Mark 7

Today's reading is from Mark 7. Jesus' followers have been observed not obeying Jewish laws and traditions by not washing their hands. Jesus turns the Pharisees' and Jewish leaders' words back on them, saying they've replaced God's word with "tradition."

Traditions are not inherently bad, as long as we treat them as traditions and hold them loosely and not with a death grip. Or that we don't claim that a certain way is the "only" way. Jesus says in verses 8-9, and 13.

"For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition... And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

When Jesus pulls the disciples aside later, he elaborates in verses 20-23;

"It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

My - and Jesus' - challenge is this: The next time you notice something isn't how you remember it and you claim "that's not how church is done," stop yourself and look to scripture. As in the days of Jesus, there are those claiming "new rules" and   saying they are "the law," but as John Wesley taught us, "we must recognize the primacy and authority of Scripture as understood through the light of tradition, reason and experience."

Prayer

Lord, help me to put aside my own biases and preferences when church doesn't happen the way I want it to and remember to weigh every decision about church, worship and what I believe against scripture first, and then tradition, reason and experience. Amen.

For additional information, I didn't grow up Methodist, but I have come to appreciate Wesley Theology. To learn more about what those in the Methodist tradition call the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral" check out this video and blog post: https://www.wesleyan.org/the-wesleyan-quadrilateral