Mark 7:1–13

¹And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, ²and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. ³(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; ⁴and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) ⁵And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?" ⁶And He said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ⁷'But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.' ⁸"Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." ⁹He was also saying to them, "You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. ¹⁰"For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death'; ¹¹but you say, 'If a man says to his father or his mother, anything of mine you might have been helped by is Corban (that is to say, given to God),' ¹²you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; ¹³thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that."

Here we go again. Another clash between Jesus and the Pharisees. Now what are they fighting about? Imagine that! They are arguing about washing hands. "To wash or not to wash," that was the question.

But unless that seems like a trivial matter, the writer of our Gospel gives us a little background to help us understand this dispute. The Pharisees and all the Jews had the tradition of not eating unless they had washed their hands. And when they come from the market they would not eat unless they first cleansed themselves. This, however, was not and issue of cleanliness, it was a religious duty. The priests were required by Old Testament law to bathe before entering the temple and to wash their hands as a symbol of their sins being washed away. Over time, this requirement for the priests had became a tradition which was imposed as law for all Jews. So the Pharisees, who were the most religious of all the people and who kept the law to the letter, found an occasion for criticizing the disciples of Jesus. It was their chance to show their spiritual superiority. Their chance to point fingers and blame others.

Um...Seems like a common theme in humanity: wanting to put others down in order to make yourself feel superior. Wanting to show just how religious and pious you are so people will praise you. Don't we do the very same thing? We all think of ourselves as good Christians. We are religious people. We do and say all the right things. We obey the commandments. We don't murder or steal or commit adultery. We come to church. We have the highest form of worship—the Lutheran Liturgy—and we sing Lutheran hymns—the most highly developed hymnody in Christendom. We say the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed, in fact, we have them memorized. We honor all the ancient traditions of the church. We give alms to the poor, and some of you may even fast at certain times of the year or on certain occasions. Most of you also serve on boards and committees in the church, or give your time and service in other ways. Outside the church too, we are good people we don't cheat on our wives, don't steal, don't use bad language. This is to be commended. These are all good things. They are all motivated by the Holy Spirit. It is the fruit of faith. Don't stop doing these things.

But, don't we sometimes flaunt our good deeds so others will see us and praise us? It is a psychological need of people to be recognized, feel significant, and have high self-esteem. But it is sin in us that makes us want to do this at the expense of other people. We try to feel significant and important by putting others down and pointing out their flaws. That, people, is what the Pharisees were doing. Don't we sometimes look at others and criticize them for not being as good or religious or spiritual as we? Don't we sometimes turn our works of love and piety into a pretext for feeling superior to others? We all, at times, tend to set ourselves up as the standard that others should meet. That is the sinful nature that Jesus addressed. There was nothing wrong with washing their hands, but it was wrong to feel superior to others, to flaunt their obedience, and put others down by imposing their own laws and standards of righteousness.

Quoting Scripture, Jesus pointed out the real issue here "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me." In fact, they were hypocrites! They did all the right things, they said all the right things, they behaved the right way, but they did it for the wrong reasons.

Jesus once said, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them, otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven." "When you give alms, do not sound trumpets before you as the hypocrites do, that they may be honored by men." "When you pray, do not be as the hypocrites, who pray in public places in order to be seen by men." What is the problem? The problem is not the giving of alms or praying. These are both good things to do. No, the problem is the heart. It is the reason they did them.

We can have the same problem as well: we gave alms, we pray, we fast, we even wash our hands. We keep all the laws. We worship in strict conformity to the rubrics of the liturgy. But if we think that by doing these things we are pleasing God and earning his favor, it is idolatry! We worship our own works, thinking God will give us his blessing because of them. It is works righteousness.

Luther, speaking of people at his time, said: "the spiritual people boast that they are the most devout of all; even though there is no faith in them and they have no understanding of Scripture at all, and yet we must pay them great honor."

What makes this is a difficult thing to understand, is that the things we do that are not wrong. Our sin is not what we do, but the reason we do it. Luther calls good works for the wrong motives, the worst sins, sins that rob us of eternal life and condemn us to eternal punishment. How can doing something good be a great sin? Because when we do good things we don't even realize we are sinning by thinking the works make us good. Instead, we go around boasting about the good we do, "Look at me. I'm such a religious person. I'm such a good Christian." "I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do." So it doesn't even occur to us we need Christ's forgiveness.

That's what the Pharisees were doing. They were outwardly righteous and good people, perfect in fact. But Jesus said, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, there is no way possible you will ever go to heaven."

So how can a good person be such a bad person? St. Paul gives us the answer: "No man is justified by the works of the law...since by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." What does that mean? It means that even if you do everything you are supposed to do; obey all the laws of God, come to church every Sunday, sing the liturgy perfectly, say the creed and the Lord's Prayer for memory; even if you are the most religious person in the world, the most "spiritual" of all, the greatest Christian in the church, none of this earns one bit of God's favor. By being good, by works of the law, shall no flesh be justified.

There is only one thing that justifies us before God. There is only one way we get points with God. And that is by the death of Jesus Christ. On account of the suffering and death of Jesus, God declares us righteous. That means God declares us innocent of all sin, holy, sinless people. God justifies us because of his Son, not because of what we do.

What is justify? It is a legal term. It is when a criminal comes before a court and the judge declares him innocent. Only a judge can justify. It can only take place in a courtroom. Justify means your status is changed from criminal to innocent, from sinner to saint. It implies guilt. It implies that you are guilty of a crime, but the judge, by decree, declares you innocent, thus changing your legal status from guilty to innocent. This, of course does not take place in any human court. Justification is only done in the heavenly court where God himself is the judge.

So, how can a bad person be such a good person? It is not an arbitrary decree. It is not just some whim or false sense of justice on the part of the judge. It is based on the historical reality of Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection which paid the penalty for our crimes. We are declared innocent only in exchange for Jesus being declared guilty. He suffered the punishment and so our sins were atoned for; restitution has been made for our offenses. Someone had to pay the price, and that someone was Jesus Christ.

So what is Jesus telling us? He is inviting us to forget trying to be such religious people and rest in the fact that he has already done it all for us. Washing hands doesn't make us right with God. Nor does being a religious person, singing the liturgy, memorizing the prayers, giving alms, fasting, and being pious make us right with God. Only the obedience of Jesus Christ makes us right with God. Jesus is inviting us to trust in his good works, his piety, his righteousness all of which have been credited to our account. Our debt is paid in full because Jesus paid it. Our account is at zero, because Jesus paid our debts. God now looks upon us with his favor because of what Jesus did.

We have a great God who declares the sinner righteous, the guilty innocent on account of the death of his Son. He regards our lowly estate as sinners, and lifts us up to the highest heaven and places the crown of glory on our heads because of Jesus. He will raise us on the Last Day and give us the mansions he is preparing for us today.

So, St. Paul was right when he said that by good works no man shall be justified. Only by faith in Jesus Christ. This is the invitation Jesus gives us today: stop trying to do it yourselves, stop trying to be holy and pious, stop comparing yourselves with others, stop trying to boost your self-esteem by pointing out someone else's flaws, you're just spinning your wheels, and wearing yourselves out trying to be good. God says you are already good in Christ Jesus. Repent and believe that Jesus did it for you.

Stop showing off how religious and good you are. It doesn't count for anything. Stop putting others down or criticizing them for not being as holy or pious as you, your piety has no merit before God. In fact that person you think you are superior to is a saint, a son of God, whom God as forgiven and declared innocent. Who are you to accuse your brother. You are contradicting God who declared him innocent!

Jesus invites you to come, not to be religious, but to enjoy the gift of God's righteousness that he gives us in Word and Sacrament. Come to church, not to do your duty or because it is the right thing to do, but because here Jesus is present and comes to dwell in you and give you his life, his holiness, his joy and his peace. In the liturgy, in the hymns, in the prayers, in the word and in the Sacraments, Jesus gives us the gifts of his grace and mercy. He gives us forgiveness and eternal salvation. He justifies us and gives us his righteousness. Come, to get the gifts of God, not to give him your works that don't count for anything.

Come to be filled with him so you can take him out into the world and share him with everyone out there. Come, be filled with his love so you can give the love of Christ to all those around you. Come, get the gifts.

Amen.