WHY DO WE DO WHAT WE DO?
Matthew 15:10-20

This summer I took a class in which we examined worship practices of the church from its earliest days.  I was surprised to find that a typical Methodist church service is like a patchwork quilt made up of various traditions and practices of other types of believers from over the last 2000 years.  The early church observed prayer and reading of sacred texts because that’s what occurred in Jewish worship at the synagogue – we do that today as Methodists.  Early Christians chose to meet on Sunday mornings not only as a nod to the resurrection, but to set themselves apart from the Jewish celebrants who met on the Sabbath or Saturday.  In the first years of the church, celebrations often occurred over a memorial meal which led to our modern-day sacrament of communion.  Some aspects of the Methodist worship pattern have their roots in the Roman Catholic Church, while others grew out of the Reformation and still others out of the revival movement of the early days of our country. 

I found it fascinating to learn about the sources of some of our practices. For example, we have two candles on our altar to represent the duality of Christ as both man and God.  But do we know why candles were first placed on the altar to begin with?  It was so the priests could see to read the Scriptures!  It had nothing to do with anything sacred, but was entirely practical.  But this utilitarian reason has somehow been replaced over the years with identity as a sacred tradition of the Church.  And there’s nothing wrong with tradition, unless our traditions become more important than the message of God’s love for His people.

During the time of Christ, Jewish leaders taught about two kinds of laws.  There was the written law (commonly known as the Torah) and the oral law, which was known as the tradition of the elders.  The oral law was basically a collection of rules based on how, over the years, Jewish rabbis had interpreted the written law.  Some Jewish leaders insisted that the oral law was every bit as important as the written law, even though one came from man and the other from God.

Chapter 15 opens with the Pharisees questioning Jesus about why his disciples don’t observe the traditions of the elders.  They note that the disciples do not wash their hands before they eat – and since eating with dirty hands is a direct violation of the oral law, the disciples must not be holy, and thus Jesus must not be a legitimate religious leader.  The Pharisees want to point out that there is obviously a big difference in what they teach and what Jesus teaches.

Jesus is quick to point out that, yes, there IS a big difference between their teachings.  From a health and hygiene point of view we should all wash our hands before eating, but as Jesus tells his listeners, “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”  Eating with dirty hands might make a person physically ill, but that’s not what the Pharisees or Jesus are talking about.  The Pharisees feel that if a person eats with unclean hands, he or she will become spiritually unclean.  In an attempt to set the record straight, Jesus says, “What you eat has nothing to do with whether or not you’re spiritually defiled – that has to do with what comes out of you!”

As Christ explains, and all of us know, whatever we eat passes through our body.  We eat a piece of fruit, our teeth chew it up, we swallow it, it goes through our digestive system which absorbs what our body needs and gets rid of the waste.  There is nothing spiritual about that whatsoever (except for the fact that God provides food for us).

What Jesus refers to as coming out of our mouths has nothing to do with food, but everything to do with our heart – who we are and what we’re like.  The words we say tell what’s in our heart.  Do you gossip about people, or do you compliment them?  Do you chastise people or encourage them?  What proceeds from your mouth comes from your heart – and that is what truly matters in God’s eyes. 

However, Jesus is not saying that the ritual of hand washing is wrong or even that it should be ignored – He recognizes the importance of ritual in people’s understanding and practice of their faith – but He is saying that this ritual will not make a person right with God.  Washing one’s hands will not remove the stain of sin from an evil heart.  I am reminded of the scene from Shakespeare when Macbeth, following his murder of King Duncan, says,

What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand?[i]

Macbeth, racked with guilt, realizes that no amount of water will wash away the stain of the evil he has committed.  Some time later his wife and accomplice, Lady Macbeth, is seen sleepwalking, trying to wash away the stain of their deed from her own hands; she is heard to lament:

What, will these hands ne’er be clean? …
Here's the smell of the blood still: all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. Oh, oh, oh![ii]

Like trying to wash away bloodstains from her hands, Lady Macbeth hopes to wash away the stain of sin from her heart.  But it cannot be done.  What she has done she has done, and her guilt remains.

Ritual hand washing, like that observed by the Pharisees, will not remove sin from a person’s heart.  Similarly, being baptized will not remove a person’s sins – only the blood of Jesus can do that.  Baptism is a ritual (and an important one at that) that does not and cannot make us righteous in God’s sight, but this ritual is something that helps us to understand what God does for us through Christ.  As we are “washed clean” with water, we are reminded of how Christ washes the stain of sin from our lives.  Water cannot remove the effect of sin, only Jesus Christ can.  The ritual cannot make us pure, but it does point us toward the One who can.

The Pharisees felt it their duty and obligation to enforce the religious laws, whether they be the written law of the Torah or the oral traditions of the elders.  Their take was this: if you want to be right with God, you’ve got to obey everything in the law down to the letter.  And folks, if we were able to do that, then we wouldn’t need Jesus Christ to take away our sins!  But because we’re sinners, we’re already dirty before we place our hands in the ritual cleansing waters for the first time; we’re already behind the 8-ball.  If we’re guilty when we come to the water, we cannot be made clean no matter how much ceremonial scrubbing takes place.  It just won’t work.  If the Pharisees are teaching that proper observance of their man-made rituals will make you right with God, then they’re leading people down the wrong path.  And such misleading teachings will not stand forever, for Jesus declares, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.”[iii]   

Jesus did not condemn the Pharisees for having their rituals.  But He did say that they were “blind guides to the blind.”  Do we have anything we do that might earn us that same label?  Think about rituals we observe, either in our church or our own individual faith walks; do we ever stress an adherence to them for the sake of salvation?  Or do we ever look at them ourselves as something that helps us get right with God?  Consider weekly worship – do we ever feel like we can gain favor in God’s eyes by coming to church or putting money in the offering plate?  If so, then we’re looking at rituals as a means of salvation – and they are not.  These rituals can help lead us to God and give us a better understanding of who He is and what He does, but they won’t get us into heaven or wash away our sins.  We should observe these rituals, but we need to understand why we do them – to grow in our faith, not to earn points with God.

Why do we do the things we do in church?  Almost everything we do is a man-made ritual of some sort or another, and each of them should, in some form or fashion, point us toward God.  But – the rituals are not what’s important to God – what matters to God is what is in our heart.   

In our hearts we need to realize that we cannot save ourselves.  In our hearts we must accept that Jesus alone can save us from our sins – Christ and Christ alone can wash away the guilt we have for the things we’ve done and make us right with God.  Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In Psalm 51, the Psalmist prays to the Lord:

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin…
You desire truth in the inward being;
    therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart…
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
   and put a new and right spirit within me…
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and sustain in me a willing spirit…[iv]

All the rituals in the world won’t change a person.  Only humble submission to God can do that.  The Psalmist continues:

For you have no delight in sacrifice;
   if I were to give a burnt-offering, you would not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.[v]

We don’t need a bunch of rituals and rules to follow in order to be a child of God, even though the ancient Pharisees (and a lot of Pharisaic-Christians over the years) would argue the point.  What matters is what’s in our heart – who we are (and whose we are) will be the driving force behind why we do the things we do.  If our heart is filled with love of God and gratitude for what He’s done for us in Christ, then what we do will show that.  If our heart is filled with pride over what can we do for God, then our actions will show that as well. 

John Wesley proposed “Three Simple Rules” for Christian living:

1.      Do good.

2.      Do no harm.

3.      Stay in love with God.

Will following these rules make us right with God?  No – only Jesus can do that.  But, if we live according to these three simple rules, they will help us to grow in our walk with God and live the kind of life that comes from a heart that has been made pure by Jesus Christ.  And the more we grow in Christ, these rules will be less of something we follow and more of a description of who we are.

We do the things we do because of what lives in our heart.  What lives in yours?  Is it sin, or is it Christ?  Religious rituals cannot remove the sin, but thy can enhance your ability to experience the presence of Christ.  Rituals have their importance, but Christ is all that really matters! 

What is it that comes forth from your heart?  Is it evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander?  Or is it the love of God?  Whatever’s in there will make itself known.  So if your heart is filled with Christ and Christ alone, then He alone will be why you do the things you do!

Amen.