At Christmas time, we all have traditions we follow. Those good traditions bring families together in joyful celebrations. There is another kind of tradition – a negative kind. These are the unexamined religious traditions. They can lead us away from a pure and simple devotion to God. 

This examination of our traditions is not like a scene from Fiddler on the Roof, where Tevye calls for the continuation of Jewish tradition, highlighting its positive side.  This is any religious tradition that stifles our faith and has us relying on a tradition, not on the Lord, for our salvation and deliverance. 

One day, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law saw that the Lord’s disciples had failed to follow the Jewish ritual of handwashing before eating, as required by their ancient religious tradition. 

“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’”(Mark 7:5). The ceremonial handwashing was not for cleanliness; it was only for the public spectacle it created by upholding the tradition.

“Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God. For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition. Then he said, ‘You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition’” (vs. 6-9).

Our religious traditions can become a farce because they are not sourced from God’s law, but from a man-made idea that became a religious tradition. These traditions keep people holding onto man-made traditions that allow them to sidestep God’s law and truth.

Just because something has become a religious tradition doesn’t mean it’s right, or that we should continue to hold onto the tradition if it limits God’s ability to do what He wants in His people.

From time to time, we need to examine our religious traditions to see whether upholding them is nothing more than an unhealthy religious spectacle. Jesus ignored the demands of the Pharisees and teachers of religious law when they demanded that He and His followers follow their example. That is one reason why they wanted to kill Jesus.  

Challenging long-held religious traditions can provoke intense conflict when it becomes clear that some of those traditions conflict with God’s heart and His truth. Examining our traditions will set us free from slavish adherence to a tradition when we try to keep something alive that has always been dead. 

“If the Son sets you free, you are truly free” (John 8:36).