What Makes You Tick?
Pentecost 11 - August 20, 2017
What Makes You Tick?
Matthew 15:1-20
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus,
I want to show you this beautiful mantle clock that I inherited from my grandfather. I’m not sure of its age, but it was already old when I was a kid! Just like a grandfather clock, it chimes at each quarter hour and rings out the hour with a loud bell. There is only one problem – it doesn’t work. The insides don’t run and it seems to be jammed, so it doesn’t tick and keep time. Oh this clock is good for something, as a beautiful heirloom - but it was worthless as a clock. What makes a clock valuable as a clock? Not its fancy case, but what’s inside.
The Word of God for today has something to do with our insides. When it comes to God, what makes you tick? Are you pretty and clean on the outside, and just a mess on the inside? That’s how it was for the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. When Jesus dealt with the falseness of the Pharisees, he used an example that wasn’t as gentle as a broken clock. One time, he described them as whitewashed tombs, all clean on the outside, and full of filth and decay and uncleanness on the inside. That’s the problem that Jesus is dealing with in his teaching for today. What’s the biggest problem- how clean you are outside, or what are you like inside? To use the illustration of the clock, our main question is this: What Makes You Tick?
First, let’s set the scene of what was happening that day in Galilee, in the northern part of Israel. The Pharisees and some other teachers had come from Jerusalem in the south. They had traveled all that way trying to find something, anything they could use against Jesus. As they gathered around Jesus to listen to his teaching, some of the disciples got hungry and started to eat. I suppose you could call it a working lunch. So the nitpicky Pharisees asked: Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat! For the Pharisees, this hand-washing was a requirement. They weren’t some much worried about dirt from the garden, or germs: they were upset because the disciples didn’t carry out the proper religious ceremony, so they’d eat clean food with clean hands, untainted by the outside world. Notice that they say – this is a tradition of the elders. Nothing in the Bible itself calls for washing your hands before you eat. For the Pharisees, this ceremonial hand-washing was more like our saying a prayer before we start eating. It was something they insisted had to be done, but God never had commanded it. Just like God never commanded that we must pray before a meal, but he has commanded us to pray and give him thanks for everything. So the law about being clean before God if you have become unclean, was expanded to include hand-washing before meals. To the Pharisees, what the disciples did was like not praying before they ate.
By the way, I just heard this week on a radio talk show, that because of this tradition of washing hands, most Jews did not get sick during the Black Plagues of Europe. And since they did not get sick, many people blamed them for the plague. The accusation was that they had some magic they were using to make other people get sick and die, while the Jews themselves stayed healthy. So children, wash your hands! It’s for your health but it’s not because God commanded it.
Then Jesus gave an example of how they used their traditions to go against the true laws of God. 3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. This is really a weird twist. God wants us to honor our father and mother, and as you become an adult, it means to take care of them if they need help. These are simple basic conclusions of the 4th commandment. But the legalists had found a way around that. If you declare your money “devoted to God” or Corban, why then it’s for God’s work and I can’t give any of it to you, Mom or Dad. Now here’s the real kicker: As long as you declared that money as devoted to God, it doesn’t mean that you actually have to give it to God. Does that make sense? No, but that’s how they used the technicalities of their laws.
They nullify the actual word of God with their traditions.
So what makes you tick? Traditions or the Word. Let’s apply this to ourselves. What makes you tick spiritually? When we worship, is it all about traditions, or are we sticking to God’s Word?
Our churches know a lot about traditions. It affects the way we worship as we follow an order of service or Liturgy. I usually wear a robe. We have an altar to focus on the presence of God. We usually say the Lord’s Prayer with the King James language, mostly because people are used to saying it that way. In confirmation class we still use Martin Luther’s Catechism along with the main book, which is the Bible of course.
But in some churches, traditions are taught and the Bible is ignored. It has been my experience among Lutherans that if they follow the modern teaching about the Bible and don’t believe that all of it was given by inspiration of God, then you have to replace it with something else. If you disagree with some of what God says, the traditions of worship become more important. If you have all the pomp and circumstance, then maybe people won’t notice that the sermons are wishy-washy. Or they won’t notice that the pastor won’t take a stand on issues that society doesn’t like right now. The major areas today are God’s gift of human life and God’s laws about marriage and sex. If you want to go along with what our modern society teaches, you don’t want to talk about it very much. On the opposite side, racism is raising its ugly head. It’s hard for me to believe how a Christian pastor could uphold white supremacy But Thursday night in a news special, they interviewed some of the men from such a group. One man covered his face because he didn’t want to be identified. Why? Because he was a Baptist pastor. This fits so closely with the Pharisees. They supported things that were opposite of the Word of God, like not taking care of their parents, to try and get away with what they wanted to do.
So what makes us tick spiritually? It’s the Word of God! It’s all about God’s Word and not tradition. It’s so very important that we cling to this fact: All Scripture is God-breathed or inspired. 2 Tim. 3:16. The Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Ah, the Word affects the heart, when you take it seriously. When you don’t, it’s all talk. That’s what Jesus pointed out by quoting Isaiah: 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 8 “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’”
So what makes you tick? Lip service or a heart of faith. Be careful of doing and saying the right things, but not really caring about it in your hearts. We need to watch out when:
- People feel the need to join a church, to show their Christianity at least somewhat outwardly, but then let every other activity in the world take first place in the schedule.
- We pray together: “Forgive us our trespasses,” but then forget all about the second part: “As we forgive those who trespass against us.” We go home from church, and then think about how to pay back that nasty neighbor, or what to say to the relative we don’t get along with.
- We sing: “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord,” and then continue the snippy argument we had with our spouse on the way in to church.
- We give $20 for the Lord’s work and feel pretty good about it, but spend $120 without batting an eye, for something fun you really didn’t need.
Are we going to do the right things because we are supposed to do it, or because our hearts of faith prompts us to do it? Is it all lip service, or heart service? Is it to bring ourselves glory, or to glorify Jesus? One of the reasons that Matt Redman wrote “The Heart of Worship” is that he realized that it was all too easy to sing praises as a performance, to get people to say: “Matt, that was really good!” rather than praising and worshiping the Lord from the heart.
Jesus gets into that with the final portion of his lesson. Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” If you eat food that’s not kosher, it’s not that big a problem, according to Jesus. The real problem is what comes out of your mouth.
Peter just didn’t get it. Peter said: “Explain the parable to us.”16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
So what makes you tick? Clean foods or a clean heart. It’s not clean and unclean foods that is the problem, it’s the uncleanness in our hearts. Don’t blame the devil, or society, or bad parenting. When these sins happen: murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. they come from the heart. Every child has a sinful heart, and every adult, even us as Christians, have a battle with these things. If you don’t have a problem with a single item on this list, then you didn’t read to the end about lying and gossip. If we have such an evil heart, how can we ever be clean?
"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool. We are cleansed and clean from sin, because of the crimson red blood of Jesus, which purifies us from every sin. He has made us clean in God’s eyes. Notice it is only God that can correct the problem. We cannot do it ourselves anymore than I can take this bright red cloth and turn it perfectly white.
Once again we will sing these words of the Bible, from Psalm 51 “Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” You see, only God can make us clean again. He does it by the power of the Holy Spirit. He comes in baptism and washes away our sins. He comes through his powerful Word and Holy Communion and makes us whole and clean once again.
So what makes you tick?
- Traditions or God’s Word?
- Lip service or a heart of faith?
- Clean foods or a clean heart?
Together let’s hang on to the Word and our faith in Jesus and a clean heart that goes into action. By the way, do any of you know where I can get my clock fixed? It will take a watchmaker with some special expertise. If you know such a person, let me know. I may not know how to fix clocks but I do know the special person who can make you tick. I want you to know him too! Amen.
Children’s Sermon
I have a bowl and a towel. What do you think we can use these for?
Let’s say you’re playing outside. Mom calls: “Kids, it’s time for supper!” And as they come running, what’s the next thing that mom says? “Go wash your hands.” Then everyone sits down for supper, and what happens next? It’s time to pray.
It’s good to have clean hands, but only Jesus can make us clean on the inside.