Sermon from December 10, 2000
Do you know what a man of straw is? It is a description of someone that focuses on the person's most glaring faults. The purpose of such a description is to make other people think badly of that person. Sometimes a whole group of people is caricatured so as to justify their mistreatement by another group of people. A man of straw can be funny and effective, as in some political cartoons. More often, it can be prejudicial and ominous. I believe we need to look at one such straw man and begin to dismantle it and remove it from our religious imagination.

The name we give this straw man is Pharisee. We need to dismantle this straw man in order to appreciate the very real, very intelligent, and very devout men who often opposed Jesus. We need to appreciate them in this way for two reasons. First, it will help us read the Bible more truthfully. Distorting the meaning of the Bible never serves the interests of Jesus Christ and His Church. Distorting the reality of the Pharisees takes away from the achievement of Jesus Christ, and it may also feed any hostility toward Jews that lurk in dark corners of human souls. That brings me to a second reason.

Taking a more rounded look at the Pharisees is one small but credible way for Christians to respond to what may be a new and hopeful era of Jewish-Christian relations. When more than a hundred and fifty distinguished Jewish rabbis and scholars go on record saying, "Nazism itself was not an inevitable outcome of Christianity," we have entered a new era. Appreciating the Pharisees more realistically will help us to appreciate Judaism more realistically. In this small but concrete way this particular group of Christians can signal our willingness to enter this new era in good faith.

Mark provides us with an ideal context in which to do this. Before we look at this episode, let me review again the broader context on Mark 5-6. If the first four chapters had to do with the authority of Jesus, Mark 5-8 have to do with His identity. You remember the question the disciples asked Jesus at the end of chapter four: "Who is this? Even wind and wave obey him."

The short answer to that question thus far is, "Jesus is a prophet, like the great prophets of Israel." He does the work of a prophet: He calms the storm, cleanses a demoniac, heals a woman by His touch, and raises a child from death. He also has the self-consciousness of a prophet. At his hometown of Narareth He calls Himself a prophet. The murder of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas reminds readers that being a prophet can be hazardous to your health.

Finally, chapter six records the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus' walking on the water. These miracles make urgent the question that drives these chapters. The miraculous feeding, especially, pointed to Jesus as the inexhaustible source of satisfaction for humanity's insatiable appetite for purpose and wholeness and God. Jesus may be a prophet, but He is more than any other prophet ever claimed to be. Who is He?

Mark, as is habit, raises this question but does not as yet answer it fully. Instead, in chapter seven he expands his picture of Jesus as a prophetic teacher, in the style and with the power of Isaiah, the greatest of Israel's prophets. It is in this context that we meet again the Pharisees. Let's look at Mark 7:1-4.

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 "unclean," 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 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?" Why would anyone be that scrupulous?

First of all, "the great issues of the day had to do with the proper stance for a Jew to take up when faced with (what seemed to them to be) the encroachments of non-Jewish ways of life," (Wright, Nt and the People of God, 187ff). Washing their hands was not a matter of personal hygiene; it was a matter of national devotion to God. "Faced with social, political and cultural 'pollution' at the level of national life as a whole, one natural reaction ... was to concentrate on personal cleanness, to cleanse and purify an area over which one did have control," (ibid.).

Many devout Jews wanted to show their devotion to God as clearly as possible. Not all were satisfied with the ordinary religious routine of the synagogue; they wanted to go beyond that. And where could a Jew look to find the most disciplined devotion to God but in the temple, among the priests. The Pharisees, the strictest of all the groups, sought to imitate temple behavior outside the temple as a way of showing to God how devoted to Him they were.

In small ways other Jews jointed them. When verse three says that all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, that might be an exaggeration, but washing their hands before they ate was something within reach of all Jews, and when practiced in a Gentile setting, it made a statement about what it meant to be a Jew. The piety of the Pharisees had influence throughout many parts of Jewish society.

Any Christian that feels pressure from the moral degradation within American culture should have no problem feeling a certain kinship with the Pharisees. To see the truth of God profaned ought to evoke in God's people in every age a determination to resist the degradation. That is part of what the great principle of detachment involves. With the temple priesthood as their model, it made all the sense in the world for Jews to practice what Mark reports here in chapter seven.

More than one group of Christians has responded in ways not terribly different from them. When I was new in ministry, I learned of a church in San Francisco that did not allow two-tone shoes in the morning service. And if that seems extreme, there is more than one church in the Brandywine Valley that would make women feel uncomfortable wearing slacks to any service.

If we disagree with the Pharisees, we must do so on grounds other than how strange their behavior seems to us today. We have no business dismissing them as fools or caricaturing them. They were sincere, but did they miss something crucial? That was the flash point between Jesus and the Pharisees.

Verses 6-8 get right to it. He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written in Isaiah 29:13: "' These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' You have to let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

Jesus was not doing anything new. Isaiah had taken the people of his day to task for the same issues as Jesus. Jesus was acting in the tradition of Isaiah. His words here are tough words, but they were a family affair within the house of Israel. Jesus' quarrel with the Pharisees was not a Christian quarrel, it was a Jewish quarrel. Understanding that helps us to appreciate the dynamic nature of first-century Judaism. By putting His oar in the water Jesus found He would have to row against the current all the way. The Pharisees had tradition, reason and considerable national sentiment on their side. Jesus had the prophets of old on His side, but He must have known that they did not often have spectacular success in their day. If you can see Jesus and the Pharisees in this light, the Gospels will come alive in your hands.

The penetrating truth that Jesus and Isaiah preached and that proved inflammatory comes to us in these words: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." They express the temptation that cuts closest to every person on the face of the earth that ever thought about being religious. I don't mean hypocrisy. I mean making the religion suit me instead of subordinating my agenda to the will of God. That is what Jesus meant when He went on in verse 8 to say, "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." From Cain and Abel to the next religious crank that exchange had done more damage to the true faith than all the flagrant sins of this or any other culture.

Being scrupulous and disciplined does not prevent it. The Pharisees, whom Jesus took issue with, outdid their contemporaries by their scrupulous and disciplined efforts to imitate the temple piety of the priests in the ordinary affairs of life. It did not, as we will see in a minute, prevent them from pursuing what they thought would bring honor to God in a world of moral "pollution," but doing so in a way that dishonored God.

Having the revealed will of God in Holy Scripture does not prevent it. The Torah had taught Israel how to worship at the temple and so had inspired the Pharisees to live like priests in common life. It did not, as we will see in a minute, prevent them from pursuing what they thought would bring honor to God in a world of moral "pollution," but doing so in a way that dishonored God.

And Jesus said it happened this way because their hearts were far from God. They were scrupulous, so disciplined, so eager to please God; but their hearts were far from God. As they saw their world "slouching toward Gomorroah," they determined to march to a different drummer; but their hearts were far from God. They had a heart problem. Next Sunday, when we see Jesus in private with His disciples, we will learn more about that heart problem. In the meantime Mark gives us an example of how devout people drew near to God with their lips, but did not allow Him to control their hearts.

Verses 9-13: And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! I thought it was only the immoral pagans "out there," who flaunted the commands of God. Please explain. Verse 10: For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' (the Fifth Commandment) and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death,'" (Ex. 21:17 and Lev. 20:9). "But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his 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."

Now, wait a minute. Jesus Himself once said, "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me," (Matt. 10:37). Why find fault, then, with someone who dedicates part of his portfolio to God and later refuses to change his mind and give it to his needy parents? Unless of course meeting the needs of parents is precisely what it means to love Jesus Christ, and not the mere dedication of your earthy fortune to God. Dedicating your fortune seems so right, just the sort of thing to make a statement about where your priorities lie in this world whose priorities are so deranged. To hear Jesus tell it, it is just another example of making the religion suit me instead of subordinating my agenda to the will of God. Honoring parents ranks high on His agenda.

The people who discipled me as a high school student taught me early and vividly the value of leading a life that said clearly to everyone around me that I was a follower of Jesus Christ. The means of doing that came partly from a list of prohibitions. Looking back on those days, I am astounded that so many of us did it. I also wonder at times if we were honoring God with our lips, while our hearts were far from Him.

I wonder if we were just making the religion suit us instead of subordinating our agenda to the will of God. We chose not to drink and smoke and have sex before marriage, not for health reasons but for religious reasons, to make a break from the non-Christian culture around us. But no one in that southern culture ever suggested that we might speak well of or seek to befriend blacks. I do not regret the discipline of abstinence; I do regret the feeling of self-congratulation that went with it, and I do regret the complete absence of any Christian teaching on the pressing racial issues that were soon to surface on a national scale. Huge issues hang with every neglect of God's commands. No one has taught that to humanity quite like the prophets of Israel, especially the greatest prophet of them all, Jesus.

So, making the Christian faith suit us instead of subordinating our agenda to the will of God is what it means to draw near to God with our lips but for our hearts to be far away from Him. Do you think we might do that with Christmas?

Please understand, I have nothing against giving gifts. Some pastors complain about the materialism of Christmas. I rejoice in the materialism of Christmas. I cannot imagine anything more material than the mystery of the miracle of immortal, invisible God clothing Himself in mortal and visible flesh and blood. Giving gifts is the way to celebrate Christmas. The penetrating words of Jesus and Isaiah raise concerns about the way we give.

God gave His Son at Christmas to meet our deep and desperate need for a Savior. The wise men brought gifts to Jesus to honor Him and delight His parents. In neither case was the gift expected. Such giving is a far cry from rushing around at Christmas to buy unwanted and probably unnecessary and perhaps expensive gifts for people who, you know, have bought or will buy unwanted and probably unnecessary and perhaps expensive gifts for you.

I know the economy depends on such giving. Maybe your business or your job depends on such giving. But that kind of thinking about Christmas illustrates exactly what it means to make the faith suit us instead of subordinating our agenda to the will of God. Now, don't take anything away from your children. Their delight captures something of God's will for us all; but do have another look at how you do Christmas.

This year, Carole and I have decided to give each other the Christmas gift of supporting a needy child overseas, beginning in early 2001. We have told our children that we will not give them our wish list for Christmas. If they cannot think of anything we really need, then take the money they would have spent on us and give a gift to a person who is homeless or to someone else in great need. It is a long overdue step in the direction of drawing nearer to God with our hearts at Christmas time. I am looking forward to Christmas with a joy that has been missing for some time.