Proper 17

1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and 2 saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?” 6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” ... 14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’” … 21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ ”

This passage leads us to explore the relationship between the inward and the outward.

That is, the inward orientation of our hearts and minds

And the outward expression of our words and actions

Here, the Pharisees are emphasizing the outward.

Jesus emphasizes the inward.

But we want to avoid any lazy demonizing of the Pharisees or oversimplification of the relationship between inward and outward.

Truth is BOTH are important and they are inextricably linked.

But we want to get the relationship between them right.

The Pharisees are an easy target for us reading the scriptures now.

We can tend to be like, “they are so dumb or wicked … as opposed to us”.

But their concern for ritual cleanliness isn’t totally misguided.

There are plenty of laws in Leviticus, in the scriptures, that quite explicitly call people to ritual cleanliness.

These rituals both instill a sense of God’s holiness and help Israel get a sense of PURSUING that holiness as his set apart people.

It’s the opposite of being casual about God.

So these laws are central to their religious devotion. And that’s not a bad thing.

But law-based religion can become a monster and get away from you. And the religious leaders, in part to pursue holiness, codified all the laws, expanded them, sprinkled in a few more for good measure, and then were operating with 613+ laws people were supposed to follow in order to be holy.

You can ask the kids if they have 613 rules to follow at school. Hopefully not.

It’s not a bad thing to think, “I want to take my faith seriously and honor God so I’m going to do these things.” Some of you may have gone to Evangelical colleges that made you sign something saying you wouldn’t drink or see R-rated movies. We may scoff at that, but my guess is those kinds of rules were put in place by someone who was brought up to value those kinds of outward expressions as a way to be set apart for God in devotion to him.

And there STILL, to this day, plenty of laws people adhere to in the name of holiness. You may know that some Orthodox Jews in our country observe such strict laws that they can’t push an elevator button on Saturday because it qualifies as “work”.

We order a bunch of gear from a camera company in New York that has Jewish ownership and they shut down all sales on Saturday for the Sabbath. HUGE profit company and you literally cannot order anything from them until Sabbath is over.

But that’s not totally dissimilar to Chick Fil A being closed on Sundays right?

So, why then does Jesus light them up here?

Well, it’s not that outward expressions of religious devotion are inherently bad.

But there are a few things we need to consider:

For starters, just because outward expressions are religious in nature, it doesn’t mean they’re coming from God-honoring devotion

Jesus points this out in a number of places in his teaching.

Think about the person who prays standing on the street corner so that everyone can hear him.

Or the person who fasts and intentionally looks gloomy so everyone knows they’re fasting.

These outward expressions are more about PERSONAL glorification, which is the opposite of devotion to God

We can look at the list Jesus gives HERE to see a number of things that reside in our own hearts that can fuel outward action.

Look at arrogance.

You know how many awesome looking outward actions are significantly fueled by arrogance and a desire to elevate oneself.

Or how about malice? The desire to get back at someone and prove you’re better than them?

Or how about jealousy? The list goes on.

We might look at the religious grandstanding that is happening right now where people are belligerent or make some defiant show about not bowing to the world when in reality their actions aren’t about loving God or their neighbor

People may claim to be doing stuff because of their faith. But it doesn’t mean the actions are flowing from pure devotion in alignment with the heart of God.

And what scripture makes clear is that when outward expressions aren’t fueled by an inward devotion to God, or when they really miss the heart of God, they’re worthless.

In fact, God doesn’t want them.

God doesn’t lack, so he doesn’t NEED us to do things for him.

What he wants is our inward devotion. He wants our hearts because he wants US.

Jesus quotes Isaiah in verse 6 "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

They do the stuff but they don’t actually love me.

It’s like your wife saying “You give me flowers and a card to check some box not because you want to. Not because you love me.”

AND Jesus knows many of the Pharisees are GREAT at the outward stuff but lack an inward orientation to God

Jesus once called them “white washed tombs” which is an insane burn, meaning that they look really great on the outside but they’re dead on the inside.

The outward stuff, the hand washing, the Sabbath keeping, the belligerent grandstanding, etc. is a facade

Point is you can do ALL THE STUFF and say its because of your faith

You can have an amazing religious resume

You can give away money

You can volunteer at the soup kitchen

And still have no desire to soften your heart and approach God with humility to be changed by him and loved by him

God’s not asking us to jump through hoops. He’s not asking us to do a bunch of stuff to prove our devotion.

He just wants our hearts because he wants us.

So the outward stuff is pointless and wrong?

Well no. For two reasons.

One being that the outward things can actually be part of what changes our inward orientation.

Spiritual disciplines like Sabbath keeping can help us challenge the idols that DO have our allegiance and re-orient our hearts to God.

Serving others (even with mixed motives) CAN help us see God in others and build our compassion for one another.

The second being that when our hearts ARE aligned to God the result is outward expression.

Hearts abiding in God bear fruit.

This is the whole idea behind the saying “faith without works is dead”

Genuine faith leads to particular actions.

So the outward becomes a beautiful picture of a changed interior.

I know a few of you who decided you needed to cut back on drinking.

And it’s not because you got sucked into some legalistic Evangelical set of rules.

It’s because you were spending time with the Lord and he pointed to an idol in your life and something you were using to numb or escape and because you want to be closer to him to experience all that he has for you you decided to set a boundary.

I know many of you who have decided to be more generous with your money. Not because you wanted to prove anything to anyone or earn God’s favor. You just got moved to do so the more you learned about the heart of God for the poor.

So elsewhere Jesus is the one who emphasizes outward expression of our faith.

There’s a reciprocal relationship between the inward and the outward.

But here he’s making the point that it’s the inward orientation that is most important.

That’s what God desires most.

He wants our hearts because he wants us.

And ultimately what we’re aiming at is integration of the inward and outward so that the condition of our hearts matches our words and actions and it all reflects the heart of God.

This is integrity.

This is wholeness.

And this is what God desires for us.

He wants us to be people who are healed and transformed and whole who have learned to draw close and rest in him.

He wants us to be clean and full of life on the inside so that what comes out of us will be life giving to the world Not just some empty proof of how religious we are.

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