12th Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting
Text: Mark 7:1-13
TRADITION – IT REALLY DOES MATTER!
To the saints at Luther Memorial Chapel and University Student Center, faithful in Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said to them “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” Initially Jesus was speaking about their great concern for ceremonial washing (baptizing) hands and pots and couches. He was speaking about traditions they had invented to pursue holiness. They were relying on clean-living and a decent life-style and religious ceremonies.
A tradition is a teaching or action handed over from one generation to the next! Some traditions are essential – others are detrimental. Some are given by God – others are invented by men. Sadly, it is much easier to invent our own traditions than to receive and pass on what God hands over to us. Good things God hands over (His traditions) are always under assault. Concerning apostolic teaching Scripture therefore exhorts us, “Stand firm, hold to the traditions which you were taught…” (II Thess. 2:15). On the other hand bad traditions that we fall into easily take us captive. As St. Paul warns the Colossians, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8).
An account is given of the Russian czar who in 1903 noticed a sentry posted for no apparent reason on the Kremlin grounds. Upon inquiry, he discovered that in 1776 Catherine the Great found the first flower of spring on that spot. “Post a sentry here” she commanded, “so that no one tramples that flower under foot!” And so that spot was guarded, day after day, year after year, decade after decade. One command for one flower for one season led to the meaningless posting of a guard for 127 years. Some human traditions die hard.
Jesus continued “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” In this case also Jesus spoke about a religious tradition. The Pharisees and Scribes he addressed were good givers. They were the religious heavy weights of His day. They unfailingly gave the tithe (10%) of all they had to the temple. Think about that as you see Jesus go after their hearts. Do you realize the explosion in mission work and acts of mercy there could be if everyone in the Missouri Synod gave a tithe? Do you realize the surprising strengthening of outreach there could be in our congregation if each household increased the proportion of God’s gifts to them they returned to Him by 1% in 2007? Jesus was finding fault with the hearts of some very good givers.
In addition to the tithe they also gave special gifts. The corban was an offering of any kind consecrated to God. But, as our sinful hearts are wont to do, they used this category (corban) as an excuse not to aid their father and mother. In an age when there was no social security and no widespread retirement plans, children were sometimes the only support of their parents. The religious leaders addressed by Jesus conveniently reasoned themselves out of this responsibility. They had established a tradition that made void God’s commandment to honor and assist their parents. They didn’t always give it to God (corban), but putting this label on it insulated them from giving it to their parents. “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!”
We also like to turn things upside down as Isaiah proclaimed to Israel. We clay pots like to say to the potter who made us, “He did not make me”, “He has no understanding”. And so parents are constantly tempted to honor God with their lips but not their hearts. Parents are tempted to give their children every advantage in education or finances but not talk with them about the Word of God at home or see to their weekly reception of Christ’s gifts. Children are mightily tempted to establish their traditions from the wisdom of man or the spiritual vibes of the new age culture rather then the traditions of worship, prayer and scriptural guidance of their parents. “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!”
Or take God’s commandment concerning marriage. The Holy Spirit caused St. Paul to write, Wives submit to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…Is it not true that the commandment of God concerning marriage is readily rejected and replaced by traditions of men?
There are the false traditions concerning marriage that our decaying culture desires to establish – same sex unions. The one who made us - made us male and female, however, and said “for this reason” a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. True marriage will always be between a man and a woman, between male and female, because that is the gift God the Potter handed over to us clay pots. Yet sinful mankind continually says, “He did not make me”, “He has no understanding”. We’ll establish our own traditions.
No matter how wonderfully this issue is dressed up by Hollywood or played up by politicians or lifted up by errant educational efforts, unrepentant homosexual offenders will not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. 6). Well-intentioned efforts to make this life-style acceptable and institutionalize it are tragically unloving. Establishing a tradition of men that sets aside the commandments of God is never a loving deed – no matter how one feels. Such actions rather affirm those caught in a sinful tradition that is leading them to death. You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God to establish your tradition.
But today, dear Christians, consider most deeply the false traditions concerning marriage that even those who receive it as God’s gift for man and woman are tempted to believe. First there is the false tradition that headship in marriage means kingship, that that husband is the dictator of the wife. This false tradition of male chauvinism was extremely prevalent decades ago and it still has life! It views marriage somewhat as a power grab for men with a green light from Jesus. Scripture, however, does not say that the husband is the dictator of the wife anymore than it says that Christ is the dictator of the Church. “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.”
What Scripture does say is that the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church…Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… In God’s gift of marriage there is to be mutual submission (Eph. 5:21). The God-given submission of the husband to the wife is one of self-giving love. That’s the beating heart of the headship God gives in marriage – love. Husbands love your wives. In the fear of Christ, husbands are to be subject to their wives by loving them as Christ loved the church. If domineering, self-serving men are looking for a club to use, they certainly can’t find it in God’s Word. The first thing that Christ did as head of His Bride, the church, is to lay down His life for her. He shed His blood for her. The truth is that no description of responsibilities could call for more self-sacrifice and submission than this; the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.
This laying down of life for his beloved is not in some imagined, heroic way if the need should ever arise. Rather, he is to lay down his life little by little, day by day, in care and communication. He is to put her needs before his own. He is to order his needs as less important then hers. What a tremendous commitment a man makes in his marriage vows. In the fear of Christ he is promising his bride, “I will love you just as Christ loved the church”. “Just as!?” Husbands, how are we doing? “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!”
The false tradition of male chauvinism is rivaled by another false tradition in our age, radical feminism. This false tradition claims that not only are men and women equal before God, which they are, but also identical before God, which they are not. The Potter made his clay pots male and female with different roles to fill. The loving Potter said that in His gift of marriage the husband is the head of the wife.
What a tremendous commitment a woman makes in her marriage vows. In the fear of Christ she is promising to submit to her husband, her God-given head in everything. She is promising to willingly give her husband the authority as her head just as the church willingly and lovingly gives that headship to Christ. She is promising to order her life under his, to put his leadership first. Wives, how are you doing? Are you lovingly bearing witness to the harmful influences of radical feminism in our culture and even among friends; you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.
Here we see how vital it is to know the love that one’s wife or husband-to-be has for Christ and His forgiveness. Here we se how important it is for both to grow together in God’s Word. As with male chauvinism, so with radical feminism and a host of other alterations we would like to make to God’s gift of marriage, sinners, have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.
Beloved, whether God’s commandments concern our giving to Him or how we are washed clean before Him or honoring our parents or receiving His gift of marriage, we do like to turn things upside down. It’s what comes out of our hearts. Like the fact-finding delegation from Jerusalem who faulted Jesus and His disciples for not washing, we also find fault with Christ and His church. We might not even be aware of it, but out sinful hearts easily modify God’s traditions (what He has handed over to us), and design our own. In regard to perfectly keeping and passing on God’s traditions, our hearts are a festering, scheming, reluctant mess. It is good that we pray in the offertory as we anticipate receiving Holy Communion, “Create in me a clean heart, O God…”
But this is not true for the heart of Jesus! As Paul spoke of God’s gift of marriage he ended this way, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” God’s gift of marriage is founded on the unfathomable mystery that Christ has become one flesh with you, His church. He has united Himself with you in a union from which death cannot part you. In Holy Baptism you put on Christ (Gal. 3:27).
It is not a tradition of men that there is now a washing, a cleansing that makes you clean on the inside. The Greek word used in our text for the washing of pitchers and couches and hands is baptizo (baptize). It means to apply water. That ceremonial washing didn’t give the Pharisees the inner cleansing they were seeking. That ceremonial washing was a tradition of men. But not the washing of water by the word that you received! With all the authority in heaven and earth the risen Christ commanded, Baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her,…having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Now that is a washing that works! That is the washing by which Your Bridegroom presents you to Himself today in splendor, holy and without blemish.
The heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus, left His Father and held fast to you His Bride, becoming one flesh with you. In the Jordan River the Word made flesh received a washing of repentance meant for sinners. That washing left Him not clean but unclean, defiled with our sin. United in one flesh with us unclean ones He bore in His flesh all that our flesh deserved. He honored God with His lips and with His heart. He loved you, His bride, unto bitter death on the cross. He turned things upside down to such a degree that while He was sin itself, you His Bride were made to be holy and without blemish, without spot or wrinkle. Just look at you! You are so beautiful to Him! Husbands, wives, parents, children, givers – In Christ you have holy splendor. “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.
Beloved, He is still one flesh with you! It is not human tradition but the very mandate of God by which He bids you, “Take and eat, this is my body, given for you.” He hasn’t stopped loving you! His love for you hasn’t diminished even a fraction. As a Bridegroom is consumed with love for His Bride on their wedding day so Jesus is consumed with love for you still today. He has turned things upside down to such an extent that even death cannot separate you from Him. Just look at you! You are so beautiful to Him, lips and hearts, body and soul! He is present to embrace you with His love holding you close on the way to His eternal wedding feast. This mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to Christ and to you, His beautiful Bride. Amen.
Text: Mark 7:1-13
TRADITION – IT REALLY DOES MATTER!
To the saints at Luther Memorial Chapel and University Student Center, faithful in Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said to them “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” Initially Jesus was speaking about their great concern for ceremonial washing (baptizing) hands and pots and couches. He was speaking about traditions they had invented to pursue holiness. They were relying on clean-living and a decent life-style and religious ceremonies.
A tradition is a teaching or action handed over from one generation to the next! Some traditions are essential – others are detrimental. Some are given by God – others are invented by men. Sadly, it is much easier to invent our own traditions than to receive and pass on what God hands over to us. Good things God hands over (His traditions) are always under assault. Concerning apostolic teaching Scripture therefore exhorts us, “Stand firm, hold to the traditions which you were taught…” (II Thess. 2:15). On the other hand bad traditions that we fall into easily take us captive. As St. Paul warns the Colossians, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8).
An account is given of the Russian czar who in 1903 noticed a sentry posted for no apparent reason on the Kremlin grounds. Upon inquiry, he discovered that in 1776 Catherine the Great found the first flower of spring on that spot. “Post a sentry here” she commanded, “so that no one tramples that flower under foot!” And so that spot was guarded, day after day, year after year, decade after decade. One command for one flower for one season led to the meaningless posting of a guard for 127 years. Some human traditions die hard.
Jesus continued “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” In this case also Jesus spoke about a religious tradition. The Pharisees and Scribes he addressed were good givers. They were the religious heavy weights of His day. They unfailingly gave the tithe (10%) of all they had to the temple. Think about that as you see Jesus go after their hearts. Do you realize the explosion in mission work and acts of mercy there could be if everyone in the Missouri Synod gave a tithe? Do you realize the surprising strengthening of outreach there could be in our congregation if each household increased the proportion of God’s gifts to them they returned to Him by 1% in 2007? Jesus was finding fault with the hearts of some very good givers.
In addition to the tithe they also gave special gifts. The corban was an offering of any kind consecrated to God. But, as our sinful hearts are wont to do, they used this category (corban) as an excuse not to aid their father and mother. In an age when there was no social security and no widespread retirement plans, children were sometimes the only support of their parents. The religious leaders addressed by Jesus conveniently reasoned themselves out of this responsibility. They had established a tradition that made void God’s commandment to honor and assist their parents. They didn’t always give it to God (corban), but putting this label on it insulated them from giving it to their parents. “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!”
We also like to turn things upside down as Isaiah proclaimed to Israel. We clay pots like to say to the potter who made us, “He did not make me”, “He has no understanding”. And so parents are constantly tempted to honor God with their lips but not their hearts. Parents are tempted to give their children every advantage in education or finances but not talk with them about the Word of God at home or see to their weekly reception of Christ’s gifts. Children are mightily tempted to establish their traditions from the wisdom of man or the spiritual vibes of the new age culture rather then the traditions of worship, prayer and scriptural guidance of their parents. “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!”
Or take God’s commandment concerning marriage. The Holy Spirit caused St. Paul to write, Wives submit to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…Is it not true that the commandment of God concerning marriage is readily rejected and replaced by traditions of men?
There are the false traditions concerning marriage that our decaying culture desires to establish – same sex unions. The one who made us - made us male and female, however, and said “for this reason” a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. True marriage will always be between a man and a woman, between male and female, because that is the gift God the Potter handed over to us clay pots. Yet sinful mankind continually says, “He did not make me”, “He has no understanding”. We’ll establish our own traditions.
No matter how wonderfully this issue is dressed up by Hollywood or played up by politicians or lifted up by errant educational efforts, unrepentant homosexual offenders will not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. 6). Well-intentioned efforts to make this life-style acceptable and institutionalize it are tragically unloving. Establishing a tradition of men that sets aside the commandments of God is never a loving deed – no matter how one feels. Such actions rather affirm those caught in a sinful tradition that is leading them to death. You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God to establish your tradition.
But today, dear Christians, consider most deeply the false traditions concerning marriage that even those who receive it as God’s gift for man and woman are tempted to believe. First there is the false tradition that headship in marriage means kingship, that that husband is the dictator of the wife. This false tradition of male chauvinism was extremely prevalent decades ago and it still has life! It views marriage somewhat as a power grab for men with a green light from Jesus. Scripture, however, does not say that the husband is the dictator of the wife anymore than it says that Christ is the dictator of the Church. “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.”
What Scripture does say is that the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church…Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… In God’s gift of marriage there is to be mutual submission (Eph. 5:21). The God-given submission of the husband to the wife is one of self-giving love. That’s the beating heart of the headship God gives in marriage – love. Husbands love your wives. In the fear of Christ, husbands are to be subject to their wives by loving them as Christ loved the church. If domineering, self-serving men are looking for a club to use, they certainly can’t find it in God’s Word. The first thing that Christ did as head of His Bride, the church, is to lay down His life for her. He shed His blood for her. The truth is that no description of responsibilities could call for more self-sacrifice and submission than this; the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.
This laying down of life for his beloved is not in some imagined, heroic way if the need should ever arise. Rather, he is to lay down his life little by little, day by day, in care and communication. He is to put her needs before his own. He is to order his needs as less important then hers. What a tremendous commitment a man makes in his marriage vows. In the fear of Christ he is promising his bride, “I will love you just as Christ loved the church”. “Just as!?” Husbands, how are we doing? “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!”
The false tradition of male chauvinism is rivaled by another false tradition in our age, radical feminism. This false tradition claims that not only are men and women equal before God, which they are, but also identical before God, which they are not. The Potter made his clay pots male and female with different roles to fill. The loving Potter said that in His gift of marriage the husband is the head of the wife.
What a tremendous commitment a woman makes in her marriage vows. In the fear of Christ she is promising to submit to her husband, her God-given head in everything. She is promising to willingly give her husband the authority as her head just as the church willingly and lovingly gives that headship to Christ. She is promising to order her life under his, to put his leadership first. Wives, how are you doing? Are you lovingly bearing witness to the harmful influences of radical feminism in our culture and even among friends; you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.
Here we see how vital it is to know the love that one’s wife or husband-to-be has for Christ and His forgiveness. Here we se how important it is for both to grow together in God’s Word. As with male chauvinism, so with radical feminism and a host of other alterations we would like to make to God’s gift of marriage, sinners, have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.
Beloved, whether God’s commandments concern our giving to Him or how we are washed clean before Him or honoring our parents or receiving His gift of marriage, we do like to turn things upside down. It’s what comes out of our hearts. Like the fact-finding delegation from Jerusalem who faulted Jesus and His disciples for not washing, we also find fault with Christ and His church. We might not even be aware of it, but out sinful hearts easily modify God’s traditions (what He has handed over to us), and design our own. In regard to perfectly keeping and passing on God’s traditions, our hearts are a festering, scheming, reluctant mess. It is good that we pray in the offertory as we anticipate receiving Holy Communion, “Create in me a clean heart, O God…”
But this is not true for the heart of Jesus! As Paul spoke of God’s gift of marriage he ended this way, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” God’s gift of marriage is founded on the unfathomable mystery that Christ has become one flesh with you, His church. He has united Himself with you in a union from which death cannot part you. In Holy Baptism you put on Christ (Gal. 3:27).
It is not a tradition of men that there is now a washing, a cleansing that makes you clean on the inside. The Greek word used in our text for the washing of pitchers and couches and hands is baptizo (baptize). It means to apply water. That ceremonial washing didn’t give the Pharisees the inner cleansing they were seeking. That ceremonial washing was a tradition of men. But not the washing of water by the word that you received! With all the authority in heaven and earth the risen Christ commanded, Baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her,…having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Now that is a washing that works! That is the washing by which Your Bridegroom presents you to Himself today in splendor, holy and without blemish.
The heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus, left His Father and held fast to you His Bride, becoming one flesh with you. In the Jordan River the Word made flesh received a washing of repentance meant for sinners. That washing left Him not clean but unclean, defiled with our sin. United in one flesh with us unclean ones He bore in His flesh all that our flesh deserved. He honored God with His lips and with His heart. He loved you, His bride, unto bitter death on the cross. He turned things upside down to such a degree that while He was sin itself, you His Bride were made to be holy and without blemish, without spot or wrinkle. Just look at you! You are so beautiful to Him! Husbands, wives, parents, children, givers – In Christ you have holy splendor. “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.
Beloved, He is still one flesh with you! It is not human tradition but the very mandate of God by which He bids you, “Take and eat, this is my body, given for you.” He hasn’t stopped loving you! His love for you hasn’t diminished even a fraction. As a Bridegroom is consumed with love for His Bride on their wedding day so Jesus is consumed with love for you still today. He has turned things upside down to such an extent that even death cannot separate you from Him. Just look at you! You are so beautiful to Him, lips and hearts, body and soul! He is present to embrace you with His love holding you close on the way to His eternal wedding feast. This mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to Christ and to you, His beautiful Bride. Amen.
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
8/30/2006
