Mark 7:13

THE INFLUENCE OF TRADITION

‘Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition: … and many such like things do ye.’

Mark 7:13

Such was our Lord’s word to the Pharisees; and if we turn to our own life it is difficult, if not impossible, for us fully to estimate the influence which traditions exercise upon it. A good tradition is a great help, yet the Saviour gives us no encouragement to depend upon those helps that tradition might bring us. His language shows how dangerous He felt the influence of tradition to be.

I. Tradition a bar to progress.—If the spirit of traditional usage and influence holds the citadel of a man’s life, the spirit of progress cannot gain an entrance. That is the lesson which the Saviour presses upon our attention by His denunciation of the Pharisaic usage, habit, and attitude, and it is hardly possible to overestimate the importance of the lesson, because this same spirit of Pharisaic tradition is constantly laying its hand upon every human institution, and it has contributed to every abuse or perversion that has taken possession of the Christian Church.

II. Two contending principles.—Our life is, in fact, a continuous struggle between the two principles here represented. Which is to prevail in it and fix its character—traditional custom, or personal inspiration? The tendency of our life will be determined in one direction or the other according as we surrender our will to the rule of traditional notions and usages, the power of the external world, or as we seek for direct illumination of mind, conscience, and spirit at the Divine sources of truth and light. The Christian man’s attitude towards all traditions or customs is that of independence; his thought and his judgment are as free in regard to them as if they were newly born. He is, in fact, bound to judge them according to their deserts; and no society can hope to prosper unless this is recognised, so that evil customs may not corrupt the common life. It is the danger of such corruption that makes the Saviour denounce the traditional habit, and summon His followers to live by the rule of close personal communion with God.

—Bishop Percival.

Illustration

‘This episode was critical both for Jesus and for Christianity. It secured for the Church independence of Judaism, and on the part of Jesus it involved a larger claim of authority, and a more hopeless breach with current orthodoxy. From the outset Jesus set His authority above that of the Pharisees. He now asserted His right to overrule Moses. It was due to the recognition of this claim that the Christian Church did not remain a Jewish sect, but became an independent organisation.’