For the sake of tradition

“Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.” Mark 7:13
Here is one of those instances where Jesus tells the Pharisees what He really thinks. Here they were, criticising the disciples for eating before they washed their hands in the ceremonial way – instead of realising that the God who created the food was standing in their midst. Jesus then goes on to give an example: the Bible says to honour our father and mother, but the Pharisees had a way of getting around this by saying that something was ‘Corban’ (devoted to God), and so they could not give it to their father or mother – thus dishonouring them, in order to appear to be more holy.
We can look at the Pharisees and say, ‘weren’t they bad.’ But this is only because in the gospel accounts, Jesus exposes their hearts. On the outside, they were living the most righteous life that was possible.
Are we guilty of taking up certain traditions – either those of others, or our own – and nullifying the word of God by them? Do we have certain unwritten rules that we keep, but fail to uphold God’s righteousness and show His love to others while keeping those rules? Jesus makes it clear here, which of the two needs to go.