I drive a seventeen year old car. It is paid for, and still runs with very little maintenance. It shows its age. The paint no longer has a shine to it and the driver’s side door interior handle has seen better days. But it still runs. I could afford a newer vehicle, but choose to continue using the Camry. But when I am out driving and see all the shiny new cars riding around, I get pulled. I have to fight against the purchase.
Do you ever feel pulled between embracing the future and holding onto the past? I am comfortable with Windows Vista and Seven, so I don’t want to move onto Windows Eight. Of course I really want a MacBook Pro, but do I really need that much power? My clothes are getting older. Should I go out and get some new ones? Where would I wear them? What is the need?
Everyone gets stuck in the past at times. We do things a certain way and won’t give it up until we are forced to change. We have are favorite seats at church. We travel the same roads almost every time we travel. We have our choices of restaurants and entertainment. We are creatures of habit.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were not different. Their world was the professional religious world. Their whole lives centered around their role in the religious community. And when someone, namely Jesus, came around and tried to take away their traditions, they resisted. One area of resistance came in the guise of ritual washings. They had a certain way of doing these, certain times and certain circumstances, and when someone didn’t follow their guidelines, they got upset.
I am glad that surgeons maintain a ritual around the washing of hands. They do it a very specific way to minimize the possibility of infection contamination. They have to learn this behavior as part of their training. I can bet that if someone came up with a new way to wash their hands, that they would have difficulty accepting the new routine. This would be true even if the new way was better.
One other tidbit. Traditions can be added onto almost any activity, even religious ones, or should I say especially religious ones. That is what had happened to the religious folks of Jesus day. They had added so many traditions that the original Law and God’s intent had been lost. It was more important to keep the tradition than to keep the Law. And the traditions, those added sets of rules and rituals, ended up invalidating their standing before the LORD.
The Arnold Journey 