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When we hear the word tradition, we tend to think of Christ and his scathing rebuke of the Pharisees in Matthew 15 and Mark 7. We think of Isaiah’s warning to a nation that had begun to worship God through traditions learned by rote. It may surprise us then to learn that Christianity is a traditional religion: it is, and has always been, a religion that was founded, supported and maintained by traditions.
When we consider the fact that a tradition is merely something handed down from one person to another, doesn’t this make sense? How many people living today have seen the resurrected Christ? How many people have seen the empty tomb where his body was laid? How many of us were there when he ascended into heaven? If these are things that we have never seen or experienced, then they are things that have been handed down to us and are, therefore, traditional in nature.
The difference between good and bad traditions is, first of all, the source. Paul instructed the Thessalonians to follow his traditions whether they were received from him through speech or by a letter (2 Thessalonians 2.15). Paul praised the Corinthians (some of them, anyway) for following the traditions he gave them, including the manner in which they ought to take the Lord Supper (1 Corinthians 11.2). These traditions are good traditions because their source is Jesus Christ. He was given all authority in heaven and on earth by the Father, and he used that authority to order his apostles to teach the traditions of Christianity (Matthew 28.18-20). When Christ told his apostles to teach all the things he commanded them, he was ordering them to hand down teachings they received from their master. This is, by the very definition of the word, a tradition.
Secondly, manmade tradition becomes bad when it overrides God’s traditions or commandments. It must be noted that some traditions are good even if their source is not God: meeting on Wednesdays, giving announcements, vacation Bible schools, funerals and weddings are good even though they have no place in the traditions given by Christ’s apostles. Jesus did not rebuke the Pharisees because they had traditions, but because those traditions subverted portions of the Law of Moses. The idea of Korban, in and of itself, is a wonderful thing. Surely there was nothing wrong with devoting all of one’s possessions to the temple after one died; it was wrong, however, to overlook other obligations (like caring for your parents) for the sake of that tradition. There is nothing wrong with washing cups and bowls as a reminder to live a pure life; it is wrong, however, to assume that ritualistic cleansing, rather than loving God, can sanctify the soul.
A final point regarding traditions is that one can be doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Isaiah’s words not only reprove Israel for disregarding God’s laws, but they also reprove them for following things they learned by rote. When we do something over and over, time after time, day after day, we learn it by rote. Professional golfers hit hundreds of shots a day in order to learn their swing by rote. God is not interested in mechanical repetition that achieves the same result every time without fail. God is interested in a living sacrifice intentionally made and freshly offered every time his altar is approached. “We’ve always done things this way” has never been, nor will it ever be, acceptable. When we become mechanical in motion, in thought or in sacrifice, we have a rote religion and should not assume we are pleasing God. We may be doing nothing wrong, but we aren’t doing anything right, either.
God is searching for what he has always been looking for: people who will worship him in spirit and truth. We must be those who look into the Scriptures to learn what has been handed down to us, and then we must throw ourselves wholeheartedly into our efforts to please God. We must be those who go beyond mere tradition; we must be driven by a love for God and consumed by a hunger for knowledge of him.
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