Some of you might be acquainted with this saying, “you don’t mess with tradition.” I am sure we have all heard that before. Here are some examples: “It’s always been that way.” “We have always had this food item at Thanksgiving.” Or “the youngest always hands out the Christmas gifts.” It can be something as simple as that or it can be bigger than that. In either case, “you do not mess with tradition. It is what we do.” Maybe we have said it ourselves. Maybe we scoff whenever we hear it. Believe what you will and let me make it clear to you that I am not trying to crop up some long-winded debate with any one of you. It can be a delicate subject when it comes to traditions and the prospect of change, but my point in bringing this up is to make it certain that there is one area of life where that saying applies. You do not mess with tradition when it comes to the Holy Scriptures. You do not mess with God’s tradition.

This tradition is simply the truth of God’s word, which He passes down from generation to generation. The weight of the law and the beauty of the gospel are the unchangeable heritage we have from God. Anything else in our Christian lives that does not necessarily come from God’s word, such as what hymnal we should use or the means we use to get God’s word out in the community, is meant to help support the gospel effort but is not the gospel in and of itself. Sadly, there are those who make commands that are beyond what Scripture says and put these extrabiblical traditions on the same level as Scripture itself. A commandment taught by men is how the Lord describes it in our text and can be further defined as a device made up by the “wise leaders” and put on the same level of Scripture. Judah was full of these false commandments of men. These false commands of men kept on cropping up even to the time of Jesus Christ. Elsewhere in the gospels we see the Pharisees condemn the disciples while citing their manmade traditions, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” Several scholars of Judaism say that the extra commands totaled up to 600 extra ordinances which were all put on the same scale as God’s word. These extra commands were treated by the Jewish leaders as God’s law and were made into the way of salvation. What effect did this have on the people? It blinded them spiritually. It made their ears deaf. It afflicted their souls and made them poor in health. God’s true word may as well have been sealed, unable to be opened and read because of how the religious leaders twisted things to their making which voided out the word of God with their traditions. What was their motive? Why change and add to what God had given them? Countless reasons like power, money, instant gratification could have been their motives. A lack of trust in God, pride, whatever it was it was truly wicked, and they thought they got away with it, but God knew. The Lord calls them out, “you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” The Lord has His pulse on the situation as He always does. He then puts them in their place, “You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding.” These wicked leaders were making themselves God, and God points out how ridiculous that is with an art comparison. Do pots make people? Of course not! Do pots determine how other pots should be? No! They’re pots. They’re pieces of hardened clay formed by a human designer. It is the same way with God, for He made us from the dust and wrote His law for us to show what He expects. Pots don’t make their own rules.

The pots of our day certainly try to make their own rules as well. The pope determines what is God’s word: “I must complete penance to be saved.” The Holy Spirit needs to violently shake me and give me a revelation. These are all destructive commandments of men that mess with God’s tradition and to what end? Do they want power for the leaders, logical certainty to try and limit a God that has no limits, a means to an end for emotional depression? Try what they will but these goals aren’t going to be achieved. The power is temporary, there’s a hole in the logic, your depression comes back, and the only thing being accomplished is the darkening of sight, the deafening of ears, and the affliction of souls. God’s word is blocked out and destruction is on the horizon. Now it sounds like I’m only talking about false teachers and that this message of the law doesn’t apply to us but be aware. Parents can mislead children. Friend can mislead friend. We can put ourselves in the place of God and make up moral requirements for ourselves. I did the responsive reading. I sang hymns. I listened to pastor. I should be good, for I did things to make God happy. Wrong! That is making those service elements more than they’re supposed to be. That is just going through the motions to achieve an unattainable goal. Some people go to their homes with manmade methods for salvation, forgetting their place. Do we go home with manmade commandments of morality that do not help but hinder God’s word? Do we forget our place? Our solid tradition comes from the scriptures alone. Our salvation is told to us only by Scripture and that is a wonderful thing.

The Lord condemns the so-called wise leaders and says He will perform wonder upon wonder resulting in the destruction of the so-called wisdom. The Lord does not tolerate evil and will not let it stand. His truth shines forward. The mighty wonder of His word would show the mighty wonder of Jesus’ death on the cross. That one and only law of God would be kept perfectly on behalf of all people by the one and only savior Jesus Christ, who would then pay the full price to atone for the sins of the world. Jesus Christ and Him crucified is God’s tradition. That is what He had in mind. Jesus is the catalyst and holy tradition needed for the ground changing shift between being hopeless wrecks to being sin-free saints of God. The Lord speaks of this ground changing shift by drawing a comparison between the people’s spiritual state and a couple of geographical locations. As people stand without the word of God, they are like the region of Lebanon. Lebanon was a rocky, deserted waste, unable to produce any life or vegetation. People without the word have no means of cultivating faith in their hearts. None of the people could cultivate works of righteousness by following commandments of men. So, then, God would send His Son into the world to proclaim the good news of salvation. God will turn Lebanon into a fruitful field able to be regarded as a forest. His tradition, the word which tells of Jesus’ sacrifice, is what would change the spiritual state of the people from a barren rocky soil to a fruitful forest filled with fruits of faith. This comparison shows the magnitude of the change. Such a difference is made when God’s tradition is not messed with. When God’s word stands as the only source and norm for the way to salvation, the spiritual infirmities of the people will be no more. The end of our text speaks of this powerful effect. The poor, afflicted soul, stricken with blindness and deafness is not capable of anything. It’s in a miserable state under the commandments of men and it awaits its miserable demise, but in that day where the deaf are made to hear, the blind to see, and the afflicted rejoice. In that day, the soul is made whole by what Jesus had done for it. The word of God bears that out and the word of God is the only source of it. The Holy One of Israel would then pass down this holy tradition from generation to generation, drastically changing the status of souls from now unto eternity.

This tradition has passed all the way down to us in the year 2024. It is what makes us to see and hear. It makes us rejoice in the Lord. It is what changes us from rocky Lebanon to the fruitful field. Jesus makes us whole. That is what God has always passed down, all the way to us. God’s word makes this clear. God’s word is our great heritage, and it is what sets things right. It’s what teaches us that Jesus Christ has made us whole. But what does this make of those other traditions that we have? God doesn’t say anything about hymnals or committees. He doesn’t say anything about sending kids to Christian day school from 8 to 3 or Immanuel in Eau Claire from September to May. He doesn’t tell us the exact amount of our finances that are to be used. What about all these traditions? What are we to make of them? These traditions are not taught and done to achieve some moral code of perfection, but they are done to support the holy tradition of God’s holy word. The use of hymnals is meant to provide us with a reservoir of beautifully articulate songs of praise when we sing praises to the Lord, praising Him for His holy word. Committees are meant to provide a sound structure and plan for the congregation’s efforts in spreading the good news of God’s holy word; teaching our children in God’s holy word, and providing the needs of each of our souls with God’s holy word, helping us make disciples of all nations. Parochial elementary school and high school assist us in the scriptural directive to train up our children in God’s word. Directing finances helps us to gain the proper resources needed in each area to make easy the process of putting the gospel forward. Traditions not specifically given by God are not wrong in and of themselves if their proper place is recognized. God’s word is the true divine command. Any other ordinances and traditions are meant to support the word of God, not replace, or add to it. Considering this our traditions will come and go. Whether we’re changing languages, modernizing terms, expanding over the internet, it’s all meant to stand as a support our unchanging tradition: God’s word. God’s word will never change but will always stand as the means to create our faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.

You don’t mess with tradition. “Our ancestors knew what they were doing when they established this or that tradition.” You can debate that however you want, but when it comes to God’s tradition, His holy word the way of salvation, there is no room for debate. He knows what He is doing, and He knows what’s best for us. He passed down His holy word from generation to generation so that all may be saved by Jesus Christ and come to the knowledge of the truth. From age to age there will be those who shroud and make void God’s word by adding to it or replacing it with this and that command, but God will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will make clear what His holy tradition is. He has given to us His holy word and with it He tells us the cure to sin: Jesus Christ. God will support His holy tradition with whatever He has His people produce, and with the message of Jesus Christ He will make the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the meek will obtain joy in the Lord. And the poor will rejoice in the Holy One. This is God’s holy tradition; His saving gospel message has done this for us. Grant this Lord unto us all. Amen.