The Trouble with People

Rev. Richard A. Bolland

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
(September 21, 2003 Sermon Transcript)

Click here to listen to sermon audio recording

        Again our gospel reads in part, '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.'

        Dear friends in Christ, this morning I’d like to talk to you about hands. Right hands and left hands, the things that are attached to our arms. I’d like you to remember those arms and those hands tend to do things that sometimes aren’t so great. It seems that human beings have trouble with their hands. And it seems that the trouble with people is that they can’t seem to stop doing things wrong with their hands. Indeed, every time we look at a picture of a child on a milk carton, we understand that some people have used their hands to steal other people’s children.

        Indeed, we see others who use their hands to fire rocket grenades and mortars at our servicemen and women who are over in Iraq working only for the benefit of the Iraqi people. We remember a year ago, when people used their hands to fire high-powered rifles at people they didn’t even know, just for the sick thrill of watching someone they didn’t know die.

        We understand that there are people who operate websites which bring into our own homes the plague of pornography, often destroying marriages and hurting children.

        And sometimes we remember hands that held box cutters to innocent people’s throats so that they could hijack planes and crash them into places like the World Trade Center, resulting in the deaths of thousands and the mourning of tens of thousands.

        Yes, people oftentimes misuse their hands.

        Altogether, I suppose if you look at in honest eyes as human beings, we would have to conclude that we’re an unsavory lot, not to be trusted at all. And so we might ask, I suppose, how can we get people to use their hands more wisely? but perhaps that’s even the wrong question. For as we examine this text today, we find that our Lord Jesus Christ hits the nail squarely on the head when He says that the problem that we have, the trouble with people, is not their hands. It’s the condition of their hearts. It is, indeed, understanding where righteousness is found, and where righteousness comes from.

        Washing our hands all day long will not solve humanity’s problem with them. But in Christ, we do indeed find a cleansing for our hearts.

        Let it be known that it seems the Pharisees and the Scribes in this text were terribly concerned about the hands of Jesus’ disciples. It seems that some of their disciples were eating their food without ceremonially washing their hands. Now, I might point out that ceremonial washing was not a particularly thorough scrubbing. And it came to us from the Halakha, which is the traditions of the elders, which was the writings of Moses but it had a lot of additional comments and commentaries added by the rabbis over the years. The problem was, it had become so large in its commentary that the commentary became more important than the very words of the levitical laws which Moses wrote in the first place. And we find in the levitical law that there was no requirement for such handwashing at all! It was, indeed, not a rule of God, but a rule of man.

        And so why does Jesus flout these traditions? Well, first of tradition is not necessarily a bad thing. Unless, of course, the tradition is misleading.

        Now, we are Lutherans. And we have about 500 years of good tradition. And that can be a very good thing.

        We have traditions in our homes. We have certain set patterns our families follow, particularly perhaps, during Christmas, and Easter, and Thanksgiving when we do certain things that people look forward to. And that’s a good and fine thing.

        But the tradition that is being confronted here is something else entirely. The reason that Jesus flouts the tradition is because the tradition is made to be more important than the command that God had given.

        And so we hear Jesus condemn people, particularly the Pharisees and the Scribes, as hypocrites. Now what is the mark of a hypocrite? A hypocrite attempts to appear before men as though he ought to appear before God but in fact, isn’t. In fact, we find that a hypocrite, in it’s worst possible form, hypocrisy ends up actually believing what it pretends to be, and isn’t.

        And so we find that the Scribes and Pharisees, at least those gathered around Jesus that day, sent from Jerusalem to find fault, were people who truly believed themselves to be righteous because they followed the traditions of the elders to the letter. And so Jesus attacks.

        Anyone who always thinks of Jesus as kind, sweet, and mild better not read this passage. Listen to the words again. 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.'

        No words are minced. And He tries to uncover the scab, if you will, of their hypocrisy.

        Hypocrisy manages to do two things, essentially, wrong. First of all, hypocrisy grants honor to God that is only a pretense. And secondly, it turns the teachings of men into a divine ordinance. Now if you’ll stop to think about it for minute, that inevitably happens when the rules of men are made into the rules of God. For the minute we are removed from the word of God, the only thing left is the opinion of men. And so it becomes natural and unfortunate progression, giving honor to the rules of men rather than God, and making the rules of men rules of God, granting them divine status. Always go together, sadly and tragically.

        Such hypocrisy looks at the works of men’s hands. But what God seeks is a faithful heart. Today, many churches that bear the name Christian also participate in the same kind of hypocrisy. Indeed, we find that there are many denominations which insist that, in fact, good works are necessary for salvation. That you must combine faith with good works, and that good works then finally will lead to faith, as though we could arrange it by doing good works! And then salvation becomes a process instead of an event.

        Others would come to us and they would say, "Well, maybe it’s not quite that way, but after all, us sinful fallen human beings, people whom St. Paul describes as dead, blind, enemies of God, must make a decision for Jesus, an act of human will, in order to obtain salvation, in order to complete one’s salvation. You must make a confession!" And again, salvation becomes a process and not an event.

        Hypocrisy continues. For indeed, such statements are the wisdom of men, and not the word of God.

        For indeed, there is only one way by which we may be saved. And that is not by things that people do. But it is only and completely by the gracious act of God by which we receive salvation. We find, as we look at the cross, that such claims fly in the face of Holy Scripture, and ascribe to man the things belonging only to Him.

        God alone. Christ alone, is the source and the completion of our salvation. Indeed, we must know that it is in Christ alone where righteous, which we are totally lacking, may be at last obtained. Not by striving of human effort, not by washing of hands, not of any list of things to do that we might conceive of, but rather because Christ has done all things well. And at the cross, there is nothing lacking. In His life, there was nothing lacking. In His death, there was nothing lacking.

        All of humanity, and all of humanity’s sin, and all of humanity’s vain efforts are buried with Christ, because they were dead to begin with. God is the one who gives life. He is the one who calls through the gospel. He is the one who enlightens us and changes us, transforms us by the power of His word. He is the one who opens our ears, and opens our eyes, and moves our hands to do His bidding. Not because we decided to, but because His grace impels us to.

        Lutherans can fall to this sort of hypocrisy as well. Lutherans think that because they’re Lutheran, because they were confirmed, because they knew the answer to the question, "What is the meaning of the third article of the creed?", that they have obtained salvation! We are saved, because, after all, we are on the church roster at Our Savior Lutheran Church, and we do Lutheran things!

        Let me assure you, this is not the way to heaven. It may seem like Lutheran heaven at the time, but it will not get you through the pearly gates. Rather, I would assure you that it is the grace of God, and only the grace of God, that is recognized as that which is sufficient for us.

        No act of man can remove the stain of sin. No amount of handwashing will remove the dirt that clusters our lives with its contemptible sin, can be removed without God’s action, wholly and completely His.

        It seems that the visions of men always point to the works of man’s hands. But God’s grace is known when He changes our hearts. See, it’s never been a matter of hands. It’s always been a matter of hearts! Hearts that one time were set against God have been called into God’s gracious shadow, and given the light of life. Changed by the word.

        And now, what do our hands do? Do they just become things on which to sit? Waiting for heaven to show up, that we might punch our Lutheran timecard and get in? I assure you, not so.

        For our hands are the instruments of God. Now listen carefully to that. Our hands are the instruments of God. Compelled by the love of God, for all that He has done for us, moved and energized by His spirit, God uses broken sinful, dirty-handed men and women to serve Him. So the works that are accomplished we cannot even call our own.

        For again, it is the grace of God at work, that as people living in faith, that faith is demonstrated by the grace of God acting through our hands, acting through our eyes and our lips, opening our ears to listen to the cry of those around us who do not know Jesus Christ, and can yet hear of them through soiled lips like these.

        God does all things well. Even through His imperfect people. It’s not that we have become so good, but rather that God can work with the likes of us anyway, to do those things which He wants to accomplish. that is the work of His church, saints and sinners both, doing the work of God, because God enables us, and god energizes us, and God empowers us to do them.

        Let it be remembered that it is empty and dirty hands that come to a resplendent and mighty God. And they don’t even come under their own power. They come under the power of God’s word and sacraments. And so, we hear Jesus speak in Matthew chapter 5 (v3), most importantly, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

        "Blessed are the poor in spirit, not those who come thinking their spirit is wealthy and rich and clean, but those who come with empty dirty hands.

        Or perhaps we might remember Jesus as He speaks the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. From Luke chapter 18 (vv.9-14) we read these words. To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' and Jesus concluded: "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

        Dear friends, today is the day to stop looking at how well our hands are doing. Today is the day to stop measuring the validity of your faith by asking yourself constantly how well you are behaving. For if you do, I assure you, you will be disappointed, and so would I. Rather, today is the day that we listen to the means of grace. We listen to that gracious message of cleansing, not that we have earned or deserved, but that God has graciously provided in His son. And we look and we see that even these empty, dirty hands, are God’s way of touching the lives of others, not because of their cleanliness, but because of the one who is cleaned them, the one who uses them.

        You see, finally, we must remember, Christ is our salvation. Christ is our sinlessness. Christ does our good works for us. Christ is our pride, and Christ is our life. In Jesus’ name, amen.