Matthew 15:5-8 English Standard Version (ESV)
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;
It is tradition time once again. Each year it stirs up good memories lifting up the heart to repeat those things from our past that are fondly remembered. With this is a mixture of family traditions where a man and wife come from different traditions. They agree to form new traditions for themselves and their children. Over time traditions look and feel different than when they first began.
Jesus spoke rather harshly of traditions that drew our hearts away from God. Given that traditions are meant to make us feel good there are opportunities to “give over” to fleshly appetites. The Greek word for tradition means to “give over or give in”. In one situation it included the surrender of a city. All we have to do is drive around at night close to Christmas time to see the light shows to understand how that might be true.
Hidden within these verses in Matthew 15 is an uncharitable tradition that occurred in those days. It was saying “Corban” to a suffering parent, i.e. “My property is devoted to God, and therefore I cannot use it to help you,” My source on this comes from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. It is apparent from this example exactly why Jesus spoke harshly against it.
What would Jesus say about our current tradition time?