Standing on Tradition: Mark 7:1-5
Why do you have traditions?
One of my favorite jokes about tradition goes something like this. A young woman, just after getting married, wants to cook a roast for Sunday dinner. She asks her mother to teach her. The mother takes her grocery shopping, teaches her to pick out a good roast, brings it home, trims it, and promptly measures out 10 inches of meat. She cuts off the remaining portion and feeds it to the dog. The mother teaches to young woman how to season the roast and cook it to perfection. Later that week, the young woman repeats all these steps. The husband watches the woman prepare the meat with pride. As she cuts off the end and feeds it to the dog, he asks her why. The young woman replies, “because that’s how mom does it.” The man shrugs and several hours later consumes a wonderful roast dinner. At the next family gathering, the young man asks his mother-in-law why they cut off the end. She replies, “because that’s how mom does it.” The family turns to the wife’s grandmother and asks her why she cuts off the end, and she replies, “because that’s how mom does it.” Finally, they turn to the great-grandmother and she replies, “Because I only had a 12 inch roasting pan and you need room around the edges of the meat to let the heat get to all sides.” For generations, this family cut off perfectly good meat because of the size of an antiquated cooking pan, not because it impacted the flavor of the roast!
Long story aside, this is a similar situation to where the disciples find themselves in today’s reading. The Pharisees approach Jesus and ask Him why His disciples aren’t following tradition. Normally I am a huge fan of tradition so long as it is meaningful. Tradition roots us in the past and gives deep meaning to our actions. Tradition helps us make good choices when we are faced with tough choices. But that’s only true if the tradition is rooted in meaning.
The tradition about which the Pharisees speak comes from the Talmud – a secondary source of wisdom for Hebrew people – and not from not God’s Word. It isn’t like the disciples are breaking God’s Word. That’s important to remember here. This isn’t a question of sinfulness; it is purely a question of tradition.
Before getting to Jesus’ reply, there is an opportunity to ponder a great question. While there’s nothing wrong with following a tradition so long as it imparts meaning, what happens if a tradition is no longer meaningful? What happens if a tradition no longer makes sense? What happens when a tradition forms for all the wrong reasons? Like the people preparing the roast in the joke, how many of us have places in our life where we are following tradition without really understanding why?
Why do you have traditions?
