Contemplative Bible Reading

Mark 7:1-5 (New Living Translation)

1 One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. 2 They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. 3 (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions. 4 Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to—such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.)

5 So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”

I love the language used in this translation of this passage. It is clear to me what the Pharisees and teachers of the religious law were defending. They themselves called their practices “age-old traditions.”

Note how they were not defending the law that God had given them. They were defending a man-made tradition.

I like traditions. The older I am, the more I like traditions. Still, I have to admit when a tradition is a tradition and nothing more. The Pharisees admitted that in this passage. Still, they defended it to the death (of someone else).