Isaiah 29:11-19; Ephesians 5:21-33; John 7:1-13
According
to researchers, tradition in religion is making a comeback. People have grown
tired of fads in religious practice and long for spiritual expression that is
deeply rooted in history and tradition. As a liturgical, traditional, and
apostolic church body, we Lutherans are poised to reach people who are drawn to
tradition. But we still (and always) face the risk of using tradition to
nullify God’s Word.
Tradition
always tempts us to displace and disregard God’s Word by lulling us into doing
things in rote and meaningless ways. Without understanding the reasons behind
our traditions, we may even end up valuing our traditions over God’s Word. This
becomes apparent when we insist on preserving our traditions even when we can’t
explain from the Bible why we have them. In extreme cases, traditions can even
contradict God’s Word. That’s what happened with the Pharisees and their
traditions.
The
Pharisees valued their tradition above everything else. Their tradition took
the letter of God’s Word and expanded, supplemented, and twisted it to the
point of being in conflict with it. Jesus said that they had nullified the word
of God by their tradition. Nullified God’s Word? What did Jesus mean by that?
He meant that by disregarding God’s Word and relying on their tradition, the
Pharisees had taken away the effect and impact that God’s Word could have when
it is learned and practiced. They had displaced God’s Word with the teachings
of men. They nullified it. We would be very shocked at this if we weren’t used
to nullifying God’s Word ourselves.
Through
tradition, ignorance, neglect, or abuse we have our own ways of disregarding
God’s Word and displacing it in our thinking and practice. When we do, we take
away the effect and impact that God’s Word could have in our lives. Thankfully,
Jesus has His ways of breaking through the barriers that we set in place to
keep God’s Word in check. When our hearts were far away from Him, He came near
to us. When we had nullified His Word, the Word became flesh and demonstrated
the full extent of God’s love for us by giving up His life on the Cross. In
doing so, Jesus validated what men had long nullified and showed us that His
Word is greater than any attempts to nullify it.
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