Sermons

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What's the Problem?
March 2, 2003
Pastor Dan Baumgartner
11th in a sermon series on the Gospel of Matthew
Matt 15:1-20

It’s good to be back with you. I’ve been out of town for two weeks, and I noticed when I was gone that I start wondering what it will feel like to be back up here with you again. I can even forget what you look like! So let me just say, it’s really good to be back…and you all look great!

Next week, as Brian mentioned, the season of Lent will begin. We will take a break from our study of the book of Matthew for some weeks to focus instead on “The Seven Last Words of Christ,” the words that Jesus spoke from the cross as recorded in all four gospels. Then on Easter, we’ll resume our study in Matthew. But this morning, we have our third and last story of people encountering Jesus. Turn with us to Matt 15:1-20.

Maybe you saw the newspaper on Friday morning. There on the front page, NEXT TO the large article on Iraq and missiles, NEXT TO the article about Iraqi troops moving towards Baghdad, NEXT TO the article about U.S. troops in the Gulf increasing to over 200,000 NEXT TO the large article about violence in Washington state penitentiaries…was a small article about a man who died. He was 74. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister, though he never served in a particular church setting. His name was Fred. Fred Rogers. MISTER Rogers.

You know him as the guy who had a children’s television show for over 30 years. When our kids were small, they watched Mr. Rogers on TV…saw him lacing on his boat shoes, and changing into his cardigan sweater and heading towards his make-believe neighborhood. They heard him talk about friendships, and watched his fascination with what people did for work. And, I have to tell you…for a number of years, Mister Rogers drove me ABSOLUTELY CRAZY. I’d have to leave the room if the kids were watching. It was too sweet, too slow, too sappy. But over the years, particularly as I learned more about him…Mister Rogers won me over. I guess I learned that he was authentic. Everyone who ever wrote about him or interviewed him had the same things to say. “What you see on TV [care, concern, truth-telling, reconciliation, kindness]…was exactly what he is.” He was authentic.

In 1998, Esquire magazine published an article by Tom Junod that I thought was so outstanding I saved it in a file. Junod was a writer who was able to spend several days just following Mr. Rogers around. I went back and read that article yesterday in a coffee shop, and found myself alternately laughing out loud and crying, and not really caring too much what the people around me thought. It seemed to me that when Junod began the interview, he was fairly skeptical of Fred Rogers, and there was nothing in his article to hint that he was a person of faith at all. But one of the things that he wrote about Mr. Rogers after he spent a few days with him was this: “He…was a man with an unashamed insistence on intimacy.” He longed, in other words…for people to connect with one another. Heart to heart.

As we have looked at Jesus’ encounters with various people in these last weeks -- the sick, blind, tax collectors, disciples -- we have seen Jesus’ authenticity come out as well. Jesus will say what he will, do as he will…regardless of the situation or the people he encounters. Surprisingly, perhaps, it is not always soft and sweet. You see, Jesus also had an “unashamed insistence on intimacy.” Intimacy with God. And much of his ministry dealt with the things that were barriers to people truly coming face to face with God.

“What is the problem with your disciples?” That’s what the Pharisees and Scribes wanted to know who had journeyed from Jerusalem to confront Jesus. “Why don’t they follow the traditions of the faith? Why don’t they wash their hands before they eat?” Now this may seem like a silly thing to us. Like the mom saying, “Honey, you can’t eat until you wash your hands…I know where those hands have been!” But there is nothing here that has anything to do with hygiene. It has to do with spirituality. And the Pharisees are men who take their faith very seriously. We often think the Pharisees were a bunch of guys running around, phonies who were looked at with suspicion by all the people. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Pharisees were leaders in faith, who by teaching and example tried to carry out faith-ful living. And they carried on the tradition of hand-washing because they thought it could bring one closer to God. They wanted to stand CLEAN before God, UNDEFILED as the scripture says. It seems as though they would be the ones Jesus would WANT to be with. But they don’t get along. What’s the problem? Their question for Jesus is: “Why don’t your disciples take their faith seriously?”

As this encounter begins…I think that Jesus has about had it. Jesus knows his time is short. The thermostat has been turned up and events are beginning to rapidly unfold. John the Baptist has just had his head chopped off. Jesus’ life has been a whirl of feeding the 5,000, of calming a storm, of saving Peter from drowning, of healing many people. The Kingdom of God is appearing at a frantic pace through Jesus…but he now knows there is not much time. He begins to tell his followers what will happen to him.

What’s the problem? Jesus has little patience with things that hinder faith instead of helping.

Jesus doesn’t even answer their question about why his disciples don’t keep the tradition of handwashing. Handwashing is not the way to be close to God. Instead, he pushes back and asks his own question. The encounter that the Pharisees have with Jesus quickly turns uncomfortable. “Why do YOU trifle with the very commandments of God, the scriptures?”

I bet they are shocked. Could he be serious? “WE,” the Pharisees say, “are the ones who take faith seriously, who believe the scriptures. How could he accuse US of trifling with them?” What’s the problem? The problem is Jesus knows too much.

The problem is that they ALL know the Fifth Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother.” Jesus affirms that following God’s commandments IS faithful living. And the Pharisees know that tradition has added something else. The Hebrew word is “Korban,” or something “dedicated to the Lord.” We might think of it as an extreme form of offering or tithing. Someone gets excited about their devotion to God, and gives all of their money, all of their resources, to the Lord via the temple. Great! But soon they figure out they can no longer afford to take care of their parents. What happens?

Either, a) the adult who gave away his money simply says to his parents “You are out of luck…I’ve admirably given everything “to God.”

Or b) the person rethinks what they have done, and asks to be let out of his commitment…to which the Pharisees say “Sorry, you’ve already committed it to God. It is our policy to not let you waver in this regard.”

“You hypocrites,” Jesus says. “You’ve created a false dichotomy. Somehow, your tradition has pitted God against one’s parents…but the scripture says “Honor your parents! Your tradition has muddied the scripture. It is a barrier, not a help.” Using the scriptures for your own purposes…is not the way to God.

Jesus turns away from the Pharisees and scribes…and turns toward the crowd. There is something he REALLY wants them to get. This encounter is not uncomfortable, like it was for the Pharisees. But there is anxiety. Jesus is EAGER for them to understand. The Jews have a tradition of eating only certain foods…not for the nutritional content, but because it is part of how one is devoted to God. Jesus says, and then says again: It’s not what goes INTO a person (what kind of food) that is important…but what COMES OUT. What comes out originates in the heart. If the HEART is clean, the life will be…if the heart is not, well, Jesus lists all kinds of things that result: murder, adultery, fornication, theft…in essence, all the things that the 10 commandments prohibit. Eating the right kind of food is not the way to God.

There are more encounters. The disciples come, wondering if Jesus knows that he has offended the Pharisees. They are concerned. He is not. Having the right people on your side is not the way to God.

I wonder what Jesus would say to us if He were here? Handwashing, food selection, “korban”…we don’t tie these kinds of things to our faith today, they are not part of our culture. How would Jesus point it out to us…things that are barriers to intimacy with Him? Maybe he would say “You go to church, but you treat it as an obligation.” “You say grace at meals, but your home is filled with everything BUT grace.” “You put up with your parents…but you don’t honor them.” “You read the Bible so you can defend a position…but not to see what God may say to you through it.”

In other words, the forms and traditions that look like faith might be barriers to what Jesus is insisting on. Jesus, you see, is going to insist on intimacy with God. Intimacy is a thing of the heart. The problem, Jesus says…is that your hearts are distant. And do you know where it shows up, of all places? Right here…in worship. Jesus quotes Isaiah, and here’s how it reads in The Message: “These people act like they are worshipping me, but they don’t mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy.” One way to God…is by bringing your heart to Him in worship. We don’t just come here for entertainment. We don’t come because it’s tradition. We come to draw near to God. We come because through the Holy Spirit, through the scriptures, in our prayers…the God of the Universe makes Himself known.

We don’t come out of habit, or to log our presence…I hope we don’t. (One of the funniest things that happens to me as a pastor is when I run into somebody from here away from Bethany…at the store, or a ballgame or something…and the first thing they say to me is, “Well, you haven’t seen us at church for awhile, BECAUSE…” I just want to go on record as saying I don’t take attendance from up here! No, we come to draw near to God. When people ask me about Bethany, almost always I will tell them something about our worship times… and often it is this: people come here, I come here…EXPECTANTLY. People believe that God is going to show up, and He does! And so we leave as different people…people whose hearts have come near to God.

It seems like, lately, I’ve been engaged in quite a few conversations about faith, with people who aren’t Christians yet. We talk about the hard questions, some of the intellectual searching that goes into faith. We talk about never learning everything, or having all of our questions answered…but coming to a point where we know enough … where we know enough that we can recognize when we encounter God. That’s what Jesus wants here. He wants us to desire Him, to long for Him, to know our own need and emptiness and pain and need for forgiveness, He wants for our hearts to cry out and connect with His. He’ll do anything for it to happen, anything to get rid of the barriers, anything to bring our heart to His. He’d even die to do it.

When Tom Junod, the writer for Esquire finished his article on Mr. Rogers, he told the story of his last meeting with him. It has been quite a transforming few days. He stopped by Mr. Rogers’ office in Pittsburgh, and found him with his pastor, a woman named Deb. Mr. Rogers invited Junod in, and closed the door, and then he turned and said to his pastor, “Now, Deb, I’d like to ask you a favor…Would you lead us in prayer?” So Tom took the hand Mr. Rogers extended to him, and then took Deb’s hand. He says, “His hand was warm, hers was cool, and we bowed our heads, and closed our eyes, and I heard Deb’s voice calling out for the grace of God. What is grace? I’m not certain; all I know is that my heart felt like a spike, and then, in that room, it opened and felt like an umbrella. I had never prayed like that before, ever.”

It sounds to me like what happened…was that Mr. Junod came face to face, and heart to heart with God…with nothing in between. Which is exactly what Jesus is always after, for each of us.