Vain vs True Worship of God

So Jesus has just fed 5000+ people from a kids playlunch. He’s just walked on water in the midst of a violent storm, and displayed his complete authority over nature. And the disciples have responded by worshipping him, saying “truly, you are the Son of God” (14:33). He’s just drawn a crowd of sick people who all get healed just by touching the edge of his garment (14:36). And now we read, “Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem (oh that’s an important place), and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat?” WHAT?? ANYONE PICK UP THAT THIS MIGHT NOT BE THE QUESTION THEY SHOULD BE ASKING? These guys are pro at asking these kind of questions. In the next chapter 16, they come to him again, and they ask Jesus to give them a sign from heaven. WHAT?? And this is just after Matthew records Jesus again feeding a massive crowd of 4000+ people with one bloke’s family meal. Are you spiritually blind like these scribes and Pharisees were? If you’re not asking questions about who Jesus is, what his life, death and resurrection mean for you today, then you’re asking the wrong questions, and you’re still spiritually blind.

Jesus responds in classic fashion. With a question of his own. Don’t you hate it when people answer a question with a question. But most often when our questions are responded to with a question it’s because we’re asking the wrong question, or else we already know or can figure out the answer ourselves. Jesus asks them, “and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honour your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honour his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.

The question they should have been asking is, wow, this man has such compassion on the sick. God prophesied that when the Messiah came the deaf would hear, the blind would see and the lame would leap like deer’s. Is this the Messiah? Is this the promised Saviour King we’ve been waiting for?

But now, they’re spiritually blind. They’ve lost sight of God’s words because of the fog of all their traditions. Originally brought in as a means of assisting to keep God’s words, these traditions came to be known as ‘fencing the law’, so as to prevent the people from even getting close to breaking them.

However do you think our personal God who gave up his only Son so we could be with him is really happy if we go our whole life without breaking one of his laws? Is that what he wants? Of course not. He wants our love. He wants our hearts. And this is what the spiritually blind don’t see. They don’t see that God looks at the heart, not at the outward behaviour. What drives your behaviour? The loves of your heart drive them. Doing all the right religious practices will not make our hearts warm towards God. They will not bring us into a place where we love God more than anything else in the world. Because for most religious people, they do religious things because they love themselves. They’re doing it because they want to get something out of it. Is this you?

So what was going on that Jesus is addressing here? It was the practice called Corban, which is named in Mark’s account of this episode. “Corban was the practice of pledging money to the temple to be paid upon one’s death. That sounds fine, right? It’s like willing some resources to a church or charity. You may have heard the salvos on radio doing this. Well, here’s where the religious tomfoolery and trickery comes in. These funds, since they were set aside for “religious” purposes, could not be used or given to one’s parents in their hour of need. So here is what happened in Jesus’ day. If you wanted to get out of helping your parents in their old age, you could simply declare your goods “given to God.” The sanctified selfishness would be excusable: “Sorry, Mom and Dad, I’d love to help you out. But, you know, all this money I have is ‘Corban.’ I can use it for myself, but whatever is left is going to God. You understand.”[1]

7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

8 “‘This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Do you know it’s possible to worship God in vain. How do we do this? When the reason we’re worshipping is self-motivated. We’re doing it for ourselves. In order to win praise from God and others. Our selfish heart is unchanged. There’s no love for God and others.

10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

What is the core problem with each one of us? We’re defiled on the inside. Eating with unwashed hands, preparing food without gloves on and a hair net, eating Balut, which is a live fertilised duck embryo, haggis. Come on! Jesus goes on to explain to them what my 2 year old son already knows. That food goes into his body, and then he giggles as he says that it comes out as poos and wees.

12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.”16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Jesus is answering one of the biggest philosophical, religious and political questions in our world today. What’s wrong with us? Why can’t we get along as people? Why can’t we care for our planet the way we should? Why so much brokenness. Broken families, broken marriages, broken work relationships, broken political relationships. Why can’t we learn from our checkered history and change?! Why?

What’s the problem with the world?

- - People are intolerant. There is no truth. All truth claims are just power plays to judge, exclude and oppress

- Suffering

- Suffering. Poverty, disease and injustice ruin the world we live in.

- Greed. Because we always want more we fail to live in harmony with nature and each other.

- Greed

- Self-Centredness. People reject their responsibilities, live for themselves and shame their families.

- Self-Centredness

- Moral Failure

- Moral Failure. The world has problems because we fail to do the right thing.

- Messed up love

- Messed up love. We love self or work or status more than God. This is why we create cultures based on money, sex and power that ruin the world and bring God’s judgement.

You and I were made to love God first. What happens if we love God. We listen to God. What happens when we listen to God? We obey God. What happens when we obey God. Our lives, the lives of those around us, and our planet flourishes!

But instead, we love ourselves first. Or we love our tribe first, or we love our investments first.

How can we fix this?

- Clean ourselves up through:

o Politics. We need legislation that promotes sustainability, tackles climate change and ensures justice for all.

o Science. Science will give us the power and wealth we need to end poverty, fight disease, and bring justice for all.

o Science

o Education

o Education. We must promote tolerance and celebrate diversity in every school and through the media.

o Wisdom. There is an order and regularity to life that we need to know and embrace.

o Wisdom

o Moral reformation. We need to obey either the moral law within or the laws God has given humanity.

o Moral reformation

o We can’t fix it! That’s why God came in Christ to reveal himself, expose the true state of our idolatrous hearts, defeat sin’s control over our hearts, give us a new heart and a fresh start to live a life of rightly ordered love, empowered by his Spirit who he places within our new hearts.

o We can’t fix it! That’s why God came in Christ to reveal himself, expose the true state of our idolatrous hearts, defeat sin’s control over our hearts, give us a new heart and a fresh start to live a life of rightly ordered love, empowered by his Spirit who he places within our new hearts.

[1] Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth, ed. R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 421.