Do you realize where your traditions came from or why they continue? Traditions for traditions' sake lose both their power and authority. Yet, here in today's text, we find the Pharisees questioning Jesus. Why are his disciples not loyal to the tradition? The traditions, in the Pharisees' view, are a marker of one's holiness. While they are being accused of being unfaithful, Jesus (as Jesus does) turns the Pharisees' arguments upside down exposing them as hypocrites. The traditions they reference have no basis in God's word. They are human-devised traditions around which they've created extensive practices—rituals that have become so elevated and complicated they've become a barrier to people knowing God. When we focus exclusively on the rituals we ignore the heart of the law; we miss God. The rituals do not make us holy. But, if we seek God, and pursue him wholeheartedly, holiness will naturally follow and the witness of Christ will flow from us to the world. This is what being a disciple means.