God’s grace, peace
and mercy be with you. My sermon is entitled Three D’s and my focus is
our Gospel (Mark 7:14-23). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I
rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now
that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we
listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply
as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
Three Ds remind
you of what? Your Defined Daily Dose or Degenerative Disc Disease? Maybe Data
Display Debugger or Digital Divide Data. Perhaps a Three-Dimensional printing
company or Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives? Well, today, my Three Ds
are Defile, Disciples and Declare.
First, defile. The
most common definition for defile is to make unclean or impure, to pollute or
desecrate. It comes to us from the Greek word koinos meaning to make
profane. It’s a word found frequently throughout the Bible. There are 314 passages
in the Old Testament and 49 in the New.
For something to
be defiled, it first must be pure. You can't defile a garbage dump or a messy
room. Defile is often used in a religious context. If you burn a
Bible or spray-paint the walls of a church, you defile a holy book or place.
Jesus spoke about
defilement to the scribes, Pharisees and the people around him. Notice that in
verse 14, Jesus called the people to himself before teaching. Here, (vv 14-23),
Jesus’ criticism is directed against a fundamental principle of the Old
Testament law itself.[1] In verse 15, when Jesus spokes
of defilement, he taught that nothing external to a person can marginalize him
within the reign of God. For example, Jesus touched a leper without hesitation and
was not defiled.[2]
With this in mind, Jesus pushed the limit and relativized the very teachings of
divine, written law in Leviticus 11.
Jesus’ teaching on
defilement would have been truly offensive to any pious Jew. His hearers knew
that a war was fought over such an issue. It was called The Maccabean Revolt.
Now to understand why the Pharisees were be seething with anger, we examine a
study by Pastor Jim Voelz.[3]
The Pharisees were
the spiritual heirs of the Hasidim, traditionalists who sought to keep God’s
Law during the Seleucid occupation of Western Asia, including Jerusalem in the
second century BC. The Hasidim were the backbone of the Maccabean Revolt
(166-160 BC). Seleucid was a dynasty that lasted for about 250 years (312-64 BC).
Its founder was Seleucus Nicator, a general of Alexander the Great. He and his
successors forced people to accept Greek as the common language and culture.
The Hasidim
resisted with their lives the imposition of Greek ways and the concerted
efforts to cancel Jewish beliefs and practices. One Seleucid leader, Antiochus
IV, saw himself to be divine in the manner of Alexander the Great. He was so
arrogant that he even attempted to control the sea, but his inevitable failure
was mocked by Jews.[4]
Antiochus slaughtered thousands of Jews, repressed their religion, compelled
swine sacrifices, profaned the temple with an altar and statue of Zeus, and
destroyed the writings of the Law. The Hasidim could no longer tolerate this.
You can read the
Books of Maccabees to get an understanding of the Pharisees aversion to any
slight against the Law of God or against the traditions their ancestors – the
Hasidim – developed to explain and enhance it. The Pharisees’ devotion to what
they understood to be the will of God makes understandable their strong dislike
for Jesus. His obvious disregard for their interpretation of the Scriptures and
received traditions seemed not only sacrilegious but also reminiscent of what
the Greeks did during the Seleucid Dynasty less than 200 years earlier. It is
difficult for us to understand how radical Jesus’ disregard for things that made
Jews distinctively Jewish actually was. And given the historical background of
the Seleucid occupation, it is important to appreciate how understandable the
Pharisees’ reaction to Jesus was.[5]
With that in mind,
Jesus’ teaching recasts the whole meaning of clean and unclean. External things
– food, lepers, corpses, people – cannot defile a person. Uncleanness comes
from within. He built this upon the teachings of the prophets. We read in the
opening chapter of Isaiah, “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the
fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”[6] The word of the Lord came
to Ezekiel “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land,
they defiled it by their ways and their deeds.”[7]
Evil thoughts,
words and deeds that come out of a person defile us. Yet, we see that the crowd
as well as the scribes and Pharisees did not understand or accept Jesus’
teaching. They were so tightly bound to their interpretation of law and their
traditions, to their ideas, behaviors and lifestyles, that they had no wiggle
room to hear, understand, accept and appropriate a new and radical teaching
such as Jesus’. And that, folks, takes us from defile to disciples.
Unlike the crowd,
the disciples received private instruction from Jesus inside the house. Remember
that they too were somewhat influenced by the Pharisees which may be why Jesus asked
them how they did not understand him after spending so much time with him. It
is like he was saying, “You should know better.” Yet, even after his
resurrection we see how difficult it was to understand Jesus’ teaching when we
see Peter’s reaction to eat in Acts 10 when he went up on the roof to
pray and fell into a trance. He saw the heavens open and something like a great
sheet descend. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the
air. And a voice said to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” Peter
said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or
unclean.” The voice said a second time, “What God has made clean, do
not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at
once to heaven.[8]
It was not until
after he had a conversation with Cornelius that it dawned upon Peter what his
vision meant. The Good News of Jesus Christ must be preached to all nations
because God shows no partiality. I’ll return to this in my third point, but let
me finish today’s passage.
Jesus’ private
teaching was basically this: the only uncleanness that should preoccupy people
is that of sin. Evil dispositions and actions originate from deep within the
heart. Heart is used in biblical literature for one’s essential personality. It
refers to what makes people what they really are. It gives each of us our
individuality. With the heart a person relates to God. A relationship with God
which bypasses the heart is a mockery. Jesus taught that the heart is not
defiled by outside things but by evil dispositions deep within the heart. Food
is of nutritional significance, but has no bearing on a person’s relationship
with God.[9]
Jesus then elaborated
on twelve sinful thoughts and deeds.[10] The first of these – evil
thoughts – serves as an umbrella term for the specific vices that follow be
they thoughts, words or deeds. But all of them originate in the heart. All of
these sins represent the real character of the person from whom they come. Such
moral qualities destroy a person’s relationship with God. And then, the
disciples knew what Jesus meant.
The list of sins
in these verses appear to assume that everything that comes out of every person
is evil, and prompts one to accept the radical view of the total depravity of
humanity. If we embrace that view, we are reading this passage out of context.
The discussion with the disciples is what defiles and what does not. It is not
about total human depravity. On the other hand, one may be tempted to add to
the passage that good things also come out of one’s heart, but here that is
neither affirmed or denied. That is a different subject for another sermon.[11] So, since we’re changing
the subject, we will move on to my third point, declare.
To declare is to
make known formally, officially, or explicitly. A judge declares one must stand
trial. A defendant declares innocence. Hopefully, you declared your taxable
income on your IRS forms. The word comes to us from the Latin word declarare which
means to make clear, reveal, disclose or announce.
So, when Jesus
made his declaration about anything outside the body that was believed to
defile a person, we are reminded that Jewish ceremonial laws were a temporary
and provisional arrangement. Ritual purity had value as a symbol pointing
beyond itself. Now, with the Good News of Jesus Christ people of all cultures,
races and languages have something that can truly purify the heart. The former
arrangement had its place, but now the obsolete laws have been replaced.
Because of Christ’s covenant on the Cross, Christianity was no longer and
branch of Judaism but a new way for all people to enter into communion with the
living God.[12]
Peter understood this after his conversation with Cornelius. Therefore, he and
his entire Gentile household of believers could be baptized and saved.
That brings me to
a question: How do I declare Christ? How do I reveal, disclose, announce or
make known that I am a disciple of Jesus Christ? Granted, like the disciples, I
may not understand, accept and appropriate all the teachings of Jesus into my
life. I may need an epiphany like Peter to understand that God shows no
partiality. And like the disciples, I too must ask Jesus to help me understand
His teachings and God’s ways. But is it clear from how I live my life that my
expressed thoughts, words and deeds declare that I am a disciple of Jesus
Christ?
If you need help
declaring yourself to be a disciple, you can turn to the Bible. In Romans, we
read, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and
believe in your heart that God raised Him out from the dead, you will
be saved.”[13] There are dozens of
verses that we can memorize to help us declare our faith.
Beyond the Bible,
we can turn to Luther’s Small Catechism or Portals of Prayer. If
you enjoy podcasts or preaching, Lutheran Hour Ministries provides
plenty of online resources and apps.
If you’re looking
for advice, trust the amateurs, not the experts. Look at the life of someone
like Troy Polamalu. It’s been said that Polamalu is a 4th century
man living in 21st century and is in constant dialogue with God.
While playing for the Steelers, he declared, “I try to serve God, through
football, with passion. … As Mother Teresa said, ‘God calls us not to be
successful but to be faithful.’” He denounced the idea that the more pious
people were, the more successful they will be, as very dangerous. He added, “If
you look at faith in that way, you’re bound to fail spiritually and in your
career.” And for Polamalu, winning two Super Bowls paled compared to the
fulfillment God provided.[14]
Friends, God has
provided for us all we need to declare and live a life of discipleship. He provides
food for our physical well-being and faith for our spiritual lives. We have His
Word and the means of grace – Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. When we worship,
we confess our sins and ask God to reconcile with Him and others. We confess
the same faith as the Apostles and ancient Church and we pray for one another’s
needs through Christ to our Father.
This week, I ask
you to do one thing. Examine your life in view of our Gospel. Confess to God
what defiles you. Allow God’s grace to be poured into your heart. Declare your
renewed faith in Christ. And whatever else you do, may all glory be God’s, and
when you do, may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1]
France, 277.
[2]
Voelz, 467. See Mk 1:41.
[3]
Voelz, 205.
[4]
Voelz, 337.
[5]
Voelz, 205f.
[6]
Isaiah 1:16-17.
[7]
Ezekiel 36:17.
[8]
Acts 10:11-16.
[9]
France, 291.
[10]
Healy, 142.
[11]
France, 292.
[12]
Healy, 142.
[13]
Romans 10:9.
[14] Gary
Smith: The faith of Troy Polamalu, TribLive.com, February 5, 2020. https://triblive.com/opinion/gary-smith-the-faith-of-troy-polamalu/
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