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. --Colossians 2:8
This week marks the season of Sukkot for the Jews. The Bible calls it the Feast of Tabernacles, and it is described in Leviticus 23:33-44. It is basically a harvest celebration, but the Jewish people were commanded to build booths or tents to commemorate the time that the children of Israel spent wandering in the wilderness after they left Egypt on their way to the Promised Land.
Actress Miyam Bialik (Beaches, Big Bang Theory) has a Facebook page wherein she explains certain Jewish feasts and traditions. She did a pretty good job describing Sukkot (or Sukkos in the more common Yiddish). She gives details about the historical and biblical context, and explains why and how Jews still carry on the traditions today. Interestingly, she says that the booths that they erect each year have the names of their ancestors written on them; some even write prayers mentioning their ancestors on their walls.
While the feast is certainly biblical, the part about remembering or honoring their ancestors is not. It is a tradition that was added to the celebration over time. Someone probably decided to list their ancestors on the wall of their booth one year, and others saw it and decided to do the same the next year. Over time, the practice spread and became part of the annual observance.
You may remember the opening song in the musical Fiddler On the Roof:
Because of our traditions, we've kept our balance for many, many years.
Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything...
how to eat, how to sleep, even, how to wear clothes.
For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl...
This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, how did this tradition start?
I'll tell you - I don't know. But it's a tradition...
Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.
Tradition!
Observant Jews always put on their right shoe first, to remind them of God's righteousness.
Tradition!
During the Jewish New Year, they dip apples in honey in hopes that it will be a sweet and fruitful year.
TRADITION!!
In the book of Mark, the Pharisees challenged Jesus three times about breaking tradition. We will look at these three stories and how Jesus addressed them.
Fasting
Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to Him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will com when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins--and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins. --Mark 2:18-22
The Old Testament commanded that the people fast one day a year, on the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16:29-31). The Pharisees made it a once-weekly observance, and the really devout fasted twice a week. Jesus saw through this game of "I'm holier that thou" that they were playing. He even spoke about it in a parable in Luke 18.
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." --Luke 18:9-14
So we know what Jesus truly thought of the Pharisees, who practiced their religious traditions to be seen by men. However, here in Mark 2, I think He was giving them a chance to repent. Isaiah 42:9 says, "Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them." So Jesus tells them something new: fasting is a practice of mourning, of depriving yourself for purposes of repentance or dedication, or (as Paul said later) to discern the will of God. Fasting definitely has a time and a purpose. However, if the answer to all your prayers is standing right in front of you, in the flesh, why in the world would you continue this tradition?
The one time that God had commanded them to fast was on the Day of Atonement. On that day they went without food in reparation (making amends) or expiation (the act of extinguishing the guilt incurred by something) for their sins. Under the old covenant, a sacrifice was offered to atone for the sins of the people. Under the new covenant, Jesus became that sacrifice for us, to make us right with God and to restore fellowship with Him. That calls for celebration, not mourning; it calls for feasting, not fasting.
Jesus gave two more hints about the new not being compatible with the old. New, unshrunk cloth could not be used to patch an old garment. When it is washed, the new cloth shrinks and tears away from the old cloth, making the hole in the garment bigger. Similarly, new wine expands; so if new wine is poured into old, stretched-out wineskins, then the skin would burst and the new wine would be spilled.
New faith is not compatible with old traditions.
Work on the Sabbath
God commanded a day of rest. This was a big deal, as it was listed in the Ten Commandments. "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work; you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11)
If we want to be like God, then we will set aside one day and do no work. This day of rest will make the rest of the week more productive, because we were not meant to work ourselves to death. "Work to live; do not live to work."
Seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it? Do no work, don't make others (sons, daughters, servants or livestock) work, do not even allow visitors to work. Yet the Pharisees had to make it difficult. They set about to define "work", and made a list of forbidden activities that one could not do on the Sabbath. For example, since one could not sow or reap, plow or grind wheat on the Sabbath, then neither should one continue the process of making bread. Therefore added to the list of forbidden activities were such things as sifting flour, kneading dough, or baking the bread. Since you could not shear sheep or weave cloth, or even stretch or dye cloth on the Sabbath, then neither should you sew, thread a needle, or tie (or untie) a knot.
Going to what may seen ridiculous extremes, activities forbidden on the Sabbath might include making a bouquet of flowers or adding water to a vase of cut flowers, because these activities mimic planting or harvesting (causing flowers to grow, or binding them into a "sheaf"). One could not separate rotten fruit from good fruit, because it is too much like winnowing or sifting. Other forbidden acts included cutting your hair or nails (shearing); applying makeup (dyeing); braiding your hair (weaving); opening an umbrella (building); turning on a light switch (kindling a fire).
So given this tradition, the Pharisees observed Jesus and his disciples walking through a grainfield on the Sabbath, plucking heads of grain, rubbing them between their hands, and eating them. Heaven forbid!
One Sabbath He was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, His disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And He said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him; how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?" And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath." --Mark 2:23-28
I can imagine the disciples following Jesus, who was taking a stroll on a Saturday. Walking was not prohibited in itself, but walking over a certain distance was frowned upon. The Pharisees were hypocritically following close behind (walking at least as much as Jesus did), carefully observing what Jesus and His followers were doing. One of the disciples may have make a comment, "I'm hungry." Jesus may have told him to grab some natural granola, since it was right there. The Pharisees were making a list of activities they should not do on the Sabbath, but that they were doing anyway: walking (iffy), harvesting, threshing, separating the wheat from the chaff, preparing food--there were easily a half dozen or so laws that were being broken.
When they confronted Jesus, He quoted Scripture at them. He reminded them of David, a hero of the Jewish faith, leading his men into the temple. The men had not eaten, and the priest gave them the bread on the altar. The law said that this bread was for the priests only, yet they shared with David and his men. Jesus was not only equating Himself with David the king. He was identifying himself as a priest, one who shared food with His followers even though they were prohibited from eating it. He identified Himself as a prophet, using the phrase "Son of Man" that God had used to identify the prophet Ezekiel.
This must have made the Pharisees furious. Not only was Jesus breaking the law of Moses (remember that Moses warned the people that the manna could not be gathered on the Sabbath, so they were to gather twice as much on Friday so that no "work" would be done on Saturday); He was also identifying Himself with Ezekiel, Abiathar, and David. Prophet, priest, and king.
Healing on the Sabbath
Again He entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man with the withered hand, "Come here." And He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. And He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against Him, how to destroy Him. --Mark 3:1-6
Pharisees had already observed Jesus and His disciples unlawfully harvesting on the Sabbath. Now they were watching Him to see if He was daring enough to perform a healing (presumably the "work" of a physician). Jesus turned the question back on them--is it lawful to do good or do harm? In Matthew's account of this event, Jesus goes further. "He said to them, 'Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep? It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." (Matthew 12: 11-12).
Mark says Jesus got angry with them for their hardness of heart. They would rather catch Him breaking their tradition than see this poor man healed. He glared at them, shutting them down, making them cower as He healed the poor man's withered hand. It's hard for many of us to imagine Jesus having any emotions other than love and compassion for the sick, but it's right there: He looked at them with anger.
I wouldn't want Jesus to look at me with anger. The Pharisees went out to see if they could kill Jesus, even if it meant conspiring with the hated Romans, here referred to as followers of Herod. My response is markedly different. I want Jesus to look at me approvingly, saying "Well done, good and faithful servant." I want to accomplish His will by any means possible, even if it means breaking with tradition.
No comments:
Post a Comment