The heart of the matter

30th August, 2009

Mark 7:5-9  

5So 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?"

 6He 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.

 7They worship me in vain;   their teachings are but rules taught by men.'

8You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

 9And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe] your own traditions! ...

…13Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."

(New Living Bible) ⁹ Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition.

What’s important for you, when you come to a church service?

What do you look for, that you feel uncomfortable when it’s not there?

An altar up the front with 2 big candles; a cross; a pulpit, long hard seats in rigid rows?

A pastor wearing vestments. Music from an organ.

We are familiar with these things. Each of these things were an innovation, introduced sometime in the past because people thought it would help them worship.

The Pharisees were following a tradition of ceremonial washing, along with many other rules and regulations, some of which came from the laws God gave to Moses at Sinai, laws meant to guide, protect  and instruct his fledgling nation; and other rules they invented to help them keep God’s laws. When Jesus took them to task for neglecting the more important matters of the law, he didn’t comment on whether they should or shouldn’t tithe their mint, dill and cumin. He wanted them to focus on what mattered: namely, God’s gift of mercy. He wanted them to know that nothing they were doing made a difference to how God saw them: hypocrites. Good on the outside, evil on the inside. They were worried about being ritually clean. God had given them laws about what was ritually clean and unclean, to humble his people, and help them – and us – know, that we don’t have a right to strut into God’s presence in worship, thinking our hearts are clean when they’re not. That was the point: the rituals were meant to get them thinking, and get them humble. They needed to understand that the problem wasn’t ultimately whether their hands were washed. They needed their hearts washed. 

How do we think about the Pharisees? Do we look down on them smugly, and think, ‘well, I’m better than them. I’m not a hypocrite?’ Isn’t that what the Pharisees were doing? Looking down on other people on the basis on a set of criteria they had drawn up?

Do we do this?

It’s not wrong to have rules and policies about things. Following tradition in itself isn’t wrong. Much of our society operates with traditions, and this isn’t necessarily bad. The traditions of  sport for example cricket, traditions of our legal system and parliament, family traditions give structure, order, protection. It makes life a lot easier to not have to ‘reinvent the wheel’ every year. What has worked in the past is usually a good starting point. Even traditions we don’t understand, or think are stupid, might be preserving important values or serving a good purpose, so it’s wise to look carefully at our traditions and not be too quick to reject things.

However, there are times when our traditions, our human rules and regulations need to be set aside. Some rules traditions are no longer relevant. For example, the appropriate way you should tie up your horse in the main street. Some rules and traditions were harsh and discriminatory from the start, set up by powerful people who wanted to safeguard their power and influence. The old Chinese practice of footbinding is an example of a tradition that is inherently cruel and should never have been started. Are there things we do, that make life difficult for ourselves or other people, that we don’t realize?

A challenge we have, something we need to think about, is whether the way we do things as a church is counter-productive. Are there things we are doing, or failing to do, that are getting in the way of fellow Christians growing in their relationship with God? Do our traditions help nonbelievers hear the gospel and come to know God or are they barriers, effectively keeping out people God wants to forgive and embrace?

Verse 5-9,13: ‘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?”’

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.

 They worship me in vain;   their teachings are but rules taught by men.'

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! ...

…v13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."

Do we?

This is worth thinking about. Do we honour God only with our lips? Or are our hearts also engaged in worship?

This literally is the heart of the matter!

We could spend a lot of time arguing about traditions and innovations, but what God wants to know is: Where is your heart?

What is in your heart?

He knows what is in our hearts, as sinful human beings. It’s not pretty. The Pharisees were worried about staying clean by maintaining external purity. But Jesus said, you get defiled by what comes out of you. The only way the Pharisees – and any of us – can be truly clean and acceptable to God is through the cross.

Our only hope, our only security is not through keeping our traditions or making new innovations, for that matter: Our only hope and security is through the work of God in saving us through Jesus. He took us up into himself on the cross and there he crucified us, with all our sinfulness and hypocrisy. By that cross, God washes us clean. He makes us holy, and gives us new hearts. He calls us to open our hearts to his Spirit continually. He wants His word to live in us. He wants us to be close to him, always.

When we are right with God in our hearts, all our external things can take their proper places.

What will be most important to us when we gather as God’s people, as the church? God’s life-giving Word, and the sacraments where he comes to us, and deals with our hypocrisy and sin.

What matters most is what God wants to do with us, and through us.

The gospel makes us secure in our relationship with him, so we do not need to ‘get it all right’ in keeping his commands in order to secure ourselves. What we want to do, is put aside anything and everything that could get in the way of what He wants to do, and what he wants us to do.

As forgiven children of God, our desire is to serve him. We want to embrace his words, and never let our human traditions get in the way of keeping his commands.

So, dear friends,let’s worship God from the heart, whether the externals and human traditions or innovations please us or not. And let’s try, to the best of our ability, to make our externals support that which really matters: the relationship of each person with God, in their hearts. Amen.