In Isaiah 50:4, Second Isaiah (a disciple of the prophet Isaiah, or First Isaiah) says of himself:

“The Lord God has given me the tongue of discipleship, to sustain the weary with a word... He awakens my ears to listen as a disciple.” God has given Second Isaiah two input devices and one output device. As a disciple of First Isaiah, Second Isaiah has his ears attuned to the tradition passed on to him from his master and he in turn passes on the spiritual sustenance of that tradition to those who are in need of its nourishment. This makes him a missionary disciple.

Was Second Isaiah’s mission to just pass out photocopies of 1st Isaiah’s homilies? No, he took the tradition that was passed on to him and used it as leaven, kneading it into the historical circumstances of his time to produce the contemporary insights required to be an effective witness. He took care to make sure that each of these insights came packaged with a trail leading back into the tradition. As a missionary disciple he deepens the insights of the tradition and broadens its application. In this way the tradition becomes a living and life- giving tradition.

As an example, Second Isaiah, starting with what was passed on to him, produces the insights contained in the ‘Servant Songs’, from which we read passages at Easter: “But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed,” (Isaiah 53:5).

We can think of tradition as a source of pure water that feeds into an ever-widening river system and irrigates a dry and thirsty land. As disciples following in the lineage of 2nd Isaiah, we are ecologists of tradition, ensuring that the waters do not become polluted, or the flow diminishes, because the downstream consequences could be disastrous.

In the modern world, the destruction or pollution of tradition has taken
on a life of its own. G.K. Chesterton makes the point that, “Tradition means giving a vote to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead... Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.” By arrogantly draining the reservoir of tradition, our resource for gaining insight diminishes along with applicability of our principles. At some point we will just run out of spiritual H2O and only be able to stumble along, weakened from the dryness of our souls.

Jesus is both the source of living water and of our tradition, or as Hebrews 12:2 says, "[he is] the author and perfecter, of our faith." As missionary disciples, we need to stay close to our Master.