Sermon – Mark 7: 1-23 – The Source of Evil

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Mark 7: 1-23 – The Source of Evil

22^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 2, 2012

Good morning. Today we begin a look at some of Jesus' teachings as recorded by Mark. Jesus has been going through his home region of Galilee preaching, teaching, casting our evil spirits and healing. His ability to heal is so extraordinary that huge crowds are assembling to hear and possibly touch him. On one occasion already Jesus has fed 5000 people with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish. Jesus' reputation as a great healer has spread all the way to Jerusalem. A group of religious leaders, pharisees and scribes, have come from Jerusalem to find out what's happening. We will look closely at this encounter between Jesus and the religious leaders from Jerusalem, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

In the scripture you heard earlier, from the seventh chapter of the Book of Mark, the pharisees and scribes have discovered that Jesus' disciples are not washing their hand before eating. The pharisees believe that hands are “defiled” and so must be washed before eating. What this brings to our mind is the memory of our mother's telling us to wash our hands before eating. This was a matter of cleanliness. If you have been out in the field harvesting potatoes or if you have been out playing baseball, or if you have been playing with your hamster then it is a real good idea to wash your hands before meals. Our mother's were right when they told us to do this. But this is not what the pharisees are talking about.

The word “defiled” has noting to do with cleanliness, whether your hands are clean or dirty. Rather it refers to making something holy. Your hands and my hands are very ordinary things. We used them for very ordinary tasks. As I write this my hands were resting on a computer keyboard. Sometimes my hand holds a fork, or grips a steering wheel, or pushes a button on a TV remote. Hands are the most ordinary we have. But what if we could make our hands holy? Our hands would be holy if we set them aside for God's purposes. This what the scribes and pharisees were trying to do.

The Jews of the first century lived under Roman occupation. There were not many ways that they could publicly profess their faith. They had to be careful not to offend the Romans. So the religious leaders came up with an idea. They wanted people to experience God in their homes. To do this they told the people that just as priests would wash the sin off their hands before sacrificing on the altar, so too could ordinary people, with ordinary hands, make those hands holy by washing them before eating. Hand washing was their method of taking something ordinary and making it holy.

We are doing the same thing today. We have gathered around a table with plates, cups, a pitcher, some bread and juice. These are all very ordinary things that we use every day. But by using them at a time and place of worship, which we have set aside for God's purposes, they too become holy.  And since these things are now holy God can use them to help us to both remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and to seal upon us God's gift of salvation.

When the pharisees and scribes asked Jesus why he and his disciples did not wash their ordinary hands to make them holy as they had been teaching people to do, Jesus responded by quoting the prophet Isaiah. What Isaiah is teaching is that something becomes holy not because we want it to be holy, but because we are obedient to God. If we do what God wants then we are holy. If we do not follow God's will then we remain defiled, and there is no amount of hand washing that will change that. The problem is hypocrisy, we outwardly pretend to be holy, but our hearts remain defiled.

This has important implications for us as we gather around this table. This table and the Sacrament of Lord's supper is holy only to the extent that the word of God that is proclaimed and the Holy Spirit which is present brings about transformation in your lives. If you are experiencing this transformation you will know it because you find yourselves becoming more and more like Christ. Our early morning prayers are holy because the lives of the participants are transformed. The same thing happens in our Bible studies and Christian education programs and worship. Our music is holy if the members of the choir experience this transformation in their lives. This church is holy when the members of the church believe that following God is the most important thing they do. Listen to how Jesus explained all of this to his disciples.

Mark 7:14-23 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.'" ^{16 17} After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. ¹⁸ "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? ¹⁹ For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.") ²⁰ He went on: "What comes out of a man is what 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.'"

According to Jesus, hypocrisy is the source of evil in the world. Evil is the result when we pretend to be holy when we are not. It is better not to come to church than to come here pretending to be holy and then livings lives that do not please God. This is great evil. If you choose to remain a sinner then do so without coming to church and thinking that somehow this makes you holy. If you know if your heart that you do not obey God and have no intention of doing so then don't come to this table because if you do that act would be evil in sight of God. But if you truly repent your sins with a heartfelt desire to obey God's commandments than be assured that transformation is taking place, you are growing in the fullness of Jesus Christ, and you are become holy. And if you are becoming holy then this table becomes holy and you are welcome to come around it.

I have been a pastor now for five years and I have met many people who once attended church but now stay away. As a talk with them I have found that the reason they left the church was that they were tired of being hypocrites. They would attend church every Sunday carefully hiding their sin. Some were cheating on their spouses. Some were stealing from their businesses. Some were filled with hatred for the poor or those of another race. They felt guilt and hoped that coming to church would help. But time and again they found that with their ordinary lives filled with sin it was impossible to become holy just by sitting in church. For some coming to church convicted them of their sin and they experienced the transforming effect of the gospel making them holy and turning away from sin. Sadly, others sat in church and felt like hypocrites. They were unwilling to change, and when their sin became known they were too embarrassed to come to church anymore.

I have been thinking this week about whether or not the United States, as a nation, is being transformed by the Holy Spirit into something that God can use for His purposes. At times there seems to be so much evil, so much violence that hypocrisy seems to be where we are. But this week I listened to Condeleeza Rice speaking to the Republican National Convention. She told a story of her mother unable to take her into a movie theater or restaurant because they were black. But in spite of all of this her mother told her that if she worked hard even a black girl from the south could one day be president. And we have seen this black girl become Secretary of State. And we have elected a black man as President. Neither of these would be possible in American unless the Holy Spirit was at work transforming us into what God wants us to be. And so I am convinced that God is with us, blessings us and guiding us into a bright future.

Each of us has this choice to make. As we sit here in church we can be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the proclamation of the word of God. We can be convicted of our sins and truly repent turning from sin and turning toward God. Or we can sit here in church knowing that we are hypocrites, sinners pretending to be holy, and when we are found out and our sin exposed we can run away like roaches when the light is turned on. God is offering this gift to you today. Confess your sin and repent and transformation will begin immediately. Make the right choice. Turn from sin and embrace holiness.

Holy Spirit we ask this day that you come into us through the proclamation of the God's word and through the bread and juice of this sacrament. Begin the transformation of our lives. Help us to confess and turn away from our sins. Help us to become holy so that we are no longer hypocrites and no longer have a need to pretend to be holy, because with you in us were become holy. Amen.