Cutting Off the End of the Ham

There’s a story about a newly wedded couple cooking dinner together for all the bride’s family. The new husband watched his new wife prepare a ham. She removed the outer wrap, cut off the end of the ham, and then threw the end of the ham into the trash under the sink.

“Why’d you do that?” asked the husband.

“It’s how my mother has always done it,” The new bride replied.

“Why’d your mother do it?” asked the husband.

“I don’t know,” said the wife.

“Could you ask her?” said the husband.

“Sure,” replied his wife, eager to please her new husband.

The bride went to her mother and asked, “Mother, when you cook a ham, why do you cut off the end and throw it away?”

“It’s the way your grandmother taught me to do it. You’ll need to ask her,” said the mother. So the bride went to her grandmother with the same question.

“Sweet child,” the grandmother laughed, “I cut off the end of the ham because the ham was always too big to fit into the pot!”

Sometimes we develop our religious beliefs in much the same way. We mimic what we’ve heard and repeat what we’ve been taught without question. Why don’t we question what we’ve heard and been taught? Because, in most cases, we’ve been taught by good, loving, kind, sincere, honest, decent, moral upstanding people. They are the people that represent authority in our life. People we trust.

Those people have, in the same way, been taught by people that they trusted and loved, so beliefs and practices continue unhindered and without question down through many generations.

Here’s where we make our mistake. We confuse the people that we love with the belief that they hold. The example in the story is clear: the new bride would have continued the practice of cutting off the end of the ham and throwing it away if her husband hadn’t asked the question, “Why do you do it that way?” The bride could have easily said to her husband, “Honey, this is the way it’s always been done. This is the way my mother taught me and if it’s good enough for her it’s good enough for me. Honey, be quiet, accept it, and leave well enough alone!” Now if that would have been the bride’s attitude, the practice of cutting off the end of the ham would have gone from her to her children, her grandchildren, and so on.

Now consider this – after enough time passed and enough people died, no one would have known or remembered the reason for cutting off the end of the ham.

[Adapted from Muscle and a Shovel by Michael Shank]

Some Spiritual Applications

 We often wonder why certain “churches” endorse and practice certain things that are obviously not found within God’s Word. The fact of the matter is, very few people really study the Bible for themselves. Most religious people assume their “church” (or their “pastor”) is leading them in the acceptable ways of the Lord. Very few people will even stop to ponder if certain beliefs or practices are scriptural, let alone ask for biblical explanations of such. After all, the “pastor” is ordained and spent years of training in a religious seminary.

 Just stop and think about the following practices:

• Considering the preacher as the “pastor” of the church (congregation)

• Using sprinkling or pouring as a mode of baptism

• Christening babies into the church by sprinkling

• Partaking of the Lord’s Supper monthly or quarterly or yearly

• Using instruments of music within the worship of the church

• Emphasizing the “sinner’s prayer” in order to become a Christian

• Embracing denominationalism: “Join the church of your choice!”

How many of the above practices are authorized by the clear teachings of God’s Word? Not one! And yet, most “churches” endorse at least some of these practices – some “churches” practice all of them!

However, before we jump on the bandwagon and start denouncing the errant practices within the so-called “Christian” world, we would do well to make sure we are not spiritually “cutting off the end of the ham” regarding our own beliefs and practices. Consider the following areas of concern:

• The plan of salvation – how to become a Christian
• The organization of the church
• The worship of the church
• The work of the church
• The daily duties of the individual Christian

Some final questions are in order:

1. Are all “traditions” necessarily bad?

2. What are the apostolic “traditions”? (See 2 Thess. 2.15; 3.6; John 16.13)

3. How can we prevent ourselves from following after the “traditions of men”? (See Matt. 15.1-9; cf., Col. 2.8)

4. Who has the duty to know the difference between Christ’s doctrines and men’s doctrine? (See Acts 17.11; 1 Pet. 3.15; Jude 3)

5. Why must we properly teach the next generation? (See Judges 2.10)