“You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.”
Mark 7:8-9
Fiddler on the roof has proven to be one of the most popular and enduring musicals in our culture.
The story is set in Czarist Russia in 1905. Tevye, the peasant dairyman, is father to five daughters. He attempts to maintain his family and religious traditions in the face of outside influences. He tries to cope with the edict of the Czar evicting Jews from their villages while also dealing with challenges from the strong-willed actions of his three oldest daughters.
In one of the most famous songs from the musical, Tevye forcefully defends tradition and ends singing: “Tradition. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky . . . as a fiddler on the roof!”
When Jesus talked about tradition it wasn’t because He had a problem with tradition. After all, He instituted the tradition of Communion at the Last Supper. His objection came when tradition set aside God’s commandments.
I grew up in an atmosphere that mixed warm spirituality with a lot of rules that mostly had the word “don’t” in front of them.
I could never understand, for example, why male ministers preached against women wearing red lipstick while they wore bright red ties. Historically, the reason evidently was that in the early part of the twentieth century lipstick was an identifier of an immoral woman. I was a teenager at a camp meeting when the evangelist compared women wearing lipstick to an old barn. He said, “When you farmers paint that barn red and it later catches on fire, the first thing that begins to crackle and peel is that red paint, and the same with you women when you get on fire for the Lord!”
The key always is learning to distinguish God’s commandments from human traditions.
I think of it this way. Suppose I want to ride my bicycle across town. You come to me and say, “But you can’t do that because riding your bicycle across town is a sin. It’s forbidden in God’s Word.”
I then go the Bible and read it through and through, and I can’t find such a prohibition anywhere in Scripture. So I get back on my bicycle. You come to me again and say, “I know it’s wrong for you to do that.”
So I get off my bike and again examine the Bible to see if there is any underlying principle that would prevent me riding my bicycle across town. Finding none, I get back on.
Then you come to me a third time: “If you ride your bicycle across town, people will see you and some of them will lose their faith because of your bad example.” So I have to get off my bike for the third time and determine whether that’s a true or false statement. If I would cause others to lose their faith, then I will forego riding my bike. But if I determine that others just want something to criticize, I will get back on my bicycle and ride happily across town.
When I think this way about what I should and shouldn’t do, I keep a healthy perspective on commandment and tradition.
A Prayer: Lord Jesus, may I never let observance of a tradition substitute for loving You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength; and loving my neighbor as myself.
Excerpted from Dr. Wood’s book, Fearless: How Jesus Changes Everything, available from Vital Resources.
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