Post #3222891

1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” -Matthew 15:1-9 Interacting with Catholic apologists online, one angle they'll occasionally take in our conversations is attacking the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. We Lutherans hold that the Word of God is the sole infallible source of doctrine and morals: my Catholic friends say it must be Scripture plus tradition. By "tradition" they mean the councils of the Church, the pronouncements of the Pope and the teaching magisterium, and the writings of various Church Fathers. Over the course of this conversation, occasionally someone will claim that the Bible does not teach Sola Scriptura. But I would say that all of Scripture is saturated with it the same way the doctrine of the Trinity is taught everywhere as well. There may not be a verse that says "the Word of God is the sole infallible source of doctrine and morals" as stated in the Lutheran Confessions, but time and time again the explicit Word is held up as having authority over men. Our reading this morning is one such instance. The pharisees had their traditions and they constituted a magisterium. That "tradition of the elders" demands that people wash their hands when they eat, but Christ and the Apostles freely ignore such a command. There is no Biblical commandment to wash one's hands when they eat, so why bind one's conscience to it? When the Pharisees and scribes ask about this, they are sent from Jerusalem: the pharisaic magisterium, the Sanhedrin, wants answers. Jesus replies that their tradition itself violates the Word of God, so it is not legitimate. The Pharisees abdicated their spiritual authority by contradicting the clear Word, allowing men to refuse honoring their fathers, therefore their silly hand washing tradition is null. The rule established here is quite clear. If violating the Scriptures means losing the authority one might have had, then the Scriptures themselves are the superior authority. Men will have traditions as a natural outcome of religion itself, but these traditions must be judged by what the inspired Word says. Our Catholic interlocutor might reply that Christ later tells people "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do" (Matthew 23:2-3). Ostensibly this would mean that despite the Pharisees' sins and false teachings, the dynamic of tradition was divinely instituted so the people had to obey. This would extend over the Roman magisterium as well. But the problem with that thinking is that Jesus and all of His disciples disobeyed the Pharisees' rules *all the time.* They ate without washing, ignored the talmudic Sabbath regulations, associated with Gentiles, and much more. So when Jesus tells the people to not observe "the works they do," this includes all the unbiblical things the Pharisees commanded. Scripture remains above this human tradition and authority. We would be foolish to say that Christ holding Scripture above the traditions of men is only applicable to the Pharisees. Throughout the New Testament the same rule is applied to the sadducees, the judaizers, the proto-gnostics, the nicolaitans, and more. If someone violates the Word in their teachings, they have no authority until such time as they fix themselves. Heck, St.Paul opposes St. Peter when the latter starts observing the traditions of men over what the Word taught (Galatians 2:11-14). And so the Word remains supreme in the faith.