Dirty Dishes

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Cleaning the Outside

Luke 11:37–44 ESV

While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

INTRODUCTION - WOKE VIRTUE SIGNALLING

Corporations and rainbow flags, or racial justice, or whatever the latest fad is.

Most of us hate these things for two reasons:

ONE - We think they are immoral nonsense

TWO - We suspect the people doing them are only doing them for show and don’t actually care about the People.

The one thing I’m sure is that the executives of Qantas, or, Telstra, or Woolworths don’t actually care about anything but profit.

If woolworths was really so righteous, they’d stop robbing farmers.

AFL - WELCOME TO COUNTRY - but sponsored by gambling and alchohol

Or the Pope who called rejecting migrants a “grave sin” even though his own country, the Vatican, has zero migrants and a zero tolerance for immigration.

Today, I will read from Luke 11:37-12:3

And a key verse is 12:1 - “Beware of the leaven (yeast) of the Pharisees, which is Hypocrisy.”

Hypocrisy or “Virtue Signalling”.

Attempting to prove that we are good, to signal to others that we have virtue by doing rituals or external displays of righteousness.

Hypocrisy never deals with the actual state of our heart. Nor does it make us change our ways.

Hypocrisy simply ticks a box, does a ritual, says a slogan, without really meaning it.

Immigration man who refuses immigrants.

Jesus says it’s washing the outside of the cup, and ignoring the inside!

But who cares if the outside of a cup is clean if the inside is full mold and muck? I might drink from the opposite, but I won’t drink from that.

Hypocrisy is a deadly temptation.

It causes us to think more about APPEARING righteous, rather than BEING righteous.

And it’s a burden we aren’t supposed to carry

ONE - THE HYPOCRISY OF DEAD RITUAL

The Pharisees have a tradition - “Wash your hands before you eat”.

But it wasn’t about hygiene, it was about religious purity.

The washing ceremony was meant to make a person, who had been defiled by a day in the world, clean before God.

The Law of Moses commanded certain washing - but by the time of Jesus, the Pharisees had become obsessed. They had become more concerned about the washing, than about the reason for the washing.

The Old Covenant washing was meant to illustrate that we need cleansing from sin, and was meant to be part of the way the Israelites approached God.

But the Pharisees washed for the sake of washing, they didn’t seek God. They only sought a bath.

Jesus doesn’t wash before dinner.

And, there is at least one good reason: He wasn’t dirty. He hadn’t sinned!

But the Pharisee is offended! How dare he overlook this act!

Again, the Pharisees had forgotten the purpose of the ceremony, and were obsessed with the ceremony.

There is an episode of Seinfeld,where Kramer goes on a walk in support of Aids Victims. But he doesn’t want to wear a ribbon. Someone says, “You don’t wear a ribbon? Aren’t you against Aids?” And Kramer says, “Yeah I’m against Aids. I’m Walking aren’t I? I just don’t wear a ribbon.” At the end, they all beat him up for not wearing the ribbon.

It’s like If I go for the walk, I don’t need the ribbon. And if I’m not dirty, I don’t need a wash.

At this point, Jesus launches an attack.

Luke 11:39–41 (ESV)

And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.

“Ok, You Pharisees are Extremely worried about the external rituals.

But you don’t seem to care about rue righteousness.

Oh, you wash your hands from the dirt and muck of the day, but you don’t wash your hearts of sin! You are full of greed and wickedness!

Don’t you see, that if you were clean, you wouldn’t need to wash?”

PARALLEL STORY IN MATTHEW

Matthew 15:1–9 ESV

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Again, the Pharisees are upset that the disciples break a tradition.

But, they are much less worried about their own breaking of a command.

RITUAL IS EASIER THAN RIGHTEOUSNESS (REPEAT)

It’s much easier to wear the ribbon, or to say to the welcome, or to fly the flag, or to wash your hands than it is to repent and walk in the ways of God.

Of course, deep down, we know we aren’t good. We know we are failing.

But, the best defence is offence - so we start pointing the finger and criticising others. “They aren’t doing what I’m doing! They aren’t doing the ritual, so they must be unrighteous.”

Now, needless to say, rituals, traditions aren’t unimportant.

Today, I’m not talking to those fools who say “I don’t go to church, I don’t take communion, I don’t tithe, I’m just too busy being a follower of Jesus.” That’s like almost never true.

Jesus spent time with the Pharisees because he knew they were trying! In fact, we know that Jesus was closest to the Pharisees in teaching and practice. It’s just that he cared more about the heart and true righteousness than empty rituals.

JESUS GIVES THREE WARNINGS FOR HYPOCRISY.

1. Dead Acts. you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God.

Again, this is the hypocrisy of doing one good ritual to sort of “cover over” your sin.

Tithing is Good, Jesus says that right here, but if you tithe a tenth of all you earn, but rip of your customers, or lie to your boss, or fail to love your neighbour the tithe doesn’t fix that.

If you set up a direct debit for your tithe, but never actually worship or love God, it’s empty!

Tithing is meant to be a Holy and Beautiful expression of a heart that loves God, and trusts Him fully and cares for His kingdom. It’s not meant to be an empty gesture to wallpaper a rotten heart.

Another Example: Fasting

Isaiah 58:5–8 ESV

Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Fasting and Tithing are ancient and fundamental practices of godly people.

God delights in them, and Jesus expected us to do it. And, in my observation, we struggle to mature in our faith unless we are willing to practice these spiritual disciplines.

But, we can tithe and fast and go to church and do it all, and it will be useless if we don’t also learn to love God and people.

2. The Love of Praise. you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

What’s the root of Hypocrisy? Doing our righteousness for others.

Using “goodness” or “spirituality” or “virtue” as a way to impress others.

Often, hypocrisy is a cover. We know that if people could see our secret thoughts and habits, we’d be ashamed.

Washing hands was a visible sign that you were a good person - Washing your heart, is often invisible.

True Righteousness might not get us praise by men.

In fact, it might lose us praise. Standing up for truth. Doing the right thing often costs us.

Virtually every great man or woman of God was resisted by other believers.

3. Unmarked Graves you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it

Jews were defiled by contact with a grave. So they would mark the grave, or whitewash the top so that nobody would accidentally walk over it.

The end result of Hypocrisy is that we are full of dead bones, spreading death to others.

We become more concerned about calling out others deviations from our expected pattern than learning to live in righteousness ourselves.

TWO - THE HYPOCRISY OF THE EXPERTS

Jesus has just slammed the Pharisees, and a Lawyer pipes up

Luke 11:45–52 ESV

One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

That did not go as he planned.

Jesus now attacks another kind of hypocrisy - the hypocrisy of knowledge without action.

They say, “if you can’t do, teach” and that’s not always true, but in this case it was.

The lawyers had no love for God, they just liked knowing, and debating, and being experts.

Today, in an information age, we can all be experts (or at least try).

And there’s nothing wrong with knowing and learning - UNLESS it becomes a subistitue for righteousness.

We can easily be Bible experts but not followers of Jesus.

JESUS GIVES THREE WARNINGS TO THE LAWYERS AND EXPERTS

1. Heavy Burdens - you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

The legal experts were incredibly detailed about what people had to do tofollow the law. Exactly how many steps they could take on the sabbath etc

They loved to teach the Law, and tell people all the things they had to do. But they didn’t love the people.

I was at an outreach event where a group of people had gathered for prayer and to share the gospel with others. A guy came along, supposedly a Christian, but all he wanted to do was debate people. He was wandering around, looking for leaders etc.

That’s useless!

1 Corinthians 8:1 (ESV)

“knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

Righteousness demands that I desire to help others.

Jesus was a teacher. Paul was an expert. But they were motivated by love.

They weren’t trying to cover over a lack of personal holiness by bashing everyone over the head with their knowledge.

We are called to imitate Jesus who said Matthew 11:28-29

Matthew 11:28–29 (ESV)

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

2. Celebrating the Past over Obeying in the present.

Luke 11:47–50 ESV

Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation,

Jordan Peterson observing about the Holocaust.

It’s good to celebrate the past, it’s good to be inspired by heroes of the faith. But, we also have to take on the same principles of faith and obedience as thsoe people.

So often, the very people who are the most excited by the great heroes, end up acting like the people who persecuted them.

Why? Because knowledge of the past is not a substitute for obedience in the present.

3. Pulling Up the Ladder - For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

The Lawyers made understanding God’s word so complex, so difficult that the average person gave up.

Some things are hard to understand! Some things require an expert.

But we can have the attitude of one who uses our skill and expertise to open the door to others. Or we can use it to puff ourselves up, and allow nobody inside.

CLOSING - ANTIDOTE TO HYPOCRISY

What’s the cure? I think it’s HUMBLE OBEDIENCE.

HUMILTY

I think most of us are aware that we aren’t as good as we’d like to be.

We wake every morning with some awareness of our faults.

Now, Hypocrisy wakes up ands says - “I’ll prove I’m good enough”

Maybe I’m not a very good husband, and yesterday I yelled at my wife -

but don’t worry, because I’ll now go and do a big religious show and that will prove to everyone that I’m a good person!

AND, I’ll also check up on how everyone else is going, because if they aren’t going well, I’ll feel better about myself!

Hypocrisy builds a burden and a wall.

It builds a burden, because proving to ourselves and others that we are righteous gets harder and harder and more complex.

And a wall, because instead of honestly dealing with God and People, we build a tower of rules and regulations which we hide behind.

And all of it is powerless. Notice, that I may have done a hundred religious things, but I haven’t apologised to my wife or fixed things with her.

Humility wakes up says, “Oops, I need forgiveness and grace.”

God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

SAUL VS DAVID - Saul sins, “Let me do the sacrifice so that people will like me”

David sins, “Create in me a clean heart, O, God.”

Jesus said:

Luke 12:2–3 ESV

Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

God Knows who we are! We can’t hide, and we can’t cover ourselves with a fig leaf of Hypocrisy.

But good news, He has mercy on us!

Humility then leads to TRUE OBEDIENCE

GOD HAS THINGS FOR YOU TO DO.

The thing that’s often hardest and most unrecognised.

And GOD WILL GIVE GRACE

To those who honestly seek to obey,