Sorry for the delay in replying, Sunday is taken with other things.
I will make this brief and to the point since I have to head off to work soon.
Thank you for taking the time to give me an actual answer, I do appreciate that.
However, I disagree with the your conclusions or interpretations of what Jesus is saying in these passages, and that they show the traditions that prevented the leaders from knowing Jesus.
When reading the passages, I can’t help but note what Jesus does not say. He does not rebuke them for the traditions themselves, nor does He say anything to indicate that they do not have authority. What Jesus rebukes them for is using tradition as a way around the Word of God, in a way, making that word void. Also, Jesus rebukes them for the reasons they have done this which was not out of love for the people or even love for God, but love of self.
Later in Matthew 23, Jesus says that they DO have authority and that the people should do as they say, but He condemns their example and their hypocrisy and warn the people not to follow what they do.
So, it is not the tradition that kept them from knowing Jesus, but the hardness of their heart and their own selfish desires, along with a heaping dose of pride.
However, the authority they have comes from the Law and cannot, or better should not, be used to demand adherence to the traditions they have set up. That is a misuse of the authority they were given.
Actually, He does rebuke them for several of their traditions in other places in the cases where they demand adherence to their traditions to the point of violating the Law.
Some examples of that are.....
I already posted Mark 7:1-13 so there's no point in doing it again.
However, Mark 7:9 gets to the heart of the matter.... “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
And that is the big danger of incorporating tradition into religion or adding it to Scripture. It happened then and human nature being what it is, it will happen again.
So, it is not the tradition that kept them from knowing Jesus, but the hardness of their heart and their own selfish desires, along with a heaping dose of pride.
Yeah, and that's likely what caused them to demand adherence to their tradition instead of Scripture. And again, there's the blindness God put on them in order for prophecy to be fulfilled.