By the time Mark and Matthew wrote their gospels, the new followers of Jesus had already spent some time wrestling with the changes in how they now should relate to God and live righteously in His world. For the Jews in particular, who were very concerned about being pure in line with the Old Testament’s guidelines, they had questions about things like clean and unclean foods (see Acts 10:9-16; 11:5-10; Romans 14:13) and meat offered to idols (1 Corinthians 8-10) and the necessity of doing the rituals of ceremonial cleanliness.
We will see here two of the gospel writers record how Jesus made it clear that being spiritually pure or clean was not about following the ceremonial laws for physical cleanliness; it was about the status of their hearts.[1]
Now the Pharisees and some of the experts in the law who came from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. And they saw that some of Jesus’ disciples ate their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed.
(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing, holding fast to the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. They hold fast to many other traditions: the washing of cups, pots, kettles, and dining couches.)
The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’
Having no regard for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition. You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up your tradition. For God said through Moses, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’
But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is corban’ (that is, a gift for God), then he does not need to do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.”
If something was corban, it was an offering devoted to God. That’s a good thing. However, these Pharisees would declare their money to be corban in order to avoid giving financial help to parents who were in need so that they could give it to the temple instead. This would impress people with their apparently generous support of God’s work, when actually they were cheapskates avoiding family obligations, which in the Jewish community was one of the highest obligations God commanded. You honored your father and mother by taking care of them.
In Jewish tradition, those who forsake their parents deserve the same penalty as blasphemers. Basically, dishonoring one’s parents was like dishonoring God.[2]
In addition, they could keep the money and use it in business until they decided to give the initial amount to the temple.[3] So….greed, hypocrisy, dishonoring of parents, pride. The list goes on.
Keeping traditions are not markers of holiness. We can keep traditions that look righteous to everybody else and be terribly corrupt inside. We can find loopholes in our humanly generated systems of that can allow us to indulge the worst parts of our nature instead of challenge us to grow in Christ-likeness.
If we were in the Orthodox or Catholic family of churches, here’s where I would talk about liturgy and symbolism (like making the sign of the cross or using incense). We are not that kind of a church, so I will leave that message for the preachers in those places.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the kind of traditions I grew up with that were not necessarily bad but were not revealed truth from heaven. Then, I ‘m going to look at CLG’s history before we get personal.
Traditions I Had Growing Up
· Keeping the Sabbath holy meant we didn’t work at all on Sundays; we were encouraged to do as little as possible, even when it came to recreation.
· We weren’t supposed to play cards, drink, go to movies, own TVs, listen to music not made by Christians. These were all associated with being worldly.
· We carried a physical Bible. The kid who won the Sword Drill was impressive.
· Women wore head coverings (churches split over this issue); men didn't wear ties.
· We sang acapella hymns (though that changed over time) because instruments were too worldly for worship.
· Church went like this: opening devotion for everybody, age-specific Sunday school, singing, then sermon. Always. 10:00 to 12:00.
· The offering was public – we passed the plate.
· We dressed nicely for a Sunday service.
· Services three times a week: twice on Sunday and then Wednesday evening.
· We saved altar calls for week-long revivals, which needed to happen at least once a year, ideally with other churches in a tent.
· We dressed modestly (boys wore long sweats to play basketball; girls wore long coulots to play sports).
· We weren’t big into patriotism (we would never have talked about the Revolutionary War on the 4th of July, or talked about Memorial Day or Veterans Day. There were no veterans in my church, as we were pacifist Mennonites.)
· We celebrated Christmas but did not participate in Halloween festivities even to hold an alternative party. For many, having a tree at Christmas was too secular.
· We didn’t dance at weddings. We didn’t dance at all. It was too likely to inflame the passions.
There’s nothing in that list that is bad or wrong in and of itself. My only point is that they were traditions, not biblical mandates.
I wasn’t here for half of CLG’s 50 year life, but I know there were traditions embedded here at CLG, and as they have changed over time it’s been hard to see the change of traditions (the way we are supposed to do things) as just that: the change of traditions.
Changing Traditions At CLG
· Style and length of musical worship has changed over time and probably will again at some point.
· The time and place in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit are exercised has changed over time.
· Bringing a physical, well-worn Bible – reading the screen – bringing a phone to look up the Bible.
· Dress up - dress down – just be dressed.
· Altar calls every week – altar calls occasionally
· Extravagant programs on holidays – much simpler gatherings
· Changing focus of small groups: discipleship, friendship, Bible study…
· 2 hour services - 1 hour service with classes.
· We’ve never had Sunday evening services here like I just assumed everybody did growing up.
As far as I can tell, nothing in these lists was inherently less holy or more holy. It was a way of doing things, and when done properly in a way that matched who we were (or are) as a church, it’s great. There is a beautiful range of flexibility in things like this in the Kingdom of God.
It’s when these things became markers of holiness or treated as if they were sacred writ that traditions becomes a trap. Looking good by the markers of church traditions can begin to subtly become the thing by which we gauge our holiness, our spiritual progress, or our standing before God. Looking good must mean we are good. And when that happens, it also becomes a thing by which we judge the spiritual progress or maturity of others.
· I won Sword Drills more than once because I was fast, not because I loved God’s word.
· I carried a physical Bible to church for years simply because somebody would call me out or look at me with judgment, not because it was precious to me.
· I worked for years to say publicly impressive prayers so that people around me would be impressed, because surely spontaneous prayers that roll off my tongue are a sign of deep faith.
· I’ve had break myself of thinking, “Oh, a great worshiper looks like that person!” when we are singing, especially as I’ve realized that the least involved person may be full of far more godly character than the most expressive one.
It turns out that, like the Pharisees, we can go through all of the currently approved motions of religiosity and have a deeply wicked heart.
Jesus called this hypocrisy. Think of hypocrisy as “the distance between one’s heart and one’s hands.” The Pharisee’s outward appearance of faithful piety was a lie, because it was not accompanied by a life and a heart committed to loving God and loving others. Matthew records another time Jesus criticized the Scribes and Pharisees for the same thing:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”
You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (23:23-24; 27-28)
There is a famous passage in Isaiah 58 in which the prophet spoke on behalf of God and gave a very specific example:
“Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
The prophet Amos didn’t pull any punches either:
There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground…There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth…You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain…
There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts… Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy…
I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (Amos 5)
Holiness involves integrity: the consistent integration of our lives in the service of Christ, from the little things to the big things.
Jesus’ 2,000 year old warning is timeless. Hypocrisy has plagued the church throughout its history.
John Dickson wrote a book called Bullies and Saints. As you might guess by the title, he addresses both the bullies and saints in church history. It’s a sobering and hopeful book, and I highly recommend it. Close to the beginning, he summarizes where he is going this way:
It is clear that “love of enemies” and “the image of God” drove much of what was unique in the history of Christianity, as even the most begrudging historians and philosophers will acknowledge. The church is at its best, in history and today, when it performs these melody lines contained in its founding documents.
Reminding ourselves of the moral logic of Christ and the New Testament makes the story I am going to tell all the more tragic. The bigotry, selfishness, and violence of the church, whether in the Crusades, Inquisitions, wealth accumulation, or the horrors of child abuse, are not only departures from broad humanitarian principles. They are a betrayal of the specific mandate Christ gave his movement.
His book covers church history in general. I’ll just note just a few things we have seen in our own country’s history as a warning of how easily we can slide into hypocrisy.
· The Puritans journeyed to America in pursuit of religious liberty — but only liberty for their very particular exercise of faith. They were very harsh to those who disagreed, including fellow Christians.
· Christians in the antebellum South engaged in passionate worship and showy revival meetings while owning other people and then later denying basic rights to people they wished they still owned.
· The church has often called out sexual exploitation in the culture - and too often covered it up at within the church.
· We have stressed the importance of truth, honesty, kindness and godly character but have endorsed and even applauded American leaders of deeply sinful character who lie boldly, cheat freely, and constantly attack and belittle others.
God forbid we be “whitewashed tombs,” appearing externally “righteous” while being internally “full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:25-28). Holiness involves integrity: the consistent integration of our lives in the service of Christ. God forbid that our assemblies are a stench rising to God rather than sweet incense.
And now, for the part where I step on our collective toes.
Signs of Hypocrisy
· You talk a lot about generosity and how the church should be taking care of the poor, not the government, but you give money to God and his kingdom begrudgingly or not at all.
· You denounce human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of those trapped in it while using pornography, which is founded on the sexual exploitation of people.
· You love the Great Commission when we get to go there and do ministry on our terms and our schedule, but get really uncomfortable when they come here and need ministry on their terms.
· You fast with your belly to honor God but won’t fast with your budget.
· You call out the coarseness, rudeness and vulgarity of culture while supporting public figures who are course, rude, and vulgar.
· You say ‘all lives matter’ and then don’t care about or do anything for the lives of people who are in groups you fear or dislike.
· You talk about how amazing grace is while constantly rendering judgment on those around you.
· You say you don't worship money but you give a way as little as you think you absolutely have to and order your life around financial security.
· You loudly denounce the sexualization of society while clicking on those articles with pictures that objectify men and women.
· You say you love God but don’t love others. All the others. “ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
· You sing with gusto Sunday morning and go home and ridicule your spouse and demean you kids.
· You take communion in memory of a God who has forgiven your offense and refuse to forgive those who have offended you.
· You denounce the after school clubs run by Satanists but do the work of the Father of Lies by spreading gossip, lies, and slander on social media.
· You love to quote Scripture that you never apply to your own life.
· You prepped this sermon thinking, “Thank God I’m not part of the problem. I hope everybody listens this morning!”
· You are sitting here thinking, “Thank God I’m not part of the problem. I hope everybody else is listening this morning!”
I don’t want to resolve this today. Next week we are going to talk about an antidote to hypocrisy, so think of this as Part 1 of 2. I want us to take a week to pray and seek God about this. Are there areas of our life in which we are honoring God with our lips but our hearts are far from Him? And if so, let’s take a week to repent and mourn, and regather next Sunday to move forward more in tune with the melody line of Christianity.
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[1] Expositor’s Bible Commentary
[2] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible
[3] Thanks for the context, Believer’s Bible Commentary!