If you have ever been to church on Easter or Christmas, you know that on those days, parking spots are hard to come by. For the sake of tradition, families who may not have been to church all year come for special Easter and Christmas services. But where does that tradition come from? The idea of only needing to worship God on the days that Christ was born and resurrected is not found in Scripture. In fact, the biblical picture of Christian worship and the Christian life is the antithesis of such an idea.
In Mark 7:6 Jesus quotes an Old Testament prophecy from Isaiah about the idea of human made traditions in the church.
"Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." (Mark 7:6)
Jesus is not flattered by their holy traditions, in fact, he calls them hypocrites for practicing such things. So if tradition is not pleasing to God, what is? In Luke 9:23-25, Jesus gives insight into what is pleasing to God. "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"
This is a much different picture from the go to church twice a year tradition. The picture of following God in the New Testament is one of abandoning your own life, goals, and even possessions to serve God and those around you. It is a daily walk, not a twice a year celebration.
My motivation for this blog is not to shame those who take part in semi-annual worship, it's to direct people away from the tradition of man and toward the gospel message about Christ. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes..." (Romans 1:16)
In my next post I will explain the gospel about Christ and the reason behind my passion for you to know about it.
