THE EMPTINESS OF TRADITION
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
Tradition is just as much of a problem for us today as it was for Christ during His ministry on Earth. It amazes me still at how we can see the traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees, and yet miss those things that we are doing today as traditions that have probably separated us from one another more effectively than any of what they did. Even the disciples were put off a bit at how hard Jesus was on these traditions by the Scribes and Pharisees basically because they could not see the damage that was being done. The popularity or unpopularity of of truth by people has a lot to do with our creation of traditions. Jesus is teaching again in a parabolic form that every error from truth that obscures the truth of God and hurts the soul of man will be rooted up.
Even though these traditions have been long standing, and may seem impossible to uproot God will work in His own time and places to pull these plants by the root...uprooting every evil plant. I feel that we have a lot of work to be done in this area. Ever since I was a small boy I have been disturbed by the traditions I have seen around me in the churches I have been a part of. Tradition has been in so many forms and types of practice within the churches of today that we rarely give them any notice. A huge example of this is how we watch a clock when we deal with services. When I was a boy there was a Baptist church that split down the middle over the placement of a clock on the wall. Our service to God does not come from our control of how long we spend in prayer or in praise. We have gotten to the point that being five minutes later than we think we should be becomes a crime because someones meal is cooking...or someone has somewhere else to be rather than with God's word.
We can easily see (if we just look) how the ideas of traditions have taken a toll on our ability to give ourselves completely to God. There are many who attend a church today who spend the great majority of time they are there thinking about where they need to be or what they will be doing when they leave the church. All of this is in some way do a tradition that we have developed ourselves with regard to our behavior in Christ, and it must be uprooted if we are going to find any real power in God's Spirit. It is this kind of thing that creates blind leadership within the church. Our Lord had such a wide variety of illustrations. Each one of these struck home then and they do as well today. Jesus warned His disciples to "Let them alone" meaning to leave the Scribes and Pharisees unheeded or to themselves because their teaching were blinding people to the truth of God's message and leading to disaster. I fear that we may have to do the same things with the enormous n8mber of traditions that have been developed by denominations in this world today. Jesus called this kind of thing "Leaders of the blind". In fact the ideal of a Rabbi's calling was as a "Guide to the blind, a light of them which were in darkness" Romans 2:19.
Jesus also separated the fact that this kind of blind teaching was prevalent because the teachers themselves had been blinded spiritually. It was a matter of choice for them " Their eyes have been closed" Matthew 13:15 and worse still was the fact that they were unconscious of their blindness in many ways just like we are today. Jesus said " We see" John 9:41 how often I have heard the words " there is none so blind as those who will not see" and if the blind are leading the blind they will both fall into the pit. There is much yet that can be said about this fact but I will save it for another time. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Tradition is just as much of a problem for us today as it was for Christ during His ministry on Earth. It amazes me still at how we can see the traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees, and yet miss those things that we are doing today as traditions that have probably separated us from one another more effectively than any of what they did. Even the disciples were put off a bit at how hard Jesus was on these traditions by the Scribes and Pharisees basically because they could not see the damage that was being done. The popularity or unpopularity of of truth by people has a lot to do with our creation of traditions. Jesus is teaching again in a parabolic form that every error from truth that obscures the truth of God and hurts the soul of man will be rooted up.
Even though these traditions have been long standing, and may seem impossible to uproot God will work in His own time and places to pull these plants by the root...uprooting every evil plant. I feel that we have a lot of work to be done in this area. Ever since I was a small boy I have been disturbed by the traditions I have seen around me in the churches I have been a part of. Tradition has been in so many forms and types of practice within the churches of today that we rarely give them any notice. A huge example of this is how we watch a clock when we deal with services. When I was a boy there was a Baptist church that split down the middle over the placement of a clock on the wall. Our service to God does not come from our control of how long we spend in prayer or in praise. We have gotten to the point that being five minutes later than we think we should be becomes a crime because someones meal is cooking...or someone has somewhere else to be rather than with God's word.
We can easily see (if we just look) how the ideas of traditions have taken a toll on our ability to give ourselves completely to God. There are many who attend a church today who spend the great majority of time they are there thinking about where they need to be or what they will be doing when they leave the church. All of this is in some way do a tradition that we have developed ourselves with regard to our behavior in Christ, and it must be uprooted if we are going to find any real power in God's Spirit. It is this kind of thing that creates blind leadership within the church. Our Lord had such a wide variety of illustrations. Each one of these struck home then and they do as well today. Jesus warned His disciples to "Let them alone" meaning to leave the Scribes and Pharisees unheeded or to themselves because their teaching were blinding people to the truth of God's message and leading to disaster. I fear that we may have to do the same things with the enormous n8mber of traditions that have been developed by denominations in this world today. Jesus called this kind of thing "Leaders of the blind". In fact the ideal of a Rabbi's calling was as a "Guide to the blind, a light of them which were in darkness" Romans 2:19.
Jesus also separated the fact that this kind of blind teaching was prevalent because the teachers themselves had been blinded spiritually. It was a matter of choice for them " Their eyes have been closed" Matthew 13:15 and worse still was the fact that they were unconscious of their blindness in many ways just like we are today. Jesus said " We see" John 9:41 how often I have heard the words " there is none so blind as those who will not see" and if the blind are leading the blind they will both fall into the pit. There is much yet that can be said about this fact but I will save it for another time. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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