In almost every Jesus film there are scenes that have become iconic based on traditions. One of them is Veronica, who when Jesus carries His cross to Golgatha takes her veil to wipe his face and in some versions gives him a drink. It surprised me when I searched the Four Gospels many years ago, I found no mention of Veronica nor her kindness to Christ. Then there is the Stations of the Cross, that Jesus fell three times. Scripture never records Jesus falling, but because the Romans make Simon Cyrene carry His cross at one point, “As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus,” (Luke 23:26), it seems reasonable to infer he had trouble carrying it.
There is the tradition of Mary The Mother interacting with Jesus on the Via del Rosa as Jesus carried his cross, most movies has Christ talking to Mother Mary at one juncture, and in some rather Roman Catholic propogandic scenes Mary even helps Jesus get up from a fall or in the case of Son of God (2014) Mary helps Jesus lift the cross which is insane because the cross beam along was estimated by historians and archaeologists to be 200lbs!
Another tradition is Mary holding Jesus in her lap like in the famous Pieta Statue, but Scripture does not record this, instead it says “Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.” (John 19:38-42), and “So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.” (Mark 15:46).
Another tradition is that the apostle Peter was executed in Rome, and crucified upside down. There is no proof in Scripture Cephas ever went to Rome, rather it was the apostle Paul who did. The idea Peter perished in Rome is to support the erroneous belief Peter was the first pope, but Paul clearly says, “For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.” (Galatians 2:8). Peter was called to the circumcised, and was confronted by Paul about it, “But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” (Galatians 2:11-16). It is Paul not Peter who is the author of the epistle to The Romans, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people.” (Romans 1:1-7). There is proof that Paul went to Rome in Scripture, “And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him.” (Acts 28:16). There is no proof in Scripture that Peter went to Rome.
I bring up these unscriptural traditions to make a point. While some may not be harmful to believe, like Jesus falling with the cross, the issue is most of them are inventions to support Roman Catholic doctrines: the the tradition of Veronica and the Veil is to be a holy shroud relic like the Shroud of Turin, Peter going to Rome is to substantiate him as the the first pope when these are fictions not grounded in Scripture and why Catholicism is Prima Scriptura: tradition and scripture are of equal importance, and we Protestants are Sola Scriptura: scripture alone is what we base theology, doctrine, and Christian living on, not tradition. Scripture is God Breathed, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16) and from the Holy Spirit, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit,” (2 Peter 1:20-21), tradition is not, in fact Jesus rebuked the traditions of his day that had no basis in Scripture, “And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!,” (Mark 7:6-9), “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), which the apostle supports, “Let no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8). So I urge you to stick to the Scriptures, which are trustworthy, not the invented traditions of churches trying to make themselves seem legit. Amen.
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