Mark 7:1 begins with a wonderful statement, “Now when the Pharisees gathered to Him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw…” Here we have a group of the religious leaders gathering around Jesus, and others that had traveled a great distance to see something of Jesus. But the next statement tells all, “…they saw that some of His disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.” 

When they gathered around around Jesus instead of seeing Him all they could see were the unwashed hands of His disciples. Their rules and traditions had blocked their view of Jesus. The Lord goes on to describe how they had honored God with their lips but their hearts were far from Him. And how they had emptied the Word of God of power by their traditions. The same thing can happen to us today if we elevate our traditions and begin interpreting God’s Word by our traditions rather than interpreting our traditions by God’s Word.

Traditions are the applications of God’s Word. They become sacred when a generation fails to apply God’s Word and instead simply apply the last generation’s application of God’s Word. The Bible speaks to every generation and to every culture, if we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying.

As we seek the Lord, and gather around Him, let’s make sure there are no barriers and let’s focus upon what God is saying from His Word to us. The power of God’s Word will then be unleashed within our lives and will change, transform, direct, encourage, and redeem.