Human-Centered v.s God-Centered Discipleship

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Our Gospel reading today is a reading from the Gospel According to Mark, chapter 7, verses 1 through 23.

Mark 7:1–23

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus

and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing,

holding to the tradition of the elders.

When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash,

and they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.

So the Pharisees and the teachers of the law asked Jesus,

Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?

He replied,

Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites.

As it is written,

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain.

Their teachings are merely human rules.

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.

And he continued,

You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.

For Moses said,

Honor your father and mother,

and anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.

But you say that if anyone declares

that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban,

that is, devoted to God,

then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother.

Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.

And you do many things like that.

Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said,

Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.

Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them.

Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.

After he had left the crowd and entered the house,

his disciples asked him about this parable.

Are you so dull, he asked?

Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?

For it doesn't go into their heart, but into their stomach, and then out of the body.

In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.

He went on,

What comes out of a person is what defiles them.

For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come.

Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.

All these evils come from inside and defile a person.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Andrew.

I'm one of the pastors here.

And why don't we go before the Lord before we turn to his word.

Father, we pray that you would make much of your son, Jesus Christ,

in the preaching of your word, that we would behold him as our great high priest,

whose name is love.

The spotless, risen Lamb of God,

who in our place bore the punishment that we deserved,

and has given us his righteousness by faith.

We so savor that reality in Christ this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right.

Well, we have been in Mark's gospel.

We've been following Jesus through this gospel,

and he's been doing a lot of incredible things.

Last week, we saw how he fed over 5,000 people.

And so at this point in the narrative, in Mark chapter 7,

Mark 7 · chapter mention

Jesus has developed, as you might imagine, quite a following, quite a reputation.

So great is his reputation in this, at this point in the story,

that verse 1 tells us that there are some members from the Jewish religious establishment,

the Pharisees, and even some teachers of the law who came all the way into Galilee in the north,

from the south in Jerusalem,

because Jesus had gotten their attention.

And in particular, they're concerned about the kinds of disciples that Jesus is making.

Because, see, Jesus, his disciples are behaving quite contrary to the kinds of disciples that the Pharisees were making.

And the point of contention that we're looking at today has to do with a matter of cleanliness.

All right?

Cleanliness, and not like hygiene, but spiritual, ritual cleanliness.

In the eyes of the Pharisees, in the eyes of these teachers of the law who came all the way from the temple in Jerusalem,

Jesus' disciples were unclean because, why?

As it says in verse 2, they were eating with unwashed hands.

Oh, no.

All right.

Now, I'm going to talk more about that and what's going on in the minds of the Pharisees

and why this is such a big deal to them.

But before I lose some of you, in case some of you are thinking that this story is just some irrelevant religious dispute

about cleansing rituals between some ancient Jewish teachers 2,000 years ago,

can I just ask you to just lean in and hang on and just have an open mind?

Because I promise this really is more relevant than you might think.

Even if you're here today and you couldn't care less about Jewish ritual cleansings,

can I just ask you again, if you're here today and maybe you couldn't care less about being clean in the eyes of the God of Abraham,

Isaac, and Moses, let me ask you this.

Is it not true that we all still do want to be clean in at least some sense?

Like clean in the eyes of someone or something.

We all do, right?

High schoolers in the room, you're not going to go on a date, all right, without taking a shower, all right?

You're not going to clean up before your first job interview.

And not just in like a physical sense of cleanliness.

We all want to be clean in every sense.

We want a clean conscience.

We want a clean record, a clean reputation, a clean bill of health.

We all want to be clean.

And sure, we all may have, excuse me, different ideas of what it means to be clean versus unclean.

But make no mistake, all of us, all of us operate within this duality, this dichotomy.

This is clean and that is not clean.

This is pure and sacred and right and that is vile and filthy and defiled.

At some point,

excuse me,

at some point, we all recognize this duality, these two categories, clean and unclean.

And however we understand that distinction and wherever we draw those lines,

what is true of each and every one of us is that we're all following what we believe will get us into the clean category, right?

The good category, the pure category, the just category, the category of the good guys.

Whether it's in the eyes of God or whatever divine being we believe in or any other credible court of opinion,

we're all trying to be clean rather than unclean.

And this is because being made in God's image,

we have a sense, we have an inherent affinity toward cleanliness.

It's what we were made to be.

We were made to be clean.

And at the same time, ever since we chose our way over God's way,

every day we see all around us and even in ourselves so much evidence of filth and uncleanness.

Things we know must make our maker gag.

Because of the way that we've wrongly treated this world,

because of the way we've wrongly treated one another, who are made in God's image,

there's so much that seems so soiled around us,

so much that seems so far from what it ought to be.

And so like our maker, as those also made in the image of God, we gag too, don't we?

And then even those of us who don't believe in this maker,

we all, we are all trying and trying and trying and trying to rid this world,

to rid our lands, to rid our society, to rid ourselves of all that we believe to be unclean.

It's a natural thing for humans to do.

We all want and we all seek to be clean and to get rid of what is unclean.

So you see, we're not actually so different than the Pharisees and the teachers of the law here

who are confronting Jesus about the uncleanness of his disciples.

They cared about cleanness as far as they understood it.

And so do we.

So do we.

They wanted to be clean too, and with good reason,

probably better reasons than a lot of us have for the kinds of cleannesses that we pursue.

They were pursuing cleanness before God.

The Pharisees were trying to live and lead the people of Israel into a national and spiritual purity

in the eyes of Yahweh.

In many ways, this was their solemn act of repentance,

an earnest effort to be clean and pleasing to their holy God.

Their pursuit of cleanness,

it came from their acknowledgement that the whole reason God had allowed their nation to go into exile

and the whole reason they were still under occupation under the Roman Empire

was because they had become unclean.

They'd disregarded the law of God and God's will for their lives.

So honestly, the Pharisees had regard for the holiness and the purity of God

that I sometimes dream that we would have as modern Bay Area Christians.

Like, I wish we were as zealous for the Word of God and for studying the Word of God as these Pharisees.

I wish we hated immorality and impiety as much as the Pharisees.

And in so many ways, I wish we were as careful as they were to keep clean,

to observe the holy commands of our holy God.

You see, that's where this big dispute came from.

It's because they had such a high regard for the commands of God.

In the law of Moses, in Exodus chapter 30, verse 17,

Exodus 30:17

when God is giving Israel instructions for how His priests are to approach Him,

God says to Moses,

Make a bronze basin for washing.

Place it between the tent of meeting and the altar,

and then put water in it.

And then He says,

Aaron and his sons, who are the priests,

Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from this basin.

Whenever they enter the tent of meeting, that's where they met God,

they shall wash with water so that they will not die.

And so the message being communicated here is God is so holy

that if you are unclean in His presence, you will die.

Why?

Because He cannot and will not tolerate and abide uncleanness.

So what the Pharisees, and it says in verse 3,

what all the Jews at this point decided to do,

what kind of tradition came up and was handed down for many generations at this point,

happened was they decided not just to make sure that their priests were clean

when they went to the temple,

but they decided let's put a fence even around that

and make sure we're all clean all the time.

Let's wash our hands all the time.

Wherever they're coming from, verse 4, coming from the marketplace,

wherever, they committed to always washing their hands,

and not just their hands, but their cups and their pitchers and their kettles

and who knows what other washing traditions they had.

But again, it was all to be as clean as possible before God,

which to them was the ultimate, most highest, most important kind of cleanliness.

They wanted to uphold this instruction given to Moses and Aaron,

and they put this fence of traditions and rules around it

to make sure they never broke the law and became unclean again.

So you can see, right, you can hopefully appreciate,

you have to have some respect for the intention here that these Pharisees had.

You know, we usually easily write these Pharisees off as self-righteous and narrow-minded

and legalistic, dogmatic, you know, just evil, one-dimensional bad guys.

But no, there's a vigilance here.

There is a reverence even for God and His purity that I wish that I had,

that I wish we as a church had ourselves.

And that's the background we need as we come into this passage,

as we approach verse 5 here,

where the Pharisees and the teachers of the law confront Jesus.

And they ask Him,

why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders

instead of eating their food with defiled hands?

The Pharisees are critiquing Jesus' discipleship.

They're critiquing Jesus' way of making faithful followers of Yahweh.

See, for the Pharisees and the teachers of the law

and for generations of elders who had gone before them,

ever since Israel's return from exile,

they'd devoted their whole lives to pursuing cleanness,

never to have to go into exile again.

They've devoted their whole lives to being clean and to washing their hands.

And in their minds, the very salvation and liberation and restoration of their people

depended on them making disciples who also washed their hands

for the sake of national cleanliness.

And yet here, they found in Jesus a different kind of discipleship,

a different way, a way that they could only perceive to be wrong and defiled.

And yet for reasons that I hope to make explicit,

Jesus, He doesn't see it that way at all.

And so the question is why?

Why not?

Is it because Jesus has a lower regard for the holiness

and the purity of God than the Pharisees?

Is it because Jesus doesn't care about ritual and ceremonial cleanness?

Or is it because Jesus is anti-tradition?

Well, no, no, and no.

No one had a higher view of the holiness of God than Jesus.

Remember what He said on the Sermon on the Mount?

He said,

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The same with ritual and ceremonial cleanness.

He had a high regard for that.

He said,

Not one jaw or tittle of the law will be abolished.

And He told the lepers He healed to make sure they went and showed themselves to the priests

according to the law of Moses.

And with regard to tradition, I mean, Jesus was the ultimate Jewish person.

He loved tradition.

He left traditions for us.

He's not anti-tradition.

No, Jesus had no problem with a high view of God's holiness.

He had no problem with the importance of cleanness before God.

And He definitely isn't anti-tradition.

But upon close inspection of what's going on in this encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees,

we find that even if the original intentions behind the Pharisees' traditions were admirably

in pursuit of cleanness before God,

Jesus perceived in these Pharisees three problematic things about their cleansing tradition.

Three things that we all need to watch out for ourselves

as people seeking our own kinds of cleanness.

The first is that they had a presumptuous sense of authority.

The second is that they had a self-serving pietism.

And the third is that they had a heartless, externalized religiosity.

A presumptuous sense of authority, a self-serving pietism,

and a heartless, externalized religion.

Look with me at verses 7 and 8.

The first thing I want you to notice is how Jesus rebukes the Pharisees

for presumptuously elevating their own dogma and doctrine and authority

above God's revealed commands.

Quoting from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus says,

They worship me in vain.

Their teachings are merely human rules.

You have let go of, or this can be translated,

you have abandoned, neglected, forsaken the commands of God,

and you're holding on to human traditions.

Again, Jesus doesn't have a problem with tradition in and of itself,

and neither should we actually.

No human society and culture could function without traditions.

They help bring order and stability and predictability.

They form and shape us in many positive ways.

They bring protection, and they bring consistency.

One tradition I'm aware of is, you know, Mike Francis,

Pastor Mike, Maria's husband in the back.

When he was pastoring out in Florida,

one tradition that he had to maintain his integrity as a pastor

is that on Saturday, in preparation for the Lord's Day,

he would not watch any movies or any shows,

lest his eyes fall upon something that might make him stumble

or distract him from his preaching and pastoral ministry the following day.

You know, I admire him deeply for that commitment,

for that tradition that he took on in his life.

But at the same time, Pastor Mike also knew better

than to say that every pastor had to live in that way

in order to be a clean, righteous, faithful preacher

and pastor in the eyes of God.

Because Pastor Mike knew, right?

He knew the difference between,

thus saith the Lord, and thus saith Pastor Mike, right?

We have to distinguish.

We have to distinguish between what God says and what others say.

We have to understand that there's a vast difference

in the authority between even a pastor and what God says.

What God says is ultimate.

What humans say is not.

And this is such an important thing for us to discern

and remember as we talk about discipleship in this church.

You know, there is a church not far from here.

They're actually quite excellent at discipleship.

I envy their discipleship culture in many ways.

They've led many people into deeper relationships with Christ.

But there are stories of how they've gone overboard

in their approach to follow me as I follow Christ.

For example, there are stories about leaders in this church

saying you can or cannot date this person.

Oh, you're going to buy a new vehicle.

You should buy this minivan and only that one.

And you know, they're not maybe not exactly saying,

thus saith the Lord,

but they're insisting on these things with such pressure

and with such authority

that many of their followers have felt like

to make any other decision would be to sin against God,

to rebel against God,

and to do something that is wicked in God's eyes.

And I'm sure, you know,

these leaders probably had good reasons

why they commended or didn't recommend certain people to date

or why they thought, you know,

a Dodge Caravan is the one to go for.

All right?

Maybe it's good to serve the church,

drive a lot of people to church.

I don't know.

But I think this kind of elevation over,

this elevation of tradition

over the explicit commands of Scripture

is exactly what Jesus is warning against.

And this is actually why we so often plead

with you, our congregation,

to be in your Bibles,

to read your Bibles,

to know your Bibles.

It's so that you can discern

what God says

versus what mere humans say.

This is what Jesus was doing.

Look at how he distinguishes

the different sources of authority

here in verse 6.

Whereas the Pharisees are quoting their elders,

right?

Jesus quotes to them

the divinely inspired prophet Isaiah.

And then in verse 10,

he says,

Moses, right?

He says,

Moses says,

but you say.

He's showing that there's a difference

in who says what

and who has the authority.

And this, again,

is so important

because inside and outside the church,

everyone and everything around us

is constantly trying to make us

its disciple,

trying to convince us

that their way is the way

to become clean and whole.

But just as Jesus submitted himself

only to the Father's will,

only to the revealed authority

of the Scriptures,

so must we submit ourselves

to the Scriptures.

Jesus had an incredibly high view

of the Bible

as the very Word of God

and so must we.

So discipleship under Jesus

demands that we constantly distinguish

between he said,

she said,

we said,

and thus saith the Lord.

What was Jesus always saying?

It is written.

It is written.

Now, the problem wasn't just

that the Pharisees

didn't have a high enough view

of Scripture

or that they elevated

their tradition too high.

They were also expressing

their piety

in a way that was incredibly

self-serving

rather than God-honoring

and loving

toward their neighbors.

Look with me now

at verses 9 through 13.

For the sake of time,

I'm just going to read verse 9

and then explain

what Jesus is talking about here.

He says,

you have a fine way

of setting aside

the commands of God

in order to observe

your own traditions.

So Jesus gives this example

of how the Pharisees

not only elevated

their tradition

above God's command,

but they also used it

to serve themselves,

all in the name

of being religious

and pious.

So basically,

there was this thing

that they would do

where they would dedicate

something to God.

Let's just imagine.

Maybe they say,

I'm going to dedicate

this cow to God.

And by saying,

this cow is dedicated

to God,

they were also making a vow

not to give that cow

to any other person

or any other cause.

So even if something

might happen,

what they had dedicated

was this cow

and they might continue

to enjoy the milk

for themselves,

but let's say maybe

their parents came

into a financial hardship.

And they might have

been helped by the milk

or even by the sale

of the whole cow.

Well, the Pharisees

would say,

sorry,

I actually cannot

take care of you

with this cow,

mom and dad.

It's dedicated

to the Lord.

I can enjoy its milk,

but I can't share it

with you

because I made

a holy vow.

And thus,

by upholding

this tradition

that wasn't even

in the law of Moses,

other than maybe

Moses commending people

to keep their promises,

they gave themselves

a reason to break

the explicit commandment,

the fifth commandment,

honor your father

and your mother.

And it wasn't just

their parents

who they were failing

to love and honor

in the name of

this pietism.

This tradition of theirs

also gave them

a sense of superiority.

Superiority over all those

who didn't uphold

these traditions

that they insisted upon.

Through the lens

of their made-up tradition,

the Pharisees felt justified

in judging

and condemning

Jesus' disciples

and anyone else

who didn't uphold

their hand-washing rule

gave them

a judgmental rubric

by which to consider

others as defiled

and unclean.

They came to Jesus,

why did they eat

with defiled hands?

They asked Jesus

about his disciples.

See, their tradition,

which began

with good intentions,

it became a tool,

a tool for them

not only to serve themselves

and dishonor

their parents,

but also to condemn

others as inferior

and unclean.

And see,

this is always

what happens

when we elevate

human customs

and traditions

to dogmas

that are higher

and contrary

to Scripture.

We end up

dehumanizing people

because the motivation

always goes rotten.

Jesus saw through

the Pharisees'

fake piety.

This wasn't about

preserving holiness,

it was about preserving

their status

and their supremacy.

Pharisee.

And maybe up to this point

you're thinking to yourself,

well, I don't follow

any religious traditions

so this doesn't apply to me.

I'm no Pharisee.

But don't you see,

you don't have to be religious

to be Pharisaical.

And you don't have to be religious

to use tradition

as a way to try

to clean yourself

and distinguish yourself

from unclean other people.

Every single one of us,

whether we're religious

or not,

we're all trying to be clean

according to some standard

and we all commit ourselves

to various traditions

that we believe

will help us to be clean.

Why do we study

and work so hard

often at the expense

of serving the church

or our relationships

with God

or with other people

in our lives?

Why are we so obsessed

with how we look?

Why do we want to be

so sleek and slim

and young and beautiful

following the tradition

or program of this or that

fitness or nutrition expert?

We're trying to be clean.

We're trying to be clean

and not only that,

we're also trying to clean

the world around us,

aren't we?

Another side of the coin

is we're also trying

to get rid of the uncleanness

in ourselves

and all around us.

Why do we harbor such malice

or disgust

toward those who live differently,

think differently,

vote differently than us?

It's because they're unclean to us.

And maybe we're even trying

to cleanse them.

Maybe we're trying

to make them more like us

or maybe even get rid of them.

I mean, this is what's happening

all over the world

on macro and micro levels.

Individuals and whole people groups

claiming to be clean

because they live

by a certain code

and based on their

deeply ingrained way of life,

based on their tradition,

those who don't live their way

are deemed as unclean.

This is the root

of every person-to-person

malice and disrespect

and it's the same root

that leads to genocide.

People believing they're clean

because they live up

to their own traditions

and hating or even seeking

to cleanse this world

of those who are unclean

according to these same

made-up traditions

that are not of God.

This is what happens

when tradition is elevated

to ultimate authority.

In the name of this

ultimate authority,

people believe

they have the right

to make ultimate declarations

and judgments upon others.

This is what happens

in every instance

of human-constructed discipleship.

This presumptuous sense

of authority

and self-serving pietism

always resulting in war

and conflict

and hatred

and dehumanization

and violence

because all these evils

find justification

from these man-made,

made-up traditions

that people cling to

in order to purify themselves

and convince themselves

that they are better

than others

who need to be cleansed

out of this world.

So don't you see?

Like us all,

the Pharisees

weren't really about

being clean God's way.

They were merely preoccupied

with their own

contrived self-cleansing,

world-cleansing projects.

And when you see it this way,

that they were elevating

their tradition

above God's commands

and weaponizing

their tradition

to keep themselves

in the clean category

and judge others,

you begin to see

that whereas we tend

to think of Pharisees

as these religious extremists

who took God's holiness

and purity

too seriously,

no, the problem,

the problem was actually

that they weren't

taking it seriously enough.

By living according

to their own tradition

above God's law,

excuse me,

by setting their own

standard of cleanness,

one which they could pass

and yet they knew

others could not pass,

they were actually

adjusting the goalposts

and just making it

suit their own strengths

and preferences.

They were making

God's holy standards

achievable.

They were saying

perfection was possible

so long as you change

and copy them externally.

But this leads me

to the last

and most important problem

that Jesus perceives

in the Pharisees,

it's their hearts.

Look with me at verse 6.

He replied,

Isaiah was right

when he prophesied

about you hypocrites.

As it is written,

these people honor me

with their lips

but their hearts

are far from me.

Jesus is saying

that just because

you do this supposedly

pious religious act,

it doesn't mean

your heart

is in the right place.

You can say

and think you're honoring me

but your hearts

can be far,

far,

far from me.

This is a word

for us, Christ Church.

In this season

where we're pursuing

discipleship,

pursuing a particular way

of following Jesus

in this season

where we're promoting

spiritual disciplines

where we have

scripture reading plans

and prayer vigils

and all these things

that we promote.

Worship plus three.

We want you to be here

in corporate worship.

We want you to be serving

in this church.

We want you to have

a touch point

with this community

outside of Sundays

and we want you to be

in some kind of

discipleship relationship

where there's

spiritual responsibility.

Jesus will remind us

that you can do

worship plus three here

but your heart

can still be far

from God.

Your heart

can still be far

from God

and this should be

sobering to all of us.

I've caught my own self

in this in this past

month and a half.

You know,

I love Tim Keller.

He's one of my heroes

and I read on Twitter

that his scripture

reading plan

was the McShane plan

plus the Book

of Common Prayers

Psalms.

So he would read

the Old Testament

once a year,

the New Testament

twice in one year

and he would read

the Psalms

once a month.

So 12 times a year.

So I've been on that.

All right?

And I'm not better for it.

I'll tell you that.

I thought to myself,

maybe if I just

follow this tradition,

maybe if I just

follow this formula,

I'll be the godly,

wise, compelling pastor

that Tim Keller was.

Maybe that's the way

to greatness.

But honestly,

on more days than not,

I'm just flying through this.

No idea what I'm reading.

Just to cross it off,

my spiritual to-do list.

Honoring God

with my spiritual checklist,

with my heart

far from him.

And yes,

it's important.

These holy habits

that we're trying

to instill

in our church.

It's important

to try on

these various traditions.

But at the end

of the day,

how are our hearts?

How are our hearts?

Are they near to

or far

from Jesus?

At the very end

of the day,

that's what Jesus

is after.

He's after our hearts,

not just our hands,

not just our heads,

but our hearts

from which everything

flows, he says.

And maybe to some of you,

this sounds like a relief.

Like, phew, good.

I could never keep up

the demands of Scripture,

but at least I have

a good heart.

If that's what you're

thinking right now,

Jesus has something else

to say to you.

Verse 14,

listen to me, everyone,

and understand this.

Nothing outside a person

can defile them

by going into them.

Not even Tim Keller's

Scripture reading plan.

Rather,

it is what comes

out of a person

that defiles them.

I'm going to skip

to verse 21.

For it is from within,

out of a person's heart,

that evil thoughts come.

And he lists all those

different kinds

that we're all guilty of.

All these evils

come from inside

and defile a person.

Thus saith the Lord Jesus.

When Jesus said this,

it wasn't supposed

to be a relief to us.

What Jesus was saying

was that the Pharisees

and anyone who would

seek to be clean,

anyone who would seek

to clean themselves

by external means,

yo, we're in trouble.

That's our method.

Because the problem

isn't primarily

outside of us

as though we're simply

victims of sin

with uncleanness

coming at us

from the outside

to infect us.

No, evil doesn't just

come at us

from the outside.

More importantly,

Jesus says,

it comes from within us,

from the inside.

And this is why

no external religious tradition

will do to make us clean.

We have an internal problem,

a heart problem,

every single one of us.

And so the question is,

well then how do we fix that?

How do we get clean hearts?

Especially if we can't

clean ourselves

from the outside.

Has anyone here

ever tried to change

their heart,

change their will?

How'd that turn out

for you?

And what's even more

troubling here

is that here in Mark 7,

Jesus just ends,

that's where the passage

ends for us today.

He lets us linger

in this hard news

that the problem

is our hearts.

And he doesn't give us

an answer here

for what to do about it.

But if you think about it,

if you think about it,

this message

that the problem

is our hearts,

this is at the same time

both the bad news

and the good news

of the gospel.

That we cannot

clean ourselves

and yet

that we don't need

to clean ourselves

because there's

a gracious God

who can

and who will

if we trust him.

The Pharisees tried

oh so hard

to cleanse themselves

through tradition

and rule following

because they wanted

to avoid

another exile

and we are all

trying so hard

ourselves, right,

to avoid all kinds

of uncleanness

because we want

to avoid all kinds

of exiles as well.

And the truth is

we're all exhausted,

aren't we?

Trying to live up

to all these

different standards

and it's not

making us live,

it's not making us,

it's not likely

life-giving for us,

it's not making us

compassionate

or even clean people

and we still feel

the threat of exile

every day,

don't we?

But you know

the prophet Ezekiel,

he said something

to unclean Israel

after they'd

gone into exile,

after they'd

made themselves

unclean

by disregarding

the law of God.

The word of God

still came to them

even though

they never deserved it

and it was

a gracious word.

through the prophet

Ezekiel,

God said to these

unclean people

in exile,

he said,

I will sprinkle

clean water on you

and you will be clean.

I will cleanse you

from your impurities.

I will give you

a new heart

and put a new spirit

in you.

I will remove

your heart of stone

and give you

a heart of flesh

and I will put

my spirit in you

and move you

to follow

my decrees

and be careful

to keep my laws.

And you see,

this is the gospel.

This is the gospel

that Jesus

was hinting at

by pointing them

to the problem

of their hearts

that while we could

never clean ourselves,

God can

and will to

and plan to

to clean

his beloved people

who just trust him

by faith

and not in some

quick, easy,

inexpensive,

uncostly way.

No.

At the cost of his son.

The blood of his son

on a cross

for us

with his priceless,

innocent blood

bearing our curse,

bearing our sins,

bearing our uncleanness,

going on a cross,

becoming unclean,

being covered in spit

and hate

and curse

to the place

of unclean death

so that we might be clean,

so that we might become

the righteousness

of God.

And this is the gospel.

This is the gospel

and this gospel

is the inexhaustible fuel

for the discipleship

that we're seeking

here at Christ Church,

the inexhaustible fuel

for the discipleship

that Jesus calls us to.

So different

than any other

kind of discipleship

that anyone else

could offer.

We are invited

to follow a master

who exists

not to forever

command us

do, do, do, do, do, do.

No.

We're inviolate.

We're invited

to follow a king

who said from his cross,

it is done.

That is what

the core of discipleship

is about.

Yes, it's about

following Jesus.

Yes, it's about obedience.

But we love

because he first

loved us.

We deny ourselves

and we take up

our cross

following the Savior

who took up

his cross

first

for us.

Will you pray with me?

Lord, we want

to follow Jesus.

He is a better king

and we thank you

that he has said

it is done.

In his name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.