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This is another text with multiple layers of meaning. In this
narrative we see Jesus again at odds with the Pharisees. The Pharisees become
easy targets to criticize for their blatant legalism. It is important to remember,
that while Jesus’ critiques are valid and the Pharisees had misguided
passions, they were one of the groups who helped hold onto the Torah when
many others had dropped the law completely. Their challenge to Jesus, however,
was not simply over a concern of Jesus’ disciples’ lack of hygiene
or breaking Torah, the Pharisees were challenging Jesus’ authority.
As Christians, this passage is not a call to anti-nomianism
(against or without the law). Christ said He did not come to abolish the law
but to fulfill it. It reminds us the center of Christianity is not morality.
The primary aim is not to make us “good people,” but people for
whom Jesus is Lord and Savior. Precisely because Jesus is our Lord our lives
are lived in a “holy” way. Holiness is better thought about not
as juridical purity but as relational consecration. As a holy people we are
set apart for God’s purposes—this is what the Pharisees had misunderstood.
They made an idol out of the Law and were not being molded into the image
of God. They were obeying the law, but failing to love. The conversation of
“what comes in” pertains only to food in this passage. The Pharisees
attempted to be obedient to the “letter of the law” but had neglected
“the spirit of the law.”
This passage must also not be used as a refutation of what Jesus
was arguing for in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus stated that sin occurred
not only in outward concrete actions but also when hate and lust in one’s
mind was given permission to grow, fester, and persist.
God desires for us to be a holy people. We demonstrate who we
are by what we do. It is clear we do not earn salvation or forgiveness. Perhaps
one of Jesus’ accusations to the Pharisees (and to some of us) is that
we think by simply following some moral code (i.e. not dancing, drinking,
or going to movies; and positively by tithing and going to church) we “earn”
our salvation. However, when we follow a fixed laundry list of moral actions
or prohibitions we can easily make the list suitable to us and engage in behavior
off “our list” that is harmful and destructive. I was often struck
growing up in the Church how very “holy” people were able to be
so hateful and judgmental to those both inside and outside the Church. This
text reminds us we are to be holy and worship God with our lives. The implicit
question being asked is “What are the boundaries and borders for being
“clean” or “unclean” as God demanded in Scripture?”
Be holy as I am holy. But how do we do this?
We do not make ourselves holy, but God indeed makes us holy.
The primary answer to how we are made holy is to allow God’s Spirit
to reign in such a way our hearts, attitudes, and intentions are continually
transformed. In rejecting the Pharisee’s hypocrisy, Jesus cites Isaiah
8-9, which emphasized the basic tenets of hypocrisy. The Pharisees’
lips say one thing while their hearts another. Purity of the heart is the
goal, not simply outward acts of cleanliness. Actions mean nothing if they
are not an overflow of the heart. True worship comes from the heart.
God is calling us to be a holy people—invited to vacate
their identity, to no longer live for our comforts or desires, so God might
use us. This text demands we confess areas of our life-relationships, behaviors,
or actions—where God is not being honored. Positively, it asks that
we give God our future in such a way that God might use us instead of us setting
up our own kingdom.
(For the full manuscript
of this sermon go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons.”)
Several illustrations can be used to demonstrate how outward
actions do not always convey the truth of a situation. The Pharisees had used
the Torah to justify the poor treatment of their parents. It raises the question,
how have we in the past justified not caring or loving certain people by our
desire to be holy—as a type of “purity”? Specifically how
have we ignored the poor, homeless, the divorced, the homosexual dying of
Aids, or the pregnant teenager?
It might be worthwhile to spend some time working out the definitions
of holiness. As the Church of the Nazarene, we are a people “called
unto holiness.” Every congregation will have perhaps a different understanding
of what holiness has meant in the past and means today. Holiness is first
a relational category. Yahweh gave the Israelites the Law in the Ten Commandments
not so they could prove their worthiness, but so they would know what a people
committed to Yahweh looks like. Furthermore, as Paul stated in Romans 7, it
was precisely the Law that reminds us we are all sinners in desperate need
of God’s transforming forgiveness.
In describing holiness it might prove helpful to examine the
profanity of our lives. Most Christians think of profanity as four letter
words they are never supposed to say. However, the profanity of our lives
is much more ingrained than simply one’s speech. Profane means “common
or ordinary.” This sermon requires us to consider the ways we make our
lives common and ordinary, where we are living for ourselves and not for God.
This narrows and broadens how we think of holiness. Holiness is not simply
moral actions. This can lead to a false sense of devotion. When we realize
holiness is how God desires to set us apart for God’s mission in the
world nothing is left untouched. This was precisely why Jesus’ anger
at the Pharisee’s was so intense. They were following diligently a moral
code, but their lives were not reflecting God’s love. The law had become
their God and their hearts had grown cold.
So if actions make us unclean, where do these actions come from?
Our actions come from the heart. Everyone needs to reflect upon their life
and attempt to discover why they do what they do, especially actions that
are destructive. First, each congregant should consider what feeds the heart:
music, movies, radio, television, people, environments, and so on. This is
perhaps the most difficult and yet most important step in the sermon. Often
we live very non-reflective lives, feeling like we are in control of all of
our actions and attitudes. And while we do not want them to shirk their responsibility
for what they do, it is important for them to realize what they do and who
they are is formed by all that they surround themselves with. No matter what
we take in something will come out, for good or ill. What is then the significant
connection between what goes into our hearts and then to our thoughts? Note
how our thoughts produce words and actions. Consider how the power of our
words and actions can build or destroy. They both reflect and form who we
are and who we are becoming.
Discuss how God might use our actions and words to build others
up but also how we can use them to terribly hurt one another. Where appropriate
there is a great video clip from the movie You’ve Got Mail. The two
main characters talk about zingers—the right comeback to someone’s
hurtful remark. With zingers we like to seek revenge on others when they have
hurt us. Here is the philosophy of revenge: you have hurt me and I will feel
better about myself if I can hurt you. That is why revenge usually occurs
in the heat or passion of the moment. When we seek revenge on others either
through actions or words, this is not coming from a heart of love. This is
coming from a heart that is bruised, hurt, and broken.
But the good news is that when we are fed by the love and grace
of God, our lives reflect God’s love both back to God in words and actions
toward our neighbors. By the Spirit our lips and actions glorify God.