You ever hit your sister on the elbow with a hammer? I don’t mean recently. That would be absurd. I mean when you were little. You ever hit your sister on the elbow with a hammer when you were little? Why? Well because some people need hammering that’s why. I mean you can’t just take a fella’s GI Joe with the Kung Fu grip and not expect to be hit on the elbow with a hammer. Well if you ever did hit your sister on the elbow with a hammer then you have also gotten a talking to from your momma. She asked you if hitting your sister on the elbow with a hammer was the Christian thing to do. I hope you didn’t offer an opinion on the matter because momma was asking one of those rhetorical questions. The kind of question where the answer is always “no”. “No!”, momma said, hitting your sister on the elbow with a hammer was not the way a Christian should act.
For some reason, when I was little, I got a lot of talking to from my momma about how a Christian should act. I learned that a Christian makes their bed, brushes their teeth, and eats their vegetables. A Christian doesn’t wear a Metallica T-shirt to church, blow bubble gum bubbles during the sermon, or pass notes to a girlfriend during the offering. A Christian doesn’t drive a car without a license (apparently even down a country dirt road), they don’t roll their neighbor’s yard with toilet paper, and they absolutely do not sneak out of their dorm room late at night and pile snow 4 feet deep in front of the doors of the vice president of the school’s house so that he has to crawl out one of his window the next morning; no sir that is no way for a Christian to act.
Over the years and after a great deal of effort from our mammas, most of us eventually learn how to act like Christians should act. On any given Sunday, this building is full of people acting like Christians (I haven’t seen a single one of you chasing another around the church with a hammer). Our mommas would be proud.
In our gospel lesson for today we come across a group of people whose mommas must have been extremely proud. In Mark 7:1-4 we read, “1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and 2 saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 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.)”. These folks really knew how to act like Christians. In addition to the Ten Commandments, God had given them the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law was meant to foreshadow God’s plan of salvation that would be fulfilled in Jesus. In Colossians 2:17 saint Paul says, “These [ceremonial laws] are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” In addition to these ceremonial laws the Jewish people added the חומרה (khumra), what we might call hedge laws. These laws were an elaborate system of rules and practices that were meant to keep people as far away from sin as possible (like a fence around a house). For example, according to the Old Testament ceremonial law, certain foods and animals were declared unclean. People, objects, and places could acquire uncleanness through contact with anything unclean. However, the Old Testament said nothing about a person becoming unclean because they didn’t wash their hands. The חומרה (khumra), on the other hand, stipulated how much water was to be used and how that water was to be applied (it had to reach a certain spot on your wrist) in order for you to be clean.
The חומרה (khumra) made it easy to tell who was acting like a Christian and who wasn’t. In verse 5 we read, “5 So the Pharisees and 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 ‘unclean’ hands?” The disciples weren’t acting very Christian. Surely their mommas taught them that a good Christian washes their hands before dinner and yet here these fellas were eating with hands that were ‘unclean’, that is unwashed. No sir, not very Christian-like.
Now we tend to shake our heads at the Pharisees and say they are taking things too far. We disapprove of them determining how Christian a person is based on how well that person follows their man-made rules and regulations. Clearly the amount of water a person uses and how that water is applied does not determine whether or not a person is a Christian. Everybody knows what determines whether or not a person is Christian is what they drink. A good Christian doesn’t drink any whiskey, a better Christian doesn’t drink any beer, and the best kind of Christian is the one who doesn’t drink alcohol of any kind. Likewise, everybody knows that a good Christian doesn’t smoke, a better Christian doesn’t vape, and the best kind of Christian doesn’t use tobacco of any kind. Furthermore, everybody knows a good Christian doesn’t work on Sunday (unless you are a preacher. Preachers only work on Sunday. It’s O.K. for them.), a better Christian won’t go shopping on a Sunday, and the best kind of Christian goes home after church and watches football on Sunday. Maybe you have different ways of determining what makes a person a good Christian in your family. Maybe it’s the amount of time a person volunteers in the community, or how much they donate to charity, or the number of times they have read the bible. I suppose there can be some variance and variety among us about the details, but we all know how a Christian should act.[1]
In verses 6-7 Jesus replied and replies to those who know how a Christian should act, He says, ““6 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. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” “you hypocrites”. Jesus just called us hypocrites; He said our idea of Christianity is similar to an actor playing a part on a stage. Jesus described our idea of Christianity as vanity; He said it is all smoke and mirrors, lacking any substance or effect. Jesus says, when we try to determine whether or not a person is a Christian based upon either the ancient Jewish חומרה (khumra) or on our modern personal preferences we “have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” It appears Jesus is not a big fan of our Christian acting.
Over the years I have learned, acting like a Christian is not really that difficult. All you really have to do is smile a lot, say things like, “bless your heart”, and bake the occasional casserole for the church potluck. Acting like a Christian is not that difficult, being a Christian, on the other hand, that is an entirely different story. But a Christian is what God calls us to be. God does not call us to act like Christians, God calls us to be Christians. In verses 14-15 we read, “14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’” In verses 21-23 Jesus lists a few examples of what He is talking about. There we read, “21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’” To put an old cliché in our Savior’s mouth, Jesus says it’s what’s on the inside that counts. On the outside, you can play every bit the part of a Christian; flashing your teeth, blessing hearts, and baking casseroles, but if, on the inside, your thoughts are evil, your opinion of others are slanderous, and your service is done with an attitude of arrogance, then your Christianity is nothing more than an act.
My friends, Jesus does not call us to act like Christians, He calls us to be Christians. As I said, being a Christian is a great deal more difficult than acting like a Christian. In fact, you have likely noticed it’s an impossible standard to meet. To an extent, we can control our words and actions, but our thoughts and feelings?!? Deep down we know that no matter how pleasing our performance may be to other people, there is a Critic who evaluates our off-stage performance as well, and the review is not good. And so, we cry out, “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
Our God of grace hears our cry. The Father has sent His Son to not only act like the Christ but to be the Christ for us. Jesus; was CHRISTian inside and out. The Pharisees tried to pressure Jesus into acting like a Christian, but Jesus refused. Jesus did not come from heaven just to act a performance upon humanity’s stage. Jesus came from heaven to be Christian in our place; the sinless Son of God became fully human so that the impossible standard could be met. Jesus came from heaven to pay the price of our sinful play acting, He shed His blood to cleans our hearts and He gave up His breath to renew our spirits. And now God; the Holy Spirit makes us what we could not become on our own. Through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments we become more than actors on a stage, by the grace of God; by the working of the Holy Spirit we have become Christians. As Saint Paul assured the Romans so God assures us “if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”[2]
So, let us be what God has called us to be. Let us rid ourselves of any foolish notion that external adherence to the חומרה (khumra) or any other man-made standard or tradition is how to determine whether or not a person is a Christian. My friends, let us not act like Christians, rather, let us be Christians. Let us do more than smile at each other, let us also love each other with a selfless and sacrificial love. Let us not only bless each other’s hearts, let us also pray for each other’s souls. Let us not only share a casserole with each other, let us offer each other the benefit of the doubt as well. Let us not only refrain from hitting our sisters on the elbow with a hammer, let us go out of our way to hug her neck as well. Let us not act like Christians, rather, let us be what God has called us to be, let us be Christians. God grant it, out of the gratitude of our hearts, and for His glory. Amen
[1] The reader ought to be reassured that I am being sarcastic in this section. I mean to expose the Pharisee that resides in all of us.
[2] Romans 10:9