I will not be a Pastor that honors tradition over truth.

And this church will never place truth in a place where

man made do's and don'ts can override it.

Many churches today allow themselves to be bound

and gagged by tradition, and as a result they no longer

have the real impact Jesus charged us to have.

Now, I'm not saying that all tradition is wrong or bad.

It's when you are exult tradition and exclude truth that It

becomes a big problem.

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."

But tradition becomes a bad thing when it's allowed to

surpass truth or worse, when it contradicts truth. We

are not called to carry on traditions, but to proclaim the

truth!

The gospel message must never change, but our

methods must change, doing all we can to reach our

world.

In verse one of our scripture we see the accusation of

the Jews.

Did they really come all this way to talk about washing

of hands before you eat? You have to understand

some background to get it here:

The Jewish people of the old testament had added to

the Law of God over 600 man made laws. These

became known as the traditions or ceremonial law, and

they were passed down from generation to generation,

and more and more was added thru the years.

These traditions were compiled into a book called the

Mishna which got thicker and thicker and became

impossible for the Jews to fulfill.

Some of these traditions were outrageous. In God's

Law, we are told to remember the Sabbath Day and

keep it holy.

The Mishna says on the Sabbath you could not wear

your false teeth! I wonder how many of us are wearing

false teeth here today? According to the Mishna, all

who are, they are sinning.

They also said you couldn't spit into the dirt on the 7th

day, because it would make mud, and then you had