Human Traditions

“Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders…?”, asked the Pharisees and scribes. “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”, Jesus replied. Take a moment and read Mark 7:1-23 for the story.¹

Sometimes Christians are quick to dismiss these debates between Jesus and the religious authorities as arguments about “legalism”. If we are not careful we simplistically reduce them to “Jewish rules- bad”, “Jesus and Christianity- good”. We might pat ourselves on the back and be glad at our rule free existence. But are we rule free or have we simply created updated rules for our times? This story in Mark 7 deserves some serious reflection.

Today, hand washing is a hygiene matter. In Jesus’ pre scientific world, hand washing and food purity were markers of piety. There was debate among the various Jewish sects. Did everyone need to be ritually pure to eat? Or only priests? What makes food ritually pure and appropriate to eat? These and other actions were things that marked people as Jews. This is how people declared their allegiance to the one true God of Israel and not to the gods of the empire.

This story raises some important questions. How does one demonstrate their allegiance to God? What is the relationship between actions and beliefs? Do actions have value in themselves, even if one forgets the belief that informs the action? If something becomes a habit, does it continue to have value? Can you hold a belief if you don’t participate in the corresponding approved action? Who makes the rules and who enforces them? Who decides which actions matter? Who can assess another’s piety?

Does something of this back and forth between Jesus and the religious elites sound familiar? Today some Christians accuse other Christians of abandoning the Bible and accommodating to secular culture because they believe this compromises the faith. Other Christians allege reading the Bible with a strict literalism and legalism misinterprets God’s desires for the world, reduces faith to rules, and short circuits the ability of the Spirit to move in the world.

“The Bible clearly says….”. “You can’t be a Christian and …”. “Christians should….” “If your church doesn’t….” “Christians believe…”

The particular actions under discussion change with time, but our inclination to gate keep and assess who keeps proper practices, who is an authentic believer continues.

I don’t think Jesus is saying that personal and communal practices don’t matter. I don’t think Jesus is saying that there should be no rules or that rules don’t matter. The “rules” of Torah mattered. For centuries Torah- written and oral- helped Jews maintain their faith particularly though times of marginalization and persecution. It was a reminder and the standard for who they were and who their God was.

But as Jesus points out, observing the practices doesn’t preclude our forgetting or ignoring why the practices matter. We can take a practice and turn it into a rule used to judge and exclude. Participating in a practice doesn’t make us holy. Our intention keeps the practice holy. And the practice helps keep us focused. It reminds us to be aware of what we are doing and why we do it.

This text also cautions us about being quick to call out “errors” in others. Jesus calls those critical of his disciples, “hypocrites”. In his response to the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus essentially tells them to examine their own teaching and practices. Do their traditions honor God? What is their purpose in pointing out the errors of others? Are they calling people out? Or are they calling people back into community?

This is neither a pass to do what we want, as long as our hearts are in the right place, nor is it permission to judge the actions and intentions of others. It is a story that challenges us to think seriously about what we do and why we do it. When someone tells us, or when we are inclined to say, “The Bible clearly says….”. “You can’t be a Christian and …”. “Christians should….” “If your church doesn’t….” “Christians believe…”; this text calls us to pause for a moment and consider what is actually fueling this sort of sentiment.

Jesus doesn’t divide the world into sacred and not sacred. He doesn’t divide the world into personal and communal. The holy and the not so holy are intermingled like the weeds and the wheat. Personal actions have public consequences. Public actions affect real individual people.

Jesus call to follow him is always simple and always complex. Being aware and attentive to what actually motivates our actions is complicated work. It takes practice and introspection and the help of a community- not to judge us- but to remind us of who we are called to be.

1. Read Mark 7:1-23 here. ↩︎