you have a fine way

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)—then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” (Mark 7:1-13, ESV)

This one was a bit of a struggle to read and understand, so hopefully my explanation of it will do it some justice...

All throughout the Gospels, the pharisees make a habit for themselves to fault Jesus in His ways, but they almost always lose, because Jesus always calls them out on their hypocrisy and pride, and this passage is no exception to that theme. But this one in particular is a bit heavier, because Jesus goes all out to call out and abhor the "traditions of the elders." In particular, Jesus calls out the traditions and doctrines that are man made, and not God-breathed.

The pharisees were calling the disciples out for not following traditions that their elders had created, such as washing hands, furniture, and utensils. Granted, it would be nice if they washed their hands before they ate, but it wasn't morally wrong. This particular tradition was not part of the original Mosaic Law, it was fabricated by elders of the temple. so the disciples were not disobeying any real law of authority.

Jesus then steps in to to make the real calls. He first starts by quoting a prophecy against them, saying there will be people who may externally "honour" God, but internally, they are far from Him.

Then it gets funny. Jesus gets sarcastic by saying, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!"  A fine way, haha. As sarcastic and almost comedic as it is, Jesus' sarcasm puts an emphasis on an idea. The traditions of man are not only unimportant, but they can cause someone to disobey and dishonour God. Jesus' prime example in explaining this is the Jewish tradition that a child's income doesn't have to be given to their old age parents after a certain point. Instead, it can be declared "corban," which was a legal term that the money can be given to the temple instead. This is completely contradictory to the idea of honouring your father and mother, because they need help when they're old. By allowing, if not already commanding, people to give their money to the temple instead of to their parents, then it's causes that person to dishonour their parents in the end. 

It's slightly terrifying when churches preach man-made ideas as absolute truth rather than scripture itself. One big topic I can already think of is rock music. Many churches (including a church I was once a part of) believe that rock and heavy metal music is satanic in nature because it sounds demonic. Screamo music, especially. But I mean, realistically, where in scripture does it say that? Sure, demons screamed a lot, but so did Jesus. Jesus was furious when He was flipping tables in the temple, I'm pretty sure He must've been screaming a lot. This idea, among many others, is a man made idea that gets preached as absolute truth in so many different churches, when it is really not founded on scripture at all. I could list more, but that's not the point.

The point is that we have to be careful with what we follow and preach. If we follow Jesus, then we have to follow His ways, not our ways. We have to follow the path He sets out for us, not the path that we're trying to pave. This is true obedience to God.

However, we also have to be careful about how firm we are with these traditions of God. ESPECIALLY with how it may affect new believers. In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul calls out the "seasoned" Christians for causing the new believers to stumble by telling them that they can eat any kind of meat, and by eating meat in front of them. Now, these seasoned Christians aren't wrong, they are theologically correct in what they say. These new believers were fresh off the pagan boat, so they still sort of held onto the tradition of abstaining from certain meats. Having seen the older Christians eat meat all the time, their consciences suffered. Paul then goes as far as to say that if eating meat were to cause his brother to stumble, he would never eat meat again. That's some tough love.

So beyond simply holding fast to the commandments of God is understanding that love, which is the greatest commandment of all, doesn't treat man's tradition, nor even their own theology as absolute. True love for God and mankind obeys God's commandments, and gives grace to their brothers and sisters.

I guess my point is two-fold in this post. Never consider the traditions that people make up as absolute. Always obey God according to His word, not ours. At the same time, do not allow your personal beliefs, as scriptural as they may be, cause others of different beliefs to stumble, even if you disagree with them. Give grace, and allow some give and take. No one's doctrine is perfect.

The only exception is when the other party is completely blasphemous and heretical in their beliefs (like the pharisees), THEN we gotta intervene. But beyond that, let there be some give and take. Because at the end of the day, a true relationship with God can still thrive without knowing steep theology.

-simon