Fiddler on the Roof, a timeless classic first released in 1964, held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost a decade. The story centers on the weight of choices as Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, grapples with preserving his Jewish religious and cultural traditions in the face of changing times.
One of the most well-known songs in Fiddler on the Roof is “Tradition.” Tevye, the father, sings, “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.”
Traditions, as old as humanity itself, are crucial in maintaining cultural continuity. Through traditions, we pass down information, beliefs, and customs from one generation to another. As Tevye’s song in Fiddler on the Roof suggests, traditions uphold social attitudes, customs, and institutions, ensuring that a culture’s essence endures. However, it’s essential to understand the origins of traditions, as when they are lost with time, their practice can become empty and almost meaningless.
In our study of Mark’s Gospel, we come to the opening verses of chapter seven. Mark records an interaction between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees. The discussion centers around the importance of traditions. Traditions often arise out of sincere attempts to please God. However, if they are not handled carefully, they can lead to hypocrisy. I hope you can stay with me for my teaching, “The Trouble with Tradition,” from Mark 7:1 to 13.
Jesus’ interaction with the religious leaders reveals the dangers of relying solely on tradition to guide our beliefs and practices. It underscores the need for a balanced approach, where tradition is respected but not mindlessly followed.
Tradition can be manipulated for selfish ends.
Our text tells us that a group of religious leaders from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. By this time, His fame had spread across the region, and the religious leaders weren’t happy about it. So, they watched Jesus and His disciples with a critical eye, desperate to prove that He couldn’t possibly be the Messiah, as some rumors suggested.
It didn’t take them long to find something to criticize. They observed Jesus’ disciples eating bread without first washing their hands, which is proper for sanitary reasons. However, the religious leaders’ objection wasn’t practical but rather ceremonial.
Mark explains, “For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they specially wash their hands, holding the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.”
The Pharisees would not eat without first washing their hands, including the wrists, as prescribed by the elders’ traditions. This washing was an elaborate ritual, which we can discern from John chapter two, where Jesus turned water into wine. Verse six tells us, “Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirt...
