Lent Midweek 3 – March 26, 2025Psalm 19; Exodus 20:12-24aSt. Matthew 15:1-20
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The text before us this evening
presents one cohesive unit concerning what truly makes a man unclean – sin.
This discourse comes in two parts: first, how the oral traditions of the elders
compare with the commandments of God; and second, that sin proceeds from the
heart.
We don’t know as much about the oral
traditions of the elders as we would like. What we do know is that these
traditions began to spring up during the time in between the testaments. We
also know that the Pharisees often tried to take the Mosaic laws that applied
to priests and apply them to all believers, turning specific laws into general
ones. Some of these traditions took laws of Moses and amplified them. For
instance, the law against work on the Sabbath was amplified to mean that you
could not sit on chairs or stools on the Sabbath because you might slide one of
the legs against the ground, creating a small furrow in the earth as though you
were tilling the ground and that would be work.
We also know that not all of the oral traditions
were the same in every place and at every time. So when these Pharisees asked
Jesus about the transgression of His disciples, it could be that they were
seeking to debate about conflicting traditions, wanting to prove why their
tradition was better than His. But our Lord has no interest in allowing the
Pharisees to set the terms of debate. In a turn that might surprise us, Christ
answers their question with another question, and He phrases it in an offensive
way. The Pharisees asked, “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of
the elders?” and Christ responds, “Why do you also transgress the
commandment of God because of your tradition?”
It is very important to understand
precisely what Christ is condemning in this passage. He does not condemn
traditions. He does not even condemn oral traditions that are used within the
Church. What He is condemning is the elevation of such traditions to the same
status as the Word of God. He even provides an example that has nothing to do
with washing hands so that the underlying principle might be understood.
The Pharisees had another oral tradition that a man could, maybe even should, give his wealth to the Temple to receive great blessing, even if that meant his parents spent their latter years in poverty. This created a loophole wherein a man would be exempt from caring for his aged mother and father, something directly commanded by God in the Fourth Commandment. The Pharisees had elevated this oral tradition to supersede the commandments of God, allowing a loophole by which a man needed tradition but not the Word of God.
This general principle is then to be
applied to the tradition of handwashing, although this one is more subtle. It
doesn’t seem that the Pharisees’ handwashing tradition created a loophole to
get around the commandments of God. Washing one’s hands didn’t suddenly make
unclean foods clean. What it did was bind the consciences of those who did not
wash their hands according to this tradition. The Pharisees had laid another
layer of sanctification on top of the dietary commandments of God and treated
it as equal to that of God. To transgress the tradition was the same as to
transgress God.
In so doing, the Pharisees have now set
themselves up as the sole authority that determines what is sin and what isn’t.
They have claimed the authority of Christ for themselves. ‘Do as we say, or
else God will punish you.’ What’s worse, and will be discussed in a minute, is
that the Pharisees have declared that one’s relationship with God, one’s
salvation, is almost entirely (if not exclusively) bound up in the outward
keeping of the oral tradition. Under threat of excommunication, man must keep
the outward traditions of the Pharisees.
Our Lord harshly rebukes the Pharisees,
applying the words of Isaiah to them, “These people draw near to Me with their
mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and in
vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of Men.”[1]
The worship of the Pharisees is false because they worship God with their
works, trust in their works, and obey traditions of men rather than the
commandments of God. They claim to worship the true God with their lips but worship
themselves by setting their own traditions above God’s Word.
Having rebuked the Pharisees, Jesus
calls the multitude to Himself and continues His teaching, “Not what goes into
the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Again,
our Lord is not commenting on dietary laws. He is teaching concerning sin and
its true origins, as He makes clear when speaking to Peter, “Our of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, and blasphemies.”[2]
Sin is a matter of the heart long
before it is an action in the hands. This is not to say that sin is simply the
result of intention. One can have the best of intentions and still commit a
sin. Rather, sin is the result of our sinful condition, of the sin that clings
to our hearts and minds, not just our flesh. We are not sinners because we sin.
We sin because we are sinners.
A word that is very helpful in understanding this concept is “orientation.” To be oriented toward something is to be turned in its direction, even if it is not the sole focus of your attention. For example, I am currently oriented toward all of you, even if I am not looking directly at you, individually, in this moment. When considering sin, the hearts and minds of Christians are oriented toward the things of God. Yet the Christian still sins because of the sin which clings to his body. He is oriented toward God even if he fails to meet God’s standards in every way. The unbeliever is always oriented away from God even if he outwardly does something that conforms to God’s will.
In the case of the Pharisees, they have
oriented themselves away from God and toward their oral tradition. Many of
their traditions sought to outwardly uphold the Law of God but their hearts
were turned away from Him. Thus they honor Him with their lips but their hearts
are far away.
This is what it means when I say that
God is more interested in the orientation of your heart than the nature of your
sin. That doesn’t mean God doesn’t care what sins you commit. Quite the
opposite! The sins you commit reflect the condition of your heart. But what is
really important is how your heart is oriented. For the sinner whose heart is
oriented toward God, sin is abhorrent. It is unclean. It is a thing to be
despised. And when one whose heart is oriented toward God finds sin within
himself, he desires to be relieved of that sin. He wants to flee to the One who
can remove that sin. He wants to hear the words, “In the stead and by the
command of My Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
And such a one as this, because his
heart has been made anew and turned toward God by the action of the Holy
Spirit, knows and believes this forgiveness to be true. He is confident that
whatever is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven.[3]
Such a one finds delight in the Law of the Lord because it is pure,
enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.[4]
Thus it is not keeping the tradition of
the elders that makes one clean. Nor does breaking the tradition of the elders
make one unclean. That which proceeds from a sinful heart dirties the man and
the Word of God alone makes him pure.
