The Text: Mark 10:46-52

Today in the Gospel reading we are introduced to a certain beggar named Bartimaeus. It is a very simple story on one level; it seems like just another brief healing that Jesus does on his way from Jericho to Jerusalem. When compared to his Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem, should we consider this account anything more than a “blip” along the way? But actually, Jesus uses this healing to achieve two purposes. Firstly, to heal Bartimaeus, making him a follower of Jesus, and secondly, to teach James and John a thing or two about arrogance and blindness.

The reader of Mark’s Gospel knows of James’ and John’s act of pride. Just before this healing story they tell Jesus that they want to sit either side of him in glory in heaven. The cheek of it all, and the arrogance! They are puffed up, spiritually blind in seeing what it is to be a follower of Jesus.

So when they see Bartimaeus—this beggar on the roadside—James and John (we assume) are probably some of the ones who try to silence this unclean nuisance of a man from their glory trip into Jerusalem. Beggars in Jewish society were considered unclean, dirty and to be avoided. In original Hebrew, Bar-timaeus means ‘son of the unclean.’’ But there’s a twist! In Greek his name means ‘son of honour, respect and reverence.’

Jesus sees Bartimaeus according to his true value and identity as a loved child of God. Conversely, the disciples and some of the crowd see him as the lowest of the low. Though Bartimaeus is unable to physically see, he can spiritually see that Jesus, as God’s Son, is passing by. The disciples are simply still blind in seeing who Jesus came to save and heal. And so the disciples then watch and see just how much Jesus loves this beggar. Jesus heals him totally and lets him see light once again.

Bartimaeus then flings away his outer garment, the garment he would lay out to collect money, and keep him warm at night. He doesn’t need it anymore, because he can see that Jesus is all he needs; he now has a family to belong to. He belongs! He is no longer an outsider!

In the original Greek language, to be blind has a second meaning. It means to be ‘smoky, puffed up with the fumes of arrogance’. Smoke gets in your eyes and clouds your vision so you can’t see properly. Actually, James and John are a bit smoky themselves! This whole scene is quite shocking as Jesus’ disciples and the crowd are clearly too puffed up with self-importance and desire to enter Jerusalem with glory, rather than stop and bother with an annoying beggar.

We can remember Bartimaeus as he who threw off his outer garment. The author of the Book of Hebrews would later say this about throwing off: ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith’ (Heb 12:1-2a). This section of Hebrews is practically a commentary on Bartimaeus’ healing of sight and subsequent following of Jesus. St Paul would add that we do not just “throw off” but also “put on.” Paul said, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ’ (Galatians 3:26-27).

Of you are baptized, then you have the wonderful clothing of Jesus – his robes of righteousness upon you. As you go away with today, imagine that white clothing to be placed over people you personally struggle with, or don’t ever associate with. We can easily see many people as unclean beggars. How many times have we been guilty of being physically put off from ministering to them? Have we been too busy and too puffed up to care because of our busy schedule and important things to do.

On Reformation Sunday we remember the time the church became puffed up and blind and lost the Gospel. Martin Luther was key to removing the garment of blindness and revealing to the people the robe of Baptism and righteousness in Christ that they always had. Just like the past, sometimes the detailed and administrative business of doing church today can get a bit smoky. We can get puffed up with pride and self-importance and are blind with smoke in our eyes to the needs of real people who need Jesus.

Jesus calls and sends you to get out of your comfort zone and reach out to the homeless, to refugees, or the disabled, or mentally ill or anyone who doesn’t quite fit the bill of a comfortable predictable church. We may all have a heart for that, but practically it is not always easy.

But Jesus helps us and does the leading. We need to follow him along the way like Bartimaeus, casting off our smoky garments of self-righteousness, and putting on the white royal baptismal robes of adoption into God’s family. It is in those robes we are forgiven and cleansed through the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Text: Mark 10:35-45

 

A few years back there was absolute uproar on the streets of London. Emergency services were inundated with calls, Members of Parliament were contacted by angry citizens, and social media went into meltdown, with some even claiming this was a sign of the apocalypse.

What was the calamity that sparked such frenzied panic?

It wasn’t terrorism, rioting, or financial or political collapse. It was a shortage in chicken supply throughout the UK, which meant more than half of Britain’s 900 KFC stores had to be temporarily closed. You know when an event is truly catastrophic in the minds of the public when people attribute its own hashtag to it—in this case: ‘#KFC Crisis’. Helena Horton of the Telegraph reported: “Frustrated chicken lovers resorted to contacting their MPs and calling the police” resulting in the Essex police posting this statement on Facebook:

 “999 is only to be used for an emergency where someone’s life or property is at risk. KFC not having any chicken is not an emergency and is not a police matter.”

In the meantime, KFC were bombarded by angry customers on social media telling them to get their act together—or words to that effect. It seems that it was their right to have KFC whenever they wanted it…and their right to really vent their fury when they couldn’t have it.

This might all seem hilarious, but there’s a lot about this issue that’s also deeply disturbing. The perceived personal right to self-service can be expressed in very harmful ways and when a person’s right to what they want becomes the basis for a society’s moral code, it can have devastating consequences.

When the Queensland Parliament passed laws decriminalising abortion a few years ago—including full term abortion—the decision was reported as “historic” and progressive. Queensland’s Deputy Premier, Jackie Trad said: “The right of women to control their own reproduction, their own bodies, is such an important part of equality in our society. To prioritise the rights of a fetus [sic] above that of a woman is something that I find offensive.”

Other state jurisdictions have passed similar legislation. From a human point of view, there may be understandable reasons why an abortion may be sought, but legislation in the name of equality actually promotes inequality. Psalm 139 teaches us that every individual is unique and has the same worth, dignity and purpose God ordains for us as his creation of us in his own image, whether a foetus or an adult. God knits each person together in their mother’s womb with intricate and purposeful detail, so that they are fearfully and wonderfully made by him; and he appoints all the days of every person before one of them came to be. He has given the 5^th commandment by which he expresses his will that all people be protected and cared for and helped in all their physical needs.

But this legislation is a new commandment that legislates against equality—one that views the children impacted as less than human— ‘just a foetus’—whose value and worth in life is not, as God says, in their own being as his creation, but which is dependent on the estimation imposed by others, on how useful, or wanted…or unwanted others deem them to be.

It is ironic that in the name of rights, the rights of these unborn children have failed to have been upheld. Who makes a choice for those who are unable to choose for themselves whether they should live or die? May God have mercy on those who preach from the social pulpit that this is about equality and rights and choice.

Yet before the church can claim the moral high ground, we need to recognise that we are also not exempt from the problem of deciding what our rights are and insisting on them. That self-focus has been part of all human beings ever since Adam and Eve replaced God’s will with their own in the Garden of Eden and bit off more than they could chew. It’s been a problem for the church from the earliest times, as today’s Gospel reading shows. Two of Jesus’ disciples, James, and John, came to Jesus and said: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked. They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory” (verses 35-37).

How human of them to ask Jesus for this self-indulgence in positions of prominence without first considering what his will for them might have been.

Power, glory, self-indulgence, rights, the demand to decide what human needs are and how that can be met has all resulted in the most sinful actions within the church. On the 22^nd October 2018, the National Parliament in Canberra, our Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivered a national apology to people who were sexually abused as children in institutions, including in the church. This apology was a major outcome of the 5-year-long Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Shocking for us is that the Commission identified the Lutheran Church of Australia among the churches that need to acknowledge their past failures to provide children with adequate protection from sexual abuse.

As we hear and reflect on that, perhaps there are several emotions within us. Perhaps one of the immediate thoughts is shock and outrage that such evil could happen within the very body of Christ, the very place where refuge and care for all people is supposed to happen. Why has this happened? Why does any form of abuse continue to happen not only for children but all people in the church?

God shows us that his will for relationships is one of good order within which there is consideration, and service, and care and love for one another. In Ephesians 5 & 6 Paul says that children are to obey their parents in the Lord, for this is right, and is also for their own blessing, for honouring one’s father and mother is the first commandment with a promise—that their life on the earth may be good and long. Fathers are not to exasperate their children; but encourage them as they bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Workers are to serve their employers as if they were serving Christ, not merely other people, and employers are to treat their workers in the same way. Paul says: Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favouritism with him.

Wives are exhorted: “submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.” But too many husbands have left aside Paul’s next words: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Just as Christ gave up his life, Husbands are to love their wives not by demanding their own way but by dying to themselves— putting to death their sinful selfish motives and desires that results in all kinds of idolatry and physical, sexual, emotional, and spiritual abuse—because God has called husbands to be his instrument of blessing to their wife. Paul explains that this is the order God has established through which God brings blessing and he summarises all of this by saying that the church is to submit to its head, who is Christ.

Whether it is expressed through demands that emergency services re-establish a supply of KFC, or in the manifestation of the most extreme forms of abomination, the natural human condition of focusing on its own will and desire for self-service, demanding our rights, whatever we perceive those rights to be—without concern for how that might exploit the most vulnerable—is sinful human will, but it is not God’s will.

God’s will is completely opposite to the ways of our world’s thinking of chasing after greatness and personal rights and choice at the expense of others. It is to die to ourselves and serve others, rather than lording it over others. Even if we are in leadership positions, we are to seek to do what we can for the benefit of others rather than our own.

Jesus does not just say that his people are to serve others, but he goes even further and says: whoever wants to be first must be servant of all. We are to see ourselves as last of all, and willingly to do what is needed for the benefit others. God’s will has always been to rescue us from this enslavement to the human desire for power and greatness. The only way God could do that was by sending his only Son. Jesus says: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

We’re not just talking about a really good guy here. This is God…who didn’t wait for us to serve him, but who came down from heaven in the person of Christ to serve us. He experienced the full brunt of human abuse when he was mocked, beaten, whipped and crucified. He did this out of love for all people, to rescue the world with the only satisfactory ransom price to pay: his own holy and precious blood. He did this for all people—the outcasts and socially shunned, the tax collectors and sinners, the most insignificant in society; the frail and vulnerable, the disabled, and even those who are living but are yet unborn. 

He did it for those who cannot see past their own self-importance, those who are sinned against and abused, and those who are abusers themselves, who cannot fix what is broken within and are incapable of stopping themselves hurting others. He laid down his own life for those who do the most evil and reprehensible things, and even for those who would reject and mock him as he hung from a cross. All these Jesus put before himself.

Jesus put us before himself, too. In fact, he put himself last, when he ransomed the world humbling himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. Then he claimed us to be his very own in baptism, where he brought all the benefits of his saving work to us personally.

Jesus who gave his own body on the Cross for the life of the world, through simple bread gives his body to us. It is the meal by which Jesus proclaims that “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” It is the meal Jesus gives to his church as a proclamation of the foretaste of the feast to come, where we, together with all his people, will see him in glory. Then there will be no more worry about who will have the places of prominence, for we will all have a room in our Heavenly Father’s mansion, and Jesus our Saviour will seat us all at his table at the places he has reserved for us as his special guests. Amen.

Psalm 124; James 3:13-4:3; St. Mark 9:30-37

The context of this argument amongst the Apostles is that they had just descended from the mount of transfiguration where they had seen Jesus’ glory, the glory, as St. John has it, “as of the only Son from the Father”. Mark 9: says “They went on from there” Where is this “there”? The “there” is the mount of Transfiguration where the three disciple, Peter, James and John, had witnessed the glory of Jesus transfiguration. Now they were travelling from “there” with Jesus, going with him up to Jerusalem where He was to die. To achieve his “exodus”, his departure indicated by Moses and Elijah in the conversation with Jesus accompanying the transfiguration vision which the disciples heard and witnessed

The problem with the disciples was that they completely misread the meaning of Jesus’ transfigured glory. By their actions toward one another it would appear that they understood glory in the this worldly sense of power or greatness. But Jesus glory is exactly the opposite. He who shared the inconceivable uncreated glory of the Father from all eternity, in inestimable condescension makes himself one with humanity, not in a neutral sense by simply of becoming a human being, but sharing our humanity in the condition in which God finds it in alienation, estrangement, living in the darkness of sin and separation from God, the true source of human life. T

This is Jesus glory that in obedience to the Father, in that unity of will and purpose which is God’s essential nature, Jesus undertakes His strange journey in to the far country of this world. There he descends to the depths of the abandonment of the human condition. It is here, according to John’s gospel that we see what Christ’s glory is, the glory which the disciples beheld on the mount of transfiguration. It was on that mountain that the figures of the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah, spoke to Jesus of His departure, His exodus that He was soon to accomplish in Jerusalem. His exodus, his departure through the humiliation of his death on the cross. The truth of this mountaintop experience for the disciples is hidden in the deep mystery of Christ’s impending humiliation as the glorified Son of the Father. There is this false and misleading view abroad about Christians’ Mountain top experiences, of emotional highs that are meant to indicate experiences of God’s grace in a person’s life. Well, the disciple’s incomparable mountain top experience is one which completely hides form them the truth of the reality that is taking place before their eyes. They are blind to the truth of Jesus glory consisting in his abject humiliation in the cross as the eternal Son of the Father. This should make us pause and realise the highly questionable nature of all religious experiences as revealing anything, apart from our own psychological state rather than the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ

But amazingly, all this is hidden from the apostles. They dispute with one another; they argue about preferment in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus whose glory they have just witnessed in His Transfiguration. So, Jesus takes a child and teaches his disciples an unforgettable lesson. But just what is it that Jesus teaches His disciples?

Here it is not a question of the disciples becoming infantile. Their arguing amongst themselves is already a sign of their infantile understanding of Jesus purpose and presence in the world. The child represents one who is weak and vulnerable, who is defenceless in the world. It is a child whom Jesus chooses to represent Himself to his disciples. “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me”. The receiving of a child as representative of Jesus means that the disciples must learn that their life before God depends upon them not counting it too small a thing to receive that gift from One who, like this child, is weak and vulnerable in the world; one who is defenceless against its predations, deceptions and subversion.

This One of course stands before them. The child is witness to Jesus in the form He assumes for our sake as the weak and defenceless one whose glory is in His weakness, His victory in His defeat. But it is these very characteristics of the child which the disciples despise; as is indicated by their arguments among themselves. But it is precisely this with which they must come to terms with if they are to receive truth of their life before God as mediated to them by one who has this form and no other. The form of a weak, vulnerable, defenceless child.

These words of Jesus about the child and the disciples receiving Him in the form of a child occur in the context of the gospel record alongside Jesus’ quite direct indication, in his own words to them which cannot be misunderstood, that the purpose of his ministry will find its fulfilment in the cross. “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He is killed after three days He will rise.” St Mark 9:31. But from their totally incongruous behaviour, their discussion about who is the greatest, we see that what the disciples see in Jesus words is either nothing at all or only a frightful paradox, a radical contradiction and destruction of any idea they might have of Jesus as the Son of God.

But these same disciples, blind to the reality of Jesus purpose in being among them as the true son of the Father, subsequently came to confess the crucified Jesus as the hope of the world, as apostolic witnesses of the resurrection. What they came to see as a hopeless contradiction and meaninglessness, they come to see as Jesus kingly coronation. Where now they started back in incomprehension at Jesus words, they then understand in the light of His triumph: That is, they now saw His cross, which had been the subject of their experience of the transfiguration and Jesus own testimony concerning His future, being a great source of their blindness, disturbance and a fundamental contradiction for them, they came to see the cross as the solid basis and sign of their temporal and eternal hope, by which they could live and proclaim to the world as its hope too.

The encounter between Jesus and His disciples concerning the place of a child in this context, which refers in such dramatic and direct way to His passion and death, has a particular meaning for us. It raises for us the question of the power and meaning of the existence of the one-man Jesus Christ for all people. The relevance of this reading for us today may be summed up in this way: How is it that what Jesus was and is and will be can reach and affect us as an act of divine power?

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” Receives………… in my name. The question of Jesus presence and purpose for us and the world can be received by us in our relationship with a child. But here we must distinguish between the relationships which we have with children by nature, either as parents or friends, and our receiving a child in Jesus’ name. To receive a child in the name of Jesus is to receive a gift which radically calls into question the basis of our life before God and each other. The child as a child is not identical with Jesus, in fact there is no inherent relationship between Jesus and children apart from Jesus’ will that we receive Him and all He wills to be for us in this form: The form in which a child confronts us is in its dependence and vulnerability, its weakness in the world. For the child is a witness to Jesus in it being who it is, a child. For in its being who it is; in its dependence and vulnerability in the world, who without resolute protection by family and society would fall prey to the powers of negation at work in our society, the child in being who it is in this way witnesses to whom Jesus Christ is for us today.

For the child, in being a child, points to the astounding fact upon which depends the existence of the world before God: that our life before each other is grounded in and sustained by the fact that in Jesus Christ the eternal God accommodated Himself to the weakness and vulnerability of our mortality. That for our sake He traversed our way from birth to death in order that our being, our lives, which in their alienation and corruption are tumbling down into the non being and nothingness of death should be preserved and renewed in relationship with God. It is precisely because this One who went this way lives as the Lord that the child can become for us the source and testimony to the Truth of our life in Jesus Christ.

But it was just this truth which the disciples rejected as they companied with Jesus on the road up to Jerusalem as they argued amongst themselves as to who was the greatest. Jesus’ action and words regarding the place of the child in their understanding of themselves and their relationship to Him is just as relevant for us in the church today who own this One as Lord. We need to realise that the church in its mission in the world, in its word and its service, cannot escape from the same judgment as that to which the disciples were subjected when Jesus took a child and uttered those memorable words. For the church both as individual members and as a community of Christians are constantly intent on securing ourselves over against vulnerability and dependence, seeking ways and means of escaping from the narrow path of costly disciple ship to which Jesus calls us. We all, in one way or another, refuse to receive Him and His promised presence as the only resource the church needs to live and endure in its earthly pilgrimage.

Our life before God as a church and before each other is totally dependent upon us receiving Jesus becoming, like a child, weak and defenceless for our sake; vulnerable and exposed, to the power of darkness for our sake. The Christian claim is that only as we acknowledge this One as Lord, as the truth of our life before God and each other, can we be set free from ourselves to serve Him in the distressing disguise which he assumes in the vulnerability of a child in the world. Jesus comes to us and we receive Him in this disguise or we cannot receive Him at all, as the One He wills to be as our Saviour and Lord.

Dr.Gordon Watson.

Mark 7:24-37

 Are there times you have prayed to God, and you end up confused and even wonder if God has even heard your desperate prayers. Have you ever wondered why God has allowed to happen the very thing you prayed to God not to happen?

Like the woman whose daughter was possessed by a demon, our most anxious prayers to God are for the sake of a loved one. For them to be relieved of the suffering that we see them go through. For them to be healed so they can be free of the sickness, the pain, the suffering, the oppression that has overcome them.

Have you prayed over a friend and couldn’t understand why it feels as though you weren’t heard?  Have you prayed for healing, but it appeared God was not listening, not to the way we wanted them healed anyway? You persisted in prayer for even a crumb. But they became worse a lot quicker than predicted.

So, why do we pray? It’s because like the Syrophoenician woman we pray to Jesus because we know he alone can heal. We read the acts of healing Jesus performed in the bible, we hear how people are healed in Jesus’ name, so why not heal our friend. Why then are loved ones not healed or still gripped by depression and anxiety?

Many say: “I can’t believe in a God who allows bad things to happen to innocent children.” Perhaps these people have prayed to God for their child and felt as if their request fell on silent ears. Have you ever felt like the Psalm writer in Psalm 22? My God, … why are you so far away? Won’t you listen to my groans and come to my rescue? I cry out day and night, but you don’t answer, and I can never rest (Psalm 22:1-2).

Then there are the times we can see how God has responded. We can all probably think of times where we have seen God answer our prayers in amazing ways. Some people would realise an amazing coincidence how things worked out. There are no co-incidences. They are all God-incidents. Even if they don’t turn out how we expect they are all God-incidents as God has said he works for the good of all those who love him.

It’s easy to ride on the highs of our Christian experience and be elated over the way we have seen God work in our lives. There was once a news item where a man walked away from what looked like a mangled car resting against a tree. Posts on social media were saying he should buy a lottery ticket, others said it wasn’t his time, and yet another, somebody was watching over him.

Our experiences of prayer and answer to prayer can seem like a roller coast experience. It can be smooth and calm where things are going well in our lives and we give thanks to God for his goodness. Then all of a sudden there are twists and turns in our life that cause us to be anxious and plead for Jesus to help us get through these twists and turns.

Today we hear where Jesus was in Gentile territory and had gone into a house for a rest and to get away from the crowds. But as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet.

While we cannot know exactly what Jesus was thinking, as this Syrophoenician woman came to him, Jesus’ immediate response is to appeal to the limits of his mission, his call to serve his own people. In Matthew’s version of this story, Jesus begins by saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). In Mark 7 Jesus says, “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

That’s sounds a bit nasty of Jesus.

But this desperate mother comes back at him with a clever response, “Sir, even the little dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” (Mark 7:28), Jesus can only agree. “For saying that, you may go”, Jesus says. The demon has left your daughter” (Mark 7:29). Jesus shows that God’s love and healing power know no ethnic, political, or social boundaries. Jesus praises the woman’s faith, and tells her, her daughter is healed. She receives the gift of salvation.

Like the Syrophoenician woman we come to Jesus assured of the promise to ask and you shall receive, and whatever you ask for in my name it will be given. Even though we are not even worthy to come into Jesus’ presence because of the sin in our lives, it because we have heard about Jesus, we come to him with our prayers.

In boldness we ask for even a crumb of mercy. As Martin Luther approached his death, he spoke these words. ‘We are beggars this is true’. As beggars we open ourselves to Jesus’ mercy.

Just as the Syrophoenician women received far more than just a crumb, we have confidence Jesus will answer our prayers according to his goodness and mercy. So, what is it that gives us the confidence to persist in prayer even though sometimes it appears Jesus is not interested in helping?

Let’s look at this way. If you need help with something, whether it’s at work, or home, or you’re in the middle of doing something and you need help, who do you call upon? Why do you ask that person and not some else? Is it because you know they are trustworthy and you can confidently call upon in a time of need?

That’s the reason we continue to pray to Jesus. We believe he hears our prayers, and gives us much, much more than crumbs. Even though we all come as beggars to the table, it is solely by God’s grace that we receive healing and salvation. Even though as beggars we could only ask for crumbs, Jesus has given more than enough. He gives to us abundant life.

Jesus does not leave any of us in a state of beggarliness. He seats us at the table and claims us as God’s beloved children — children from every tribe and language and nation. God’s table is immeasurably larger than we can imagine.

Because we know God’s heart and his character of love and mercy, we have confidence to come to God through Jesus in prayer. Even though there are times when God may appear silent, or perhaps even appear cruel, it is then when we cling to what Jesus words of promise, ‘Behold I am with you always’.

It’s what gives us the confidence to know that even though our loved ones didn’t receive temporary healing in response to our prayers, they did receive complete healing, of no more pain, no more suffering, no more death, and are living in God’s eternal presence free from any evil spirit.

In faith and confidence, in our weakness, we can continue to bring our requests to God through Jesus, because we know we will receive far more than crumbs.

Amen.

The Text: Mark 7:1-23

 

When we read this Gospel, we get the impression that the Pharisees were talking about hands, but Jesus talks about hearts.

Hands and hearts seem to have totally different functions, so why does Jesus do this? Why does he talk about the cleansing of hearts when the Pharisees want to talk about the washing of hands?

Well, firstly let’s consider the accusation of the Pharisees.

We often picture the Pharisees as bad people. They’re always hanging around in the background of Jesus’ work, criticising him, questioning him, and accusing him and his disciples. But the Pharisees are like you and me. They’re faithful people of God trying to do the right thing. They’re trying to be faithful to God’s teachings.

So, when they see someone doing something incorrectly, such as not performing the ritual of washing their hands in the right way, or not sitting still during the sermon, or not singing theologically correct songs, or not wearing appropriate clothes for worship, or anything else that wasn’t faithfully true to their religion, they were going to say something about it!

They’re deeply concerned about doing the right thing in accordance with their understanding of what God says in his Word. But this meant the Pharisees can seem like theological police who took it upon themselves to make sure everyone behaved the correct way.

We still do this today, both in our own church context, but also in public life. We communicate religious or cultural expectations on each other thinking that, if only everyone did the right thing, no one would get hurt.

For example, the wider church has been appropriately criticized for their inaction (or bad reactions) to reported abuse. A common reaction is to communicate clear expectations of how everyone should behave through sermons or newsletters or magazines or professional standards. If only we all behaved properly, then nothing will go wrong.

Now, this isn’t necessarily wrong, because we should seek to treat each other with love and concern and respect and compassion, but it doesn’t get to the heart of the issue. It’s just making sure we know how to perform the right actions with our hands – at least when anyone is looking.

Similarly, the secular world is doing similar things. There are secular Pharisees trying to restrict or control or guide what we do or not do, or what we say or not say. Many would call this ‘political correctness’, but it’s still another way we communicate clear expectations of each other so everyone will do the right thing, that no one gets hurt, and we’ll finally live in a perfect world!

Again, it doesn’t get to the heart of the issue. It either makes more Pharisees who are concerned with doing the right thing when anyone is watching, or it encourages people to hide or justify their sin of rebellion as they disobey these expectations and laws and guidelines.

But more importantly, it denies a basic truth we’re told in Scripture.

It denies the biblical teaching on original sin which can’t be controlled by laws or rules or commandments or directives or rituals or guidelines or political correctness.

You see, we’re not sinners just because we fail to control our feet or lips or eyes or hands from doing the wrong thing, but we’re sinners because of what’s going on in our hearts. We’re all born with the sickness of sin which was inherited from our original ancestors. Our outward actions are only the symptoms of a deeper disease which affects the very centre of our being – our hearts!

Now, when Jesus speaks about our hearts, he isn’t so much talking about that fleshy muscle which repeatedly pumps blood through our veins, but he’s referring to the place where our will or motivation or self-determination resides which will affect what we do.

For example, if our heart is set on having one more piece of cake, our hands and mouth will often follow suit. If our heart is afraid of something or someone, our body will seek to avoid that situation or that person. If our heart trusts the only way to get what we want is by throwing a tantrum, then our lips and hands and other parts of our body will follow suit. If our heart is set on thinking we’re right and everyone else is wrong, that judgment will sooner or later leak out our rolling eyes, our arrogant lips, and our offended body actions.

You could say, the sin which we do with our hands or lips or any other part if our bodies is the ‘what’, but the sin behind the sin is the ‘why’ which lies within our hearts.

For instance, if we were to apply Luther’s explanation of the first commandment to any sin we do, which is: ‘we should fear, love and trust God above all things’, this means we will sin with our body whenever our heart fears, loves or trusts anything else apart from God, even for a moment.

So, let’s say you didn’t like it when your father grounded you for doing something wrong. In response you openly criticised him behind his back, trying to make others think badly of him. In that case you broke the fourth commandment by not honouring your father.  You also broke the eighth commandment by bearing false witness.

This was the ‘what’ which you did, but the ‘why’ is because you may have feared losing face in front of your friends and you’d rather your father lose face instead of you. It could be you’re missing out on something you love or desire, and so you’re going to punish him for stopping you from getting what you want. It could also be you trust others will now do the fighting for you so they can convince your father to give you what you want.

But it also works when you don’t think you’re sinning but trying to live a holy life (just like the Pharisees)!

In this case, let’s say you’re trying to please your father and will do everything possible to please him. Sounds great doesn’t it? Isn’t this trying to keep the fourth commandment? There’s no sin in doing this, is there?

But what if the motivation for doing this isn’t because you fear, love and trust God, but because you fear your father is going to punish you if you don’t? What if you’re doing this with the hope he’ll give you what you love or desire as a reward? What if you’re trusting this is the only way you can get your father to finally love or approve of you?

This means, we not only sin when we’re doing the wrong thing, but even when we’re doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. This means what’s going on in our hearts is always going to give us away!

But, how does Jesus know what’s going on in our hearts?

Well, apart from the fact he’s God and God alone can see what’s truly in our heart and all our motivations for everything we say or do, he judges our hearts, not so much with what goes into it, but what comes out of it.

Now, we might think as obedient and faithful people of God our heart is always filled with love and compassion and respect; but all someone needs to do is ‘push our buttons’, or present us with a temptation, or threaten whatever we’re trusting in and we’ll soon see what comes out of our hearts!

This is why Jesus lists the things which come out of people’s hearts (which by the way isn’t an exhaustive list), but it indicates that out of the selfish desires, anxious fears, and misplaced trusts of our hearts come all these impure thoughts, words and actions.

Since our hands and lips and thoughts only do what our heart directs them to do, this means our hands and lips and thoughts betray where the motivations of our hearts truly lie. The ugly truth is our words, actions, and thoughts end up convicting us our heart is in fact far from God!

No wonder King David, when convicted of his sins, prayed:

‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.’ (Ps 51:10)

This means we don’t have behaviour management problems in our church or society. We have sick and selfish hearts which need to be cleansed, healed and sanctified. The healthy don’t need a doctor, but the sick do, and the work of Jesus through the church is to cleanse and heal people’s hearts.

Jesus didn’t come to make sure we’re all behaving the right way, but to perform heart surgery on you and me through his gracious forgiveness which transforms our stubborn and pride-filled hearts into clean and pure hearts which love and serve others with that same grace and mercy.

How does he do this? He does it this way:

The good news is, by the free and undeserving grace of God, we’re all forgiven for our actions which hurt others.

• We’re forgiven for ostracizing others as outcasts from our circle of approved friends.
• We’re forgiven for criticizing others because they didn’t live up to our standards.
• We’re forgiven for thinking ourselves better than others because of our own arrogance or pride.
• We’re forgiven for not honouring our parents properly.
• We’re forgiven for our failures as parents.
• We’re forgiven for spreading those juicy pieces of gossip and for speaking those swear words when we got frustrated.
• We’re forgiven for all our indecent and wrongful actions and words and thoughts.

The next time we’re offered the very body and blood of our Saviour, we’ll see him come to us in the form of bread and wine. We’ll take his holy body in those same hands which hurt others, and so those hands will be purified by him.

We’ll also receive his holy blood on those same lips which have criticised and insulted and gossiped, and so our lips will be purified to speak holy words of love and forgiveness to others.

His holy body and blood will be absorbed into our blood stream to pulse through our hearts so that, by faith, our hearts will beat with the same love, and determination to serve, as Jesus’ own heart.

Through trusting these precious and holy means of grace – his Word and Sacraments – we and our hearts are made pure and clean and holy once more. By God’s grace, which is revealed through the willing actions of Jesus Christ (who truly reveals God’s own heart to us), he comes to restore his relationship with us and bring our hearts closer to his own heart.

No matter how far our hearts were, or are, from God, only God can cleanse and create new hearts which truly fear, love, and trust God.

Only God, through the work of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can restore our relationship with God, and our relationships with others. Only God can draw our hearts closer to his own heart. 

For this reason, we can pray along with King David, that God would create in us clean hearts, and renew a right spirit within us. Amen.