Truth Vs. Tradition – part 1
Matthew 14:34 – 15:20 (14:34 – 15:9)
November 27, 2011
As you know, we are studying through Matthew’s gospel,
And most recently we are getting an up close and personal view
Of what real ministry is like.
You’ll remember that this all started back with a crowd approaching Jesus
But instead of seeing massive conversion, the disciples heard Jesus
Give a farming illustration and then dismiss the crowd.
The disciples wanted to know why.
Jesus said, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted…because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
In short Jesus revealed a startling truth to His disciples.
Not everyone who hears the gospel wants the gospel.
Jesus even gave us parables to help us understand.
The first of which was the parable of the sower in which He explained
That not everyone who gets the seed accepts the seed.
Some hearts are too hard.
Some hearts are too shallow.
Some hearts are too cluttered.
And Jesus didn’t tell us that parable so that we would invent strategies
For reaching all those types of people.
The whole point of the parable is that
(apart from a miraculous work done by Him on their hearts)
They cannot be reached.
He told us that parable to encourage us when we feel like failures
Because our preaching is not obeyed.
We know, it is not the fault of the seed, nor is it the fault of the sower,
It is the fault of the soil.
But not only does Matthew record that parable for us,
But he is also illustrating it.
We have seen an illustration of a SHALLOW HEART
As Jesus came to His hometown and at first they were all excited about Him, only to reject Him when His preaching became too direct.
We have seen an illustration of a CLUTTERED HEART
As we looked at Herod, a man who feared the loss of the world too much to repent of his sin and trust in Christ.
We have even seen an illustration of GOOD HEART
As we saw the disciples worship Jesus after He got in the boat after walking on water.
Well this morning we see an example of
That old fashioned hardened heart.
In every sense of the word it is a “clueless” heart.
Those with hardened hearts don’t get it at all.
And that is who we see here,
Matthew even lets us see what prevents them from seeing the truth.
That is their tradition.
Jesus goes straight to the heart of the problem in Matthew 15:8
Matthew 15:8-9 “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.'”
Jesus is speaking a mouthful there to say the least.
He saw a people who had a good outward appearance.
They knew the lingo, they knew the game.
And yet He saw a people with bad hearts who didn’t love Him at all.
In fact Jesus called their worship “vain”.
Their worship was useless, their worship was futile.
They might as well have skipped church.
Malachi 1:10 “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD of hosts, “nor will I accept an offering from you.”
That is the same thing God says here.
Your worship is useless.
WHY?
“Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”
The answer as to why their worship was futile…
Because they put men’s words on the same level as God’s.
They followed tradition more than they followed the truth.
And God was not the least bit impressed.
And Jesus said their worship was “vain”.
If after all has been said and God’s word has been preached,
If you are still just going to do it your own way, then why bother?
And yet it was their love of tradition over truth
That kept their hearts hard and their souls lost.
And Matthew uses them as an illustration this morning
About hardened hearts.
We certainly learn about them, and we certainly examine our own hearts
to make sure we do not allow hardness to remain.
Now, the story doesn’t start there,
Let me show you what leads up to the moment.
Matthew actually starts our story back in chapter 14.
#1 THE CRISIS
Matthew 14:34-36
Now I will admit that these verses alone don’t look like much of a crisis.
And really, if they stand alone, they aren’t.
All Matthew does here is undeniably chronicle
The extreme popularity of Jesus.
“When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent word into all that surrounding district and brought to Him all who were sick;”
SAFE TO SAY THAT JESUS WAS POPULAR?
The Guy cannot get away.
Fame has taken over.
They spot Him, they know Him, they are on the lookout for Him.
Now certainly we could spend some time studying John 6
And see what happened over on the other side of the sea
And we could learn that this crowd was just as fickle as the rest.
But Matthew doesn’t record any of that.
It is clear that he simply wants you and me to see that Jesus ministry
Is at a pinnacle of popularity.
Right now, the people love Him!
But popularity is not the only thing Matthew wants you to see.
He also wants you to see His popularity is warranted, for He has POWER
“and they implored Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were cured.”
The crowds had heard what Jesus did for the hemorrhaging woman
And wanted the same for themselves.
Again we could talk a while about how the crowd was missing the point.
Jesus came to save, and from Him they could have had forgiveness,
They instead settled for healing.
The crowd is no role model here.
But again the point Matthew is clearly making is that
Jesus is popular and Jesus is powerful.
WHY IS THAT A CRISIS?
It isn’t for you or me, and it isn’t for Jesus.
But it is a major problem for the religious leaders of the day.
Remember the religious leaders?
Matthew 23:6-7 “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.”
And of course this made them extremely jealous of Jesus.
Their jealousy is expressed in John’s gospel.
John 12:19 “So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”
Jesus threatened the religious leaders…
Jesus made them jealous…
He was a problem to the little gold mine they had going,
And that is what Matthew wants you to see.
There is more he could have shown you,
But he just wants you to see how popular Jesus has become.
And that leads him right into the next point.
The Crisis
#2 THE CONFRONTATION
Matthew 15:1-9
Notice the word “Then”
Sometimes, because of the chapter break,
We fail to let the story continue to flow.
But remember Matthew didn’t put that chapter break there, men did later.
Matthew is clearly tying this confrontation back to the popularity of Jesus.
Crowds are flocking to Jesus and they aren’t being disappointed.
He is spiraling out of control.
“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.”
Now please notice a few important distinctions about that verse.
The accusation isn’t directed towards a flaw of Jesus.
“Why do Your disciples…”
Nor is their accusation directed at a violation to the Law of God.
“break the tradition of the elders?”
The reason of course is that they haven’t had much luck
Condemning Jesus with the Law of God.
• They tried to nail Him for to eating with sinners but that didn’t work.
• They tried to nail Him in regard to not fasting, but that didn’t work.
• They tried to accuse Him of breaking the Sabbath, but that didn’t work.
This is a new strategy and it addresses
Him allowing His disciples to break tradition.
SO THE ISSUE IS TRADITION
And I don’t mind telling you friend that tradition is a “hot button” word.
People love tradition.
It builds a sense of pride…
It builds a sense of community…
It builds a sense of comfort…
People unify around it…
People fight to protect it…
And if you want to find yourself in a pan of hot water,
Just go messing with someone’s traditions.
We can laugh and scoff at how out of hand it can get,
But you and I still know that that famous line:
“We’ve never done it that way before”
Still holds an enormous amount of power.
The other funny thing about tradition is that
It is only the tradition of others that bother us.
Our traditions make sense, it is other people’s that are dumb.
The point is we all have them.
• We have family traditions. (Thanksgiving)
• We have community traditions. (Turn Around at the end of town)
• We have school traditions. (Homecoming)
• We have church traditions. (Music style; Observance of Lord’s Supper)
• We have Baptist traditions. (Baptist’s don’t dance; in public)
And you and I know that if anyone tries to change ours,
Or if we try to change someone else’s then the fight is on.
NOW, PLEASE DON’T MISUNDERSTAND.
Tradition is not all bad.
1 Corinthians 11:2 “Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.”
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.”
And so obviously the issue here is not
Whether traditions are good or bad.
In fact, look at “the tradition of the elders” here.
It was that men should “wash their hands when they eat bread.”
Boy there’s a horrible idea isn’t it?
Everyone does that today.
(not so much as tradition as good sense)
My wife keeps hand-sanitizer in the car
To make sure the kids hands are clean when we go in to eat.
What is so wrong with washing your hands?
NOTHING
The issue here is not if the tradition is good or bad.
The issue is HOW MUCH WEIGHT DOES THE TRADITION HAVE?
How much authority does a tradition carry?
Well, to the Pharisees it carried quite a lot.
They thought it mattered to great extent.
To them it wasn’t just an issue of cleanliness,
But an issue of godliness.
If you didn’t wash your hands, you were defiled and unclean.
And apparently it was an issue of such magnitude
That it warranted a visit from the Jerusalem Sanhedrin.
The Pharisees and Scribes come to attack Jesus
And they do so based on the fact that He breaks tradition,
Or at least willingly allows it to be broken.
And I don’t mind telling you that Jesus is up for the argument.
Notice how He counters.
(3) “And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”
Now first we recognize that Jesus did not answer the question.
They wanted to know why the disciples didn’t wash their hands.
(And to this day, we don’t know the answer)
Maybe the water was too dirty…
Maybe the water was too cold…
Maybe there was no water…
Maybe the disciples were too hungry…
Maybe the disciples were pigs who were never taught manners…
We don’t know.
But Jesus doesn’t tell us, because it doesn’t matter.
IS THERE ANY LAW AGAINST BREAKING TRADITION?
No, so really any reason for breaking it is good enough.
It doesn’t matter.
But Jesus here turns their argument back at them.
Before I answer what reason justifies the disciples breaking a tradition.
Let Me ask you if you have a reason that justifies you
Breaking “the commandment of God”?
“Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
(4-6) “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.”
Here we have a COMMAND verses a TRADITION.
Here is the COMMAND, “Honor your father and mother” and “He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.”
Here is the TRADITION
“Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God.”
The tradition was instead of giving money to help their parents,
The Pharisees would vow their money to God.
Now please understand they did not GIVE their money to God
(Luke 16:14 “lovers of money”), they only PLEDGED it to God.
They said, “God, this is Your money, I am only a steward, and I vow not to give it to anyone else in case You ever want it.”
But since God never sent them a bill in the mail,
They got to keep their money.
“And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition”
They followed a tradition of vowing their money,
And they broke the command to give it to their parents.
Now any reason may be good enough for breaking a tradition, but is there any reason good enough for breaking a commandment?
And of course the answer is NO.
And the point thus far is this:
Traditions may be fine and well and good,
But they do not even come close
To carrying the same authority as Scripture.
Amen?
Ten thousand years of doing something one way
Does not equate with 2 seconds of God’s spoken word.
If God says “Do it” or “Don’t do it”
No revered tradition has the clout to reverse it.
But that is not what the Pharisees believed.
You see, they believed their traditions mattered every bit as much,
If not more than the word of God.
They were not followers of God, they were followers of tradition.
And that is bad enough.
BUT TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE:
They said they were followers of God.
And so not only were they foolish, but they were also hypocrites,
Which is why Jesus goes on:
(7-9) “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.'”
And if there were ever a statement that cut deep, this is it.
Jesus knew they were religious.
“This people honors Me with their lips”
Oh, they knew how to spout their love for God.
They knew how to pray in public.
They knew how to pretend love for His people.
But that means nothing.
We know that “many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord…”
So what if people know the right answer.
So did the Pharisees.
Jesus said of them:
Matthew 23:1-3 “Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.”
The hypocrites were all talk.
“But their heart is far away from Me”
WHAT IS THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT?
Matthew 22:37 “And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’”
Notice Jesus didn’t say to love Him with all your mouth.
He said to love Him with all your heart.
Well these people got it wrong.
They loved God with their speech, but not with their heart.
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT?
Because they transgressed the commandment of God
For the sake of their tradition.
They forced God to adhere to their tradition
Instead of forcing their tradition to adhere to God.
And because of that Jesus said their worship was vanity.
“But in vain do they worship Me”
In other words, their worship means nothing.
Their worship accounts for nothing.
God could care less.
DID YOU KNOW IT IS POSSIBLE
TO GO THROUGH THE RITUAL OF CHURCH EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY
AND NEVER PLEASE GOD?
The Jews did it for a lifetime.
They didn’t care about God’s will.
They didn’t care about God’s way.
They cared about doing it their own way.
Their worship was vain.
And listen to this statement.
“Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”
In today’s language it would say, “Enforcing what men say”
The New Living Translation says:
“they replace God’s commands with their own man-made teachings.”
Their worship is vain because
They regard what men say over what God says.
They regard man-made traditions over God-given commands.
In fact the Pharisees wouldn’t even listen to what God had to say
Because of their traditions.
WE CALL THAT A HARDENED HEART.
It won’t even listen to God.
And now we see what a hardened heart looks like.
These men’s hearts were far away from God.
We often think of hard hearted people as being atheists,
But that isn’t the only kind.
Here we find people who spout the right kind of lingo,
But obviously have no interest in the truth of God’s word.
That is a hardened heart.
The first thing I would do is encourage you.
At times in your ministry you are going to come across people like this.
Regardless of how hard you try, they aren’t going to listen.
They wouldn’t listen to Jesus, why should they listen to you.
So don’t get discouraged when they don’t respond, it isn’t your fault.
The second thing I would do is warn us all.
Let’s make sure that we don’t have hearts like that.
WHAT MATTERS MOST TO US?
Our traditions, or the revealed Word of God?
Charles Spurgeon asked his congregation, “If there were no Sunday morning service at eleven, how many of you would be Christians?”
And that is a question that deserves an answer.
We can’t do this just because we’ve always done this.
That type of worship never pleases God.
Let us commit to seek out the truth of God,
And if at any point we find that our traditions
Are in contrast to God’s will, let us throw them out.
Tradition isn’t bad, and tradition isn’t uncommon.
But tradition can never carry as much authority
As God’s revealed Word!
Let us keep things in their proper place.
Matthew 15:3 “And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”
