Clean Outside, Corrupt Within

Transcript

Auto-generated from the audio. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

[0:00] So our reading today, and by the way, we're back in the lectionary now. We've had a lot of kind of great little side journeys here, but we do preach from the lectionary from time to time, or we try to. So our reading today is from Mark chapter 7, but if you see it in your bulletin, it's verses 1 through 8, 14 through 15, and 21 through 23. I'm going to talk about that in just a minute. This is a disjointed reading, right? So we could actually read all of it. We could read all of it. It would take a little longer.

[0:29] But the reading that we have shows the progression of an idea, and in the continuous text, if we were to read that, there'd be a change of location and a question about what Jesus meant. And so for the sake of sort of moving the narrative of this idea forward, the people who created the lectionary have kind of picked and chosen what they want us to read. So that eliminates some of the stage direction, like, you know, you don't get all the little details of things moving around. But I would say...

[1:01] Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Does anyone have the Bible open right now to Mark chapter 7? Or somebody can open it? Well, I should have started with that. I should have started with that. Somebody find verse 16 in Mark chapter 7.

[1:40] Maybe like a sword drill. Whoever gets it first gets a candy bar. There you go. So even in our, remember we talked about this a long time ago, but even in our scriptures, there's sometimes where a verse is missing because it was part of the canon. And then they found an earlier manuscript, and it wasn't in those earlier and most reliable manuscripts, and they realized it was a sort of an editorial edition later on. And in this case, verse 16 resembles something that was said in a parallel passage in one of the other gospels, and a redactor or an editor added it to Mark, but in the earliest manuscripts it doesn't exist. So that just kind of shows that even if we were to read the whole thing, we'd be missing one verse, unless you read the text notes at the bottom of your Bible. And you should always read those too, because those actually tell you something. This tells you a little bit about the history of how the Bible came to us. And none of that, as I've said before, none of that should take away from the idea that the Bible is inspired by God and the Holy Spirit. There have been editors who have kind of, tinkered with it in the past, but none of those, as far as we can tell, none of those tinkerings have any really major theological meanings or significance.

[2:56] So that's something that we can kind of console ourselves with. All right, so, as we read, the overall theme here is that Jesus introduces a break from tradition when it comes to the law. So our first two readings were about the law, weren't they, right? And the idea of being clean or unclean seemed internal to people, it seemed like if you could see somebody else eat something bad, whatever, or they ate something with a dish or a spoon that was dirty, that would make them unclean. So their hand, their cup, their dish, if it was clean or unclean, that was an internal thing. But Jesus says it's not the physical food that goes into a person that makes them unclean, it's the spirit and the motives that come out of their heart. And this is such an important distinction that Jesus makes that we're going to spend some time on. Okay? So, and then as we go, I want to introduce two words that you're going to see in our passage, and I think they're going to help us later. First off, Jesus calls the Pharisees who insist on how to eat something, he calls them hypocrites, which is a Greek word. Even our word is from the Greek word hypokrisis, which means to act out in a play. So you would call an actor in a play, you might call them a hypocrite.

[4:12] That was not necessarily a negative connotation, then that was just somebody was a performer, but there was a negative connotation. So we're going to talk about that in a little bit. And then we're going to talk about the meaning of hypocrisy. Hypokrisy is a negation of the authentic life. So kind of remember that phrase there, a negation of the authentic life. It's not being or not acting like who you really are inside, acting differently from the core of who you are. That's hypocrisy, putting on a show, putting on a face, not actually being transparent enough to let the inside of you show on the outside. So that's hypocrisy. The second word is often used to describe hypocrisy. It's often translated as foolishness, and it's one of the last words in our whole passage. Foolishness or folly. I like the word folly. We don't use that one enough, but I think it just has that power, this idea of foolishness or folly. And the Greek root for this word is phrenos, which is also the word for the diaphragm. And your diaphragm, I just want you to know, your diaphragm is an incredibly important part of your body because it's what allows you to breathe. It's what allows your lungs to fill with air. And to blow the air out again.

[5:21] And the Greeks thought that the diaphragm was almost like the most important part of your body. They were right about it, but not in the way that we may think. So the Greeks, when they looked at the human body and they said, where is the mind? Where is the, you know, where is the part of you that's the real you? Like the part that really is your identity, your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your knowledge, all that stuff. So with the benefit of modern science, we can say, well, you know, you're not the real you. We know that that's right here, our brain, right? I mean, unless I'm wrong, okay?

[5:53] But I think with the Greeks, they would find it, you know, the Greek doctors were trying to figure all this out. They'd get a dead body and they'd open everything up. And then they'd open up the head and they'd see the brains. And they just thought, oh, that's, I wonder what that is. That's just some kind of fatty mess there. It's got a bunch of ridges on it. We're not sure what that does. But the diaphragm, for the Greeks, the diaphragm was like, this is what gives you life. It lets you breathe. And the word for breath and spirit are the same word in Greek. So this is the center. And when you feel things, you feel them in your diaphragm. You feel them in the center of who you are. And so this idea of the diaphragm, the phrenos, is like the mind or the self in a way. It's the who you are. Now, the word for folly is that word for diaphragm, but with the Greek letter alpha at the beginning. And that Greek alpha. The letter alpha is a negation. So, for example, a theist is somebody who believes in God, right? An atheist, the ah at the beginning, is somebody who doesn't believe in God. So that a is like a negation of what comes after it. So a fool is an aphrenos. A fool is a person who does not act out of their diaphragm.

[7:13] Does that make sense? A fool is somebody who is not in touch with their own diaphragm. Does that make sense? A fool is somebody who is not in touch with their own mind. Not in touch with the reality of who you are. And as you can see, this word for hypocrisy and this word for foolishness are thus somewhat related. They're kind of similar concepts. One is a negation of the self. The other is a negation of the mind. The negation of the ability to reason clearly. That's folly, right?

[7:38] So, isn't that, I think this is such interesting stuff. But it's going to help us read this passage, okay? So. Being a fool, in a way, it means to be out of touch with reality and with yourself. And to be easily led astray into believing and doing absurd things. That's folly. That's foolishness. Okay. So let's go to our reading. It's Mark chapter 7 and then a bunch of spaghetti of numbers afterwards. Okay? Mark 7 starting with verse 1. One day some Pharisees and teachers of the religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual. They were not able to keep up with the Jewish custom of handwashing before eating. The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands as required by their ancient traditions. Similarly, they don't eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to. Remember that word traditions. Many traditions they have clung to. Such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.

[8:47] So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, Why don't your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the handwashing ceremony. Jesus replied, You hypocrites. Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. For he wrote, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce. They teach man-made ideas and commands from God. For you ignore God's law and substitute your own tradition.

[9:27] Then Jesus called the crowd to come and hear. All of you listen, he said, and try to understand. It's not what goes into your body that defiles you. You are defiled by what comes from your heart. For from within, out of a person's heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, and adultery.

[9:48] Greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within. They are what defile you. Well, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen.

[10:13] So let's have a quick recap of what happens in this. The disciples are not washing their hands by tradition. And the Pharisees notice. Now I want you to remember that Pharisees are popular with the people. They're not all bad. We sometimes have a very negative view. When we hear the word Pharisee, there's a lot of negative connotations. There are some good things about the Pharisees. The Pharisees stood up to the Romans in their own ways. On their best days, the Pharisees want to worship God. And they try hard to keep the law because they think that's a path to a good life. They really care about the law. And they believe in the resurrection. So there's a lot going on that's good about the Pharisees. But they're also troubled by Jesus. People are listening to him. And it says here that the Pharisees come to find Jesus. They're traveling to see him because they really want to understand if he's from God or not. If the miracles are real or not. If his teaching is orthodox in a way or not. They want to see if what he's teaching is outside of their traditions. And so we should even give them credit for being open-minded enough to go investigate. Do you see that? They actually want to know what Jesus is about before they make a decision about him.

[11:20] I think that's great. So I think we need to kind of remember that Pharisees have some really good things going for them. But they notice right away the hands. And it turns out that the Old Testament doesn't explicitly say that people had to wash their hands. It says that the priests should wash their hands. And over the years, the Pharisees took that and thought it applied to everybody. Not just the priests. But that's a tradition. That's not the Scripture. Do you see the distinction? One is the Scripture does not absolutely say you must wash your hands before every meal. Although we know it's a good idea. You're thinking about kindergarten now. I mean that was the messaging. I don't remember anything from kindergarten except for share and wash your hands. That was, I mean it's good advice. But it wasn't Scripture. It was tradition. And so they're mixing up tradition and law. And they're calling tradition law. And the problem with that is tradition is something we can control. Right? And so if we say, oh, the traditions are now laws and we control the tradition, now we've put ourselves in God's place. And we can start controlling people. And so there's all sorts of bad things that can come from that. So the command for everybody developed as a tradition outside of Scripture.

[12:36] And you notice over and over again the word tradition was actually used in this passage even by the Pharisees themselves. They said this is the tradition. Not the law. This is the tradition. Why aren't they keeping the tradition? Right? And so Jesus, despite all the nice things I've said about the Pharisees, Jesus has nothing nice to say to them on this particular day. Now remember other times people like Nicodemus who's a Pharisee come to meet Jesus. Jesus has other relationships, good relationships with Pharisees. But on this particular day Jesus calls them hypocrites. Right? And he quotes from Isaiah 29. Now remember a hypocrite is somebody who's negated the law.

[13:16] He's negated their true self. Putting on an act. Right? They're putting on an act for the world to see. So he quotes from Isaiah 29 where God condemns the people. That little passage that he said where he said what Isaiah said, that's from Isaiah 29. Where God condemns the people for praising falsely with their mouths while their hearts are far away. I think this is a familiar idea even for us. And maybe that's something we're taught as kids even. Like, you know, somebody asks you how's it going? And you feel horrible. You're supposed to say great. You know?

[13:55] Because it's too sad if you were to say, oh, well, actually I'm doing terribly right now. You know? And we know that small talk, there's small talk and there's big talk. Small talk, it kind of makes sense to say fine. I'm doing fine. Because you're not really sure the person really wants to hear all of it. But if it's somebody you really know really well and they say how you doing, you can absolutely say terrible. I want to tell you about it. Right? So it's a miniature version of hypocrisy. Sometimes it's just good social safeguarding. You don't want to spill all your beans to somebody who doesn't even really want to listen to it. They don't care about it that much.

[14:29] So although maybe we should stop asking other people how you doing if you're not ready to hear a big answer. You know? Be careful. Be careful what you ask for. So I think we understand this. And God is mad at the people of Israel in Isaiah 29. You're praising me with your lips but your heart is somewhere else. It's worshiping another idol. It's worshiping another God. It's thinking of something else. It's thinking about what you're going to have for lunch tomorrow. But it's not with me right here. You're acting like you're with me right here but you're not with me right here. Your heart is far away. Right? So he connects this prophecy to the Pharisees in front of him which must have hurt. Right? The complaint that you ignore God's law and you substitute your own tradition. You're acting like you care about the law but you, in deep down, you're trying to control people. And that's not what the law of God is for. The law of God is for life. I mean you read the Old Testament. The passage is that Ellen read. That's for life. That's for having an excellent life. And the law is important. Right? We keep the law. We try to keep the law because it gives all these blessings. But you don't keep the law to control other people.

[15:39] You see? And so he's saying you're acting like you love the law but really you love traditions that you can control and controlling other people. That makes you a hypocrite because you're putting on a different face than what's actually inside your heart. Okay? A hypocrite is somebody who negates the true self or is not acting like the true self.

[16:00] And the Pharisees would wash their hands as a way, they thought, of keeping themselves spiritually clean. They would insist other people would do it probably to try to control them a little bit. But if this is hypocrisy, it means it's just an act. And that, you know what? The true self is not that clean. Really. The true self is not that clean. And it's not concerned with being clean. The true self has a heart that's far from God. And the outward action is just for show to the world. And so you could say that the contrast to the Pharisees is the disciples because they don't wash their hands. And they don't think that washing their hands is a good thing. They think that washing their hands will make them clean because they know they're not clean. So I would say that, you know, and the disciples do have problems. But in this case, the disciples maybe don't wash their hands either because they don't think to wash it or because they realize we're not clean inside. Why should we act like we're clean on the outside if we're not clean on the inside?

[16:59] George just got up and used the hand sanitizer. I should put it right here in case anybody wants to do it. But don't. You do it afterwards. I don't know. That's funny. I just thank you, George. That gave me a chuckle.

[17:15] So some of the disciples know that they're not clean. Remember that one of the disciples is Matthew, the tax collector? Every day of his life, he knew he was not a great person. He knew it. Jesus says, come and follow me. And he left his table and he got up and he followed Jesus. It didn't make him clean. It actually did in a way make him clean at that moment. But he understood that at the heart, human beings are not clean. They're not holy. They're not set apart for God. They're turned in on themselves and they want all sorts of evil things that Jesus talks about later. And so if we ever want to get in touch with the true self, who we really are, and not be hypocrites, we have to look at the way God made us. God made us with unique gifts and with quirks and with idiosyncrasies and weird senses of humor and maybe musical talent or sports talent. Or all sorts of talents. And that's the great stuff. But the other thing is, and this isn't really God's work, but we have a sinful nature too from the fall with Adam and Eve. That's the other part of it that's just indelibly etched into our DNA as human beings. We can't get around it. Anyone who would negate that identity is truly a hypocrite and a dreamer too, really.

[18:28] So the reality that we're in is that God gives us good gifts and creates us in beautiful and amazing ways and looks at his creation and says it is good. But also in the core of us is the heart that's far from God. And it sometimes worships with its outward voice, but it's far from God. So that's the reality that we're in. And I think for your own peace, to live in the reality you're in as a broken person is so important. Because if you put on an act like that's not true, you have to keep doing it. And you have to keep doing it. And it just wears you out. You know? And so one of the most refreshing things is when people are actually honest about their own shortcomings. It frees them from having to put on sort of this perfect face. Okay. Let's go on with our lesson. The scene changes somewhat.

[19:17] Now he addresses the crowd that's gathered and his disciples. Then he addresses his disciples when they're alone with him. So all the stage direction is from these missing verses. We don't read that. But I'm going to read verse 15 again. This is what he says. It's not what goes into your body that defiles you. Right? You are defiled by what comes from your heart. And then verse 21 and 22 and 23. For from within, out of a person's heart, come evil thoughts. And this is a long list. This is actually the longest vice list in the Bible. There's other ones, but none of them are quite this long. Evil thoughts. I'm going to count them as I do them. Evil thoughts. Sexual immorality. Theft. Murder. Adultery.

[20:00] Greed. Wickedness. Deceit. Lustful desires. Envy. Slander. Pride. And foolishness. That's 13. Wow, 13. That's unlucky, too. Think about it. All right. All these vile things come from within. They are what defile you. They are what make you unclean. It's not what goes in that makes you unclean. It's what comes out of your heart that makes you unclean or defiles you. And so, I'm going to read this. This list, the way it differs from other lists, and this is a side topic, is it has two somewhat unique vices in it. Greed and pride. They're not on a lot of the other lists. Think about that, but not right now. Later on. I wonder why that is. We could talk about that someday. Greed and pride are on this list. Okay? But I really want to only focus... Would it be fun if I made a sermon for each of these 13? A 13-week sermon on all the sins? Some churches do this. In fact, I was on a radio show. I was listening to it, and they were interviewing a pastor. And they say, how do you choose what you preach on? And we use the lectionary, or we have a sermon series through a whole book. And he says, well, I just pick a sin, and then I preach against it.

[21:21] I thought, holy cow. How much... Is that fun? I mean, it's great in a way, because then we know what all the sins are. But you'd think you'd run out of... Actually, you know you can never really run out. There's an infinitude of sins out there. So I guess he's got plenty of material.

[21:40] Pastors are always looking for material. I guess he hit the mother load there. But I'm only going to talk about this last one, right? Foolishness. The one I mentioned before. The word I mentioned before. It's last. It might be relevant that it's last. Might be important that it's last. Because I think it's kind of the king of them all. I think this is one where a lot of other sins come from it, right? Now think about it this way.

[22:04] Either the others come from it, or the others are related to it. Think about this for a moment. The relationship between hypocrisy, the negation of the true self, and foolishness, the negation of the mind's ability to grasp reality, right? Negation of the diaphragm, actually, right?

[22:26] Okay. So... The mind is that part of you that understands the world and understands yourself and makes decisions based on it. That's how the Greeks understood that. This is a decision-making center that takes information in and makes good decisions, or hopefully makes good decisions on it. And you know, I could go through this list of sins and say, well, I really want to work on my envy. It's kind of not controversial. Okay? I'm going to reveal a whole bunch of other sins that I commit. But I should also say every sin on that list, of course, I'm subject to because I'm human, right? And I think you all are too. Do you all want to admit it right now? No, I guess, okay, right.

[23:12] But I think we could. But I'll talk about envy. I could work on envy. And I'll actually say it's one of those things that I can honestly say has gotten better over my life. I used to be a more envious person.

[23:24] And now I'm a less envious person. And I don't think I can take that. I don't think I can take any credit for it. It just happened. I don't know how. I honestly don't know how except that the Spirit maybe did it, right? The Spirit just said, you don't need to be envious anymore. You need to be happy for people who have things, not wanting what they have, but be happy for them. And that changed the whole outlook of it, right? And so now envy is a little less of a besetting sin for me.

[23:50] But shouldn't I rather look at the thing that may be under envy? So this is a little bit of a... I want you to think this through. Okay? Is it actually rational to be envious? All right? Are you using your diaphragm when you're envious? Okay, think about it. Right? I think envy can come from foolishness, right? It can come from looking at the world the wrong way and looking at myself the wrong way, and imagining this, that it makes sense to compare what I own to what other people own. That that somehow makes sense. And to use that as a gauge for my self-worth, right? Does that make sense?

[24:34] What I own versus what somebody else's owns. If I own more, I feel good about myself. If I own less, I feel bad about myself. Does that make sense? Not really. Not if you put it that way, right? I could say your self-worth... I could say to you, your self-worth should be calibrated to the amount of things you own versus the amount of things that your neighbor owns, right? And that just sounds foolish. And so maybe seeing it as foolish disarms it somewhat, but don't we all feel that way? Don't we all feel envy? And aren't we bombarded with messages that kind of build envy in us or plant seeds of envy in us? I mean, just all... I mean, capitalism, which I don't have a problem with, but the idea is you should go buy more stuff and the reason you want to buy more stuff is because somebody else has that stuff and they look... they look beautiful, you know? Absolutely.

[25:29] Yeah. It is fake. That's right. Yeah. And that's the interesting thing. This absurd sin, envy, is one of the most powerful sins in the universe. It's one of the most powerful temptations. People can weaponize it against you. And honestly, before you go to bed tonight... Envy will be weapon... If you're on social media or you're watching TV or maybe walking down the block and looking at your neighbor's house, envy will be weaponized against you multiple times today before you go to sleep.

[26:06] And I think Jesus is saying, it's absurd. It's folly. It's linked to folly. It's linked to foolishness. It's not a true or good or realistic way of looking at the world, looking at yourself, looking at your neighbor, and looking at the things that God made, which are good in all their ways, right? But you don't need more of them, and you don't need what your neighbor has, unless you actually need it. But you don't need it just because they have it. Okay? So I think it's only when we live in reality that we own our own hypocrisy and we own our own folly that we can be ready to receive what Jesus actually has for us.

[26:43] And so I think the challenge today is to look at this and say, okay, good. I mean, I'm not telling you to go home and not wash your hands. You should wash your hands, right? And I'm not telling you that you should let it all hang out every day and let all your sins hang out and let all your human drama hang out all the time, because that doesn't always work. But what I think the challenge here is to the Pharisees and to us is to live authentic lives, right? Be in touch with the true self, both the great things God has created in us, but also the failure and sin that we are, and just be honest about where we are in that, and then look at the world. And we're going to be able to do that. We're going to be able to look at ourselves in reality and look at ourselves in reality and get away from folly. And if I think folly then is the father of many of these other sins. And I think that when we do that, we can be ready again, as I said, to receive what Jesus has for us. And what that is, well, you're going to have to come back another day and I'll tell you what that is, because I think that's the follow-up and next week I'll be talking about that or the week after I'll be talking about what is it that Jesus has for us when we live our

[27:53] authentic lives. selves and when we live wise lives as opposed to foolish ones. So come back in a week or two, and you'll hear the rest of the story. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you that what goes into us does not make us unclean. Father, help us to guard what comes out of us. Help us to guard our hypocrisy and our foolishness. Help us to live in the wisdom that you grant us. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.