22nd Sunday - Gospel Illustration - Mk. 7 1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Arbitrary Traditions of Men
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The “Arbitrary Traditions of Men” Copyrighted material that appears in this article is included under the provisions of the Fair Use Clause of the National Copyright Act, which allows limited reproduction of copyrighted materials for educational and religious use when no financial charge is made for viewing. From: A BIBLICAL DEFENSE OF CATHOLICISM - By Dave Armstrong
22nd Sunday - Gospel Illustration - Mk. 7 1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Arbitrary Traditions of Men
1. Copyrighted material that appears in this article is
included under the provisions of the Fair Use Clause of the
National Copyright Act, which allows limited reproduction of
copyrighted materials for educational and religious use when no
financial charge is made for viewing. From: A BIBLICAL DEFENSE OF
CATHOLICISM - By Dave Armstrong
2. A Bone of Contention Catholics and Protestants have for
centuries disagreed about the interaction of Sacred Scripture and
Sacred Traditions. Protestants focus on the Bible as the pure word
of God the concept being that if a tradition isnt specifically
referenced in Scripture than it must be, in the words of John
Calvin (1509-1564), the famous French Protestant Reformation
theologian, an arbitrary tradition of men. The battle cry if you
will for the Reformation was sola scriptura, Scripture Alone. One
section of Scripture is often sited as a proof text that tradition
is against the teachings of Christ and it is from the Gospel of
Matthew 15:6 which reads: 6So, for the sake of your tradition, you
have made void the word of God. We see the same thinking in the
Gospel of Mark 7:8-13
3. Gospel of Mark 8 You leave the commandment of God, and hold
fast the tradition of men. 9 And he said to them, You have a fine
way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your
tradition! 10 For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother;
and, He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die; 11
but you say, If a man tells his father or his mother, What you
would have gained from me is Corban (that is, given to God) 12 then
you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
13 thus making void the word of God through your tradition which
you hand on. And many such things you do. (Mk 7:8-13).
4. In this passage we do not see Jesus making a blanket
condemnation of traditions. What we do see is that Jesus is
condemning the use of man made traditions to change or supersede
Divine law. In this passage we see the avoidance of the fourth
commandment by the creation of the Corban rule, leaving you money
to the temple rather than using the money to support your
parents.
5. As we have just seen its important not to allow man-made
rules to void the word of God. It is important to maintain and pass
on the many traditions of the apostles to future generations. In
the closing words of the Gospel of John he tells us: 25 But there
are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them
to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain
the books that would be written (Jn 21:25). Catholics view the
church as being a unity between Scripture, popes, and the councils.
Protestants do not have this unity and thus, lack of unity is the
underlying reason for the many Protestant denominations. The
Catholics have maintained a sense of church history from the very
beginnings of the church. Protestants on the other hand have not
done so. We see other Biblical passages upholding traditions.
6. Saint Paul Paul tells the Corinthians, "I commend you
because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions
even as I have delivered them to you" (1 Cor. 11:2), He then
commands the Thessalonians, "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold
to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of
mouth or by letter" (2 Thess. 2:15). "Now we command you, brethren,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any
brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the
tradition that you received from us" (2 Thess. 3:6). In 2 Timothy
we hear Paul commanding that Timothy pass on all that he has heard
from Paul "and what you have heard from me before many witnesses
entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." (2
Tim. 2:2).
7. Matthew 10 The Catholic position is that Scripture and
traditions are interwoven like threads in the tapestry of the
church, thus share equally in the unity found in the tapestry.
Traditions are the beliefs and practices of a group that are passed
on orally. When Christ formed his church in the first century we
see him sending out his disciples to preach (Mt. 9:36-10:15). When
these first disciples left the company of Jesus they didnt take
with them the New Testament because it hadnt been written or
assembled yet. The writing of the Bible was about an 1100 year
project that stretches from Old to New Testament times. The
Catholic Church claims to be the Sacred deposit of faith, contained
in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, passed on by the apostles (CCC
84).
8. Summing Up Biblical stories were passed on orally from
father to son and then about 1100 B.C. they began to be written
down. The very first disciples went out as preachers and didnt
possess a yet unfinished Bible. There are places in the Bible that
appear to condemn tradition but when they are placed within their
context they teach a different lesson. There are numerous places in
the Bible that supports apostolic tradition. We can see from the
writings of the Church Fathers that the apostolic traditions are
viewed as bringing us closer to God. Further, The apostles
distinguish between vain traditions of the Jews, and their own
Christian traditions.