Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost at Epiphany on September 13, 2009

Mark 7:1 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.'"

Dear … hypocrites

Dear fellow ... hypocrites.

You probably thought I was going to call you something nice like, “Dear fellow saints,” or “Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,” or something along those lines. Not today. Today we come to the realization that when Jesus criticizes our hypocritical behavior – as we heard in the Gospel lesson – we don’t have to look far to see who He’s talking about. It’s not only speaking to Pharisees. He’s also speaking to you and me.

The Pharisees were the religious teachers of the Jews. They were to pass God’s laws and decrees on to the people. Instead, many of them added their own laws while at the same time subtracting the need for a Messiah, a Savior. The Pharisees added the law that the people had to wash their hands before eating. Even better if they washed their cups, pitchers and kettles. Not to make them clean from germs, but to make themselves clean before God.

But Jesus said that what makes a person unclean isn’t what comes from outside a person – germs, food, people or places. What makes a person unclean is what comes out of a person – thoughts, words, attitudes, actions.

Even if there was no such being as the devil to tease and torment us; even if there was no sinful world to tempt us with pleasures and treasures; we would still have enough sin inside of our sinful nature to damn us to hell.

The Pharisees criticized Jesus’ disciples for eating with ceremonially unclean hands. But what about you when you criticize all those people who don’t come to church, but forget about all those times when you’re here physically but your mind is absent; a thousand miles away, thinking about the temperature in church, the chores at home, the Packer game on the HD TV. Even when you come to church, do you come to church?

The Pharisees acted holy but failed to see the sin within. But what about you when you confess your sins at the beginning of the service, but also thank God that you’re not as big a sinner as that guy! Or when you ask forgiveness for all your many sins, but refuse to forgive the one sin your neighbor or spouse or child did to you. When you dress so nicely for church, hiding the roiling, churning, boiling cauldron of evil beneath that nice suit or dress.  

The Pharisees wanted people to think a certain way about them, and maintain a certain status. But what about you, when you live and act one way here around your fellow Christians, but another way at home? Humble here, but proud at home. Sinner here, but holier than thou at work. Or when you’re glad your Christian friends know that you are a Christian, and glad when your unchristian friends think you are just like them. When it’s not only true about Las Vegas that “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” but also when “What happens in Church, stays in Church!”

It’s me . . . it’s you, isn’t it? The definition of a hypocrite is one who plays a part; one who wears a mask. We say one thing, but do another. We make promises we cannot keep. We often play the part and wear the mask people expect of us. The mask of what we think a Christian is supposed to be like, not wanting others to know what we’re really like, and the struggles of faith that we have. But you know what? All that doesn’t help, does it? It just increases fear. The fear of being found out. The fear of being rejected.

There’s another way to think of what a hypocrite is and to reveal the hypocrite in each of us. And it’s this: it’s when we think how much better a world this would be, if only everybody were just like me!

Well I got news for you: everybody is just like you, and that’s why the world is the way it is! “For from within, out of the heart of man, – [Jesus said; out of your heart; and my heart] – come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” And if you don’t believe all those things are in your heart, then add one more to the list: calling God a liar.

Going to the amusement park or carnival where 2-year-olds get in free, so you tell your 3-year-old, “Honey, you’re two today.” Hypocrisy. While waiting for his first orthodontist appointment, the 12-year-old was a bit nervous. Apparently he wanted to impress the dentist. On the patient questionnaire, in the space marked “Hobbies,” he had written, “Swimming, riding my bike, and flossing.” Funny, but hypocrisy. Isaiah wrote for the Lord: “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.” Hypocrisy.

Dear fellow hypocrites, it’s time to stop playing a part; it’s time to come clean. It’s time to repent.

Because that’s what the phrase “to come clean” means! It doesn’t mean what the Pharisees thought, and what so many today think – that I have to clean myself up before I can come to God, before He’ll accept me.

You may think you can fix yourself up. Put some make-up on your Old Adam, put a fresh face on your sinful nature, a little nip and tuck of the sinful flesh and you are presentable to God. It doesn’t work that way. Someone once was going through a rough patch in her marriage, so she and her husband had stopped coming to church. She told me, “When we get everything fixed, then we’ll be back in church.” No, no, no. She had it all backwards. Come to church, come to God. He’ll fix you. He’ll repair the broken relationship between you and your God. He’ll heal your ailing marriage. He’ll restore the shattered bond between you and your children.

Isn’t it interesting that the phrase “to come clean” means to confess? Come to God unclean. Admit your filth. Own up to all of your sin and guilt. Let Christ make you clean. And He does! For that is the very thing He has promised to do. To clean you from the inside out. To make you able to obey James’ words: “Get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:21-22)

We are liars and cheats. Charlatans, frauds and hypocrites. Jesus is none of those things. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the truth of God in human flesh. When you see Jesus, you see God. When you hear Jesus, you hear God. He is no mask, no part, no play – as some early Christian heresies insisted. He is the real thing. All the Word of God brought to life in Him, and lived perfectly by Him, even when living that Word meant laying down His life for us on the cross. He does not make promises He cannot or will not keep. He does not say what He does not mean. If Jesus said it, you can be sure of it. For His Word is no empty Word, but the Word of God that does what it says – from the beginning to the end; from eternity to infinity; from creation to redemption. He speaks and it is so.

Today He speaks to you and me. He is telling us to stop acting, to stop playing the hypocrite.

You cannot change from the outside in. Acting good will never make you good. You must be changed from the inside out. And the Gospel tells us that this is the very thing God desires to do for us! It is why He sent His Son into our world as His Word in human flesh. It is why He sends Him to us still today. That we no longer act or simply play a part, but that we become who Jesus has made us to be; to be who Jesus wants us to be.

Jesus loves you just the way you are. But He also loves you too much to let you stay that way. He wants you to improve. He works in you to not only listen to His Word but also do what it says. You cannot change yourself. That is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. He’ll make you into the kind of Christian husband your wife needs you to be. He’ll make you into the kind of Christian mom your children need you to be. He’ll make you into the kind of dependable Christian employee your employer pays you to be.

Our once crucified but now living Savior comes to us today, in water, in Word, and in bread and wine. God’s Word is not about instruction, but transformation. It is not telling us to change, but changing us. We don’t decide to start over and promise God to be better, but we actually die to sin and we are raised in Christ to a new life in Him.

We can’t do any of this on our own. It is what our Savior does for us. Coming to us. Living in us. Forgiving our sins, turning our minds, cleansing our hearts, loving the unlovable, curing the incurable, saving the damnable, rescuing the lost, sanctifying the hypocritical.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean that you are perfect. Being a Christian doesn’t even mean that you have to act perfect. Being a Christian just means that you are forgiven. You are forgiven in Christ for your lack of perfection. It is repenting and believing the good news that God has done it all for you and saved you. Jesus went to the cross for you so now your sins are now on Him and no longer on you. Now when you see your Savior on the cross, humiliated, bleeding, and dying, you are truly seeing the heart and love of God for you. There is no greater revelation. God loves you so much that He would rather He die than you die. And so He did, thus banishing your sin and death that you might live. Not so that you can act the part of a Christian, but so you can be a Christian. And so you are.

People have said to me, “I don’t want to go to church because it’s full of hypocrites.” I’ve said to them, “You’re right. The church is full of hypocrites. So why don’t you come so there’ll be one more.”

We don’t come to church because we are perfect Christians. We come to church so that we can be forgiven Christians. Come with your sin. Jesus comes with His words of forgiveness. That is Lutheran worship. That’s all we do here.

So today, come clean again. Come unclean and be cleaned by your Savior. Come repent and be washed over with His forgiveness. Come broken, so He can heal you. Come filthy with your sin, so He can make you pure. Come hungry and He will feed you with His body and blood.

Come, you hypocrite, so you can leave as a redeemed, blood-bought child of God. Come, you hypocrite and discard your mask of your own righteous living and put on the white robe of Christ’s righteousness. Come, you hypocrite, so you can leave as God’s saint. Amen.