A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on August 29, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 7:4-23. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the seventh chapter:
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Jesus gives an unusual sermon to the ears of the people this day. He tells the people that it isn’t what goes into a person that makes them unclean, but what comes out of them. The people had been gathered around Him and probably thought hat they would hear the law, as it was so wonderfully given in Moses. And they probably thought they could have obeyed it, too. They thought if they just avoided certain things, they’d be fine. If they didn’t let it into their bodies, they’d be clean. But that’s not what Jesus says to them.
Jesus gives the right understanding of the Law to them, that it was to point to Him, and how Jesus would save people from their sins. But, they had forgotten the right way to hear the Law, and perhaps began to think that it was up to them not to break the Law and to see themselves. Now, we don’t often think of this today because the law that Jesus is mostly hitting here has to do with the ceremonial law. The ceremonial laws guided the religion of Israel while the tabernacle and the temple still stood among them. But, with these gone, and, most importantly, with the work of Christ finished, these have no bearing on us.
The ceremonial law, God tells us through Moses, were to set the Israelites apart from the nations. Other nations didn’t do the things that the Israelites did, and when they look to the people of Israel, their response would be to ask about the God who was near to them. It set them apart so that others would flock to God. These could be as simple as men not cutting the corners of their beards. Men were to grow out their hair on the ringlets on the sides. They were to keep the word of God and phylacteries right on their foreheads and on their arms. They did strange things. They also were not allowed to eat animals of cloven hooves. So, things like the pig would not be okay. They were not to eat shellfish. So shrimp and crab and lobster. I mean, they were missing out, but those were not okay to eat. They were not allowed to eat meat that was boiled in the milk of its mother. So, a goat kid could not be boiled in the milk of that kid's mother; that was just not allowed. And if you did that, it would make you ceremonially unclean. You couldn't go before God and offer your sacrifices until you had been made clean again. And God set this law up for that reason to make people wonder at the people of Israel.
You might wonder then, is Jesus contradicting the Law? Is Jesus going against the God of the Old Testament? Of course not! They’re the same God. Jesus is the one who gave the Law to Moses. So, in figuring this out, we have to ask what He’s doing. Should we be following these things? Is it the shrimp that makes me unclean? Or is it the reason why I'm eating the shrimp that makes me unclean? Is it the delicious hamburger with cheese on it that makes me unclean? Or is it the reason I'm eating the hamburger with cheese that makes me unclean? We know that it’s the reason behind our breaking of the Law, that’s the unclean thing. And what is that reason? Simply, it’s sin.
I mean, if we look into our own hearts and we say, all right, why is it that I break the law with all this lists that Jesus gives to us in our text today? Why is it that I have evil thoughts or sexual immorality or a desire to thieve from someone or to commit murder or adultery, or have coveting or wickedness or deceit or sensuality or envy or slander or pride or foolishness in my heart? These are all evil things. Why do I have them? Of course, the answer is sin. Sin has been with us since Adam and Eve plunged all of creation into it. And it's something that we inherit from our parents. It's not something that we can just get out of. It's something that's been given to us. It's something that must be taken away from the one who is offending God. And certainly as Christians, we know that God does take these things away. And still we struggle in this life against our sinful flesh. As long as we live, we are decaying into death because of the sin that dwells in our bodies.
But why is it that I give into these things? One is that I think that I'm smarter than God. And I know better what I need than He does. I mean, aren't we all guilty of this? We don't trust God. And the situations that we're in, we seek out our own desires. We seek out our own wills. We seek out what we want when we want it. And if we don't get it, we're upset. Instead of saying, God, you will provide for me exactly what I need. And blessed be the name of the Lord, whether you give or you takeaway.
Could be that we just see something and we want it and we just give into our heart of flesh. That's a huge reason. There’s so much out that that is good to the eye, and so, we see it, we want it, we try to take it. Of course, the idea with all of this is that we think we’re our own God. We think we know better than God. If we know better, then we are better. We are the God of God. And that's a big problem too, isn't it? It could just be that we fall into temptation. It could be that people are tempting us and we just want to go with the flow. We don't want to stand out from the crowd. We don't want to stick out like that sore thumb, which by the way, if you've ever had a sore thumb, you know exactly how that sticks out. Because standing out from the crowd hurts. When we don't look like what other people look like, it hurts. When we don't follow after what other people follow, it hurts. I mean, when we're standing around the water cooler at work and we're talking about all the stuff that's going on in our lives, and someone mentioned that they watch some show, the next thing we want to do is we want to go watch it, too.
You see, there's a whole lot of reasons why we end up seeking these things and why these things come out of our hearts. And the ultimate reality is we're just damnable sinners. I wish that I could say that in a way that would strike everybody to the core. I think we’ve lost some of the fear of God in this way. To say that we’re sinners should carry the wright of the accusation, but it doesn’t seem to. So, take me at my word that the reality is we really are just damnable sinners. We deserve to go to hell. That's where we belong. I mean, Jesus, in our sinful flesh, calls our father Satan and it's true. We would rather follow after the ways of Satan, because they're just more fun. We get what we want. We get whatever we want whenever we want. We don't have to answer to God. We answer to ourselves. And I mean, life actually goes pretty well for people who don't have God. I mean, if we look at the lives of all the unbelievers who forsake God, on the whole, they're not bad. They're not hard, but they're not bad in most cases.
That’s what we deserve. It really is. We seek after our own ways, we go our own way. And we have no excuse, no excuse with everything that we do and everything that we think and everything that we say; we are looking at God and saying, Condemn me, and without Him, without Christ, He does. I mean, this is the amazing thing about God, is that He gives us exactly what it is that we ask.When we stand before Him on the last day, we will say, Judge me by my righteousness, and God will say, Okay, sure, go into the place that was prepared for the devil and his angels, or we'll say, Please judge me by Christ, by Christ’s righteousness and have mercy upon me on me, and God will say, Okay.
I mean, that's kind of a no brainer. And you’d think that everybody standing before God would plead the mercy of Christ. But the thing to remember is that as sinners, we are so self-deluded that without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we're going to say, I was pretty good. I did alright. I did okay. Put me on the scale, God, and see where I end up. And when we do that, we miss the fact that the smallest sin that we commit is worthy of the worst hell. And it doesn't matter how much you try to do to make up for that one sin. It doesn't, it's never going to work. One sin committed and the only way that that's ever going to work for you is if that sin is taken away from you and put it on someone else. And that's exactly what Christ has done. In fact, that was the way it was for Israel, even as they worshiped in the tabernacle, even as they worshiped in the temple, that not only would they make the sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins, but every year the priest would take a goat and he would wave his hands over the goat and all of the sins from all of the people were transferred into that goat. And that goat was sent out into the wilderness to die. This is where we get the phrase scape goat. That goat is the way that the sins of the people would be taken away. Well, not really. The goat couldn’t really bear the sins, but Jesus could and the goat was pointing them to Jesus. None of the sacrifices on their own could ever take any sin away. Everything was always in light of the sacrifice that Christ would make. And it was the same with the goat. It was to point the people to the fact that their sins would be taken. It was a very real absolution, but it was always in light of Christ and the people should have remembered this.
They should have, but they forgot. And the disciples even forgot it. And they come to Jesus and they say, All right, so tell us about what you meant, because we don't get it. And Jesus says to them, are you also without understanding? Now, we know that the understanding that we need here is actual wisdom. And if we know our Scriptures at all, true wisdom through the Scriptures is referred to as Christ. And that is an analogy of faith. So, if you have faith, you will understand what Jesus says here. And if you don't have faith, you will miss it completely. It's not what goes into you that ends up defiling you but it's what comes out of you, because that's based in the reason why you're defiling yourself and breaking the commandments of God. And Jesus does eliminate these laws not because Jesus and God the Father are somehow contradicting one another, but because these ceremonial laws that had been laid before the people of Israel were there for a time. They were there while the people were looking forward to the sacrifice of the Christ. And now that it's come, they could see these laws for what they were: always pointing to Christ. We don’t obey those ceremonial laws, and even the ones we have now, the laws that guide us through our lives, we don’t do them to save ourselves, or to win our righteousness, but because we are free to obey them. We don’t fear the Lord for all of His goodness toward us. He has finished it all.
Even though it is that you deserve hell, your Lord has seen fit to take that smallest sin away from you, that smallest one up into your greatest one. And instead of making you now work for your righteousness, He gives you His own righteousness that you may rely on that. And as you work and live in this life, anything you do then is a good work. And it is counted to you as a glory that is in heaven, not for your salvation, but for your glorification.
What goes into your body is not what defiles you, but what comes out of your body. And in the same way, it's not what you do in this life any more as a Christian that defiles you, but it's what comes out of you. You have been illuminated by God the Holy Spirit to have faith in Christ. And you know that this is what you should now want to do, go out and live according to God's word. You should want this, you should want to obey, not because it's going to save you but because God's word is residing in you and now anything that goes into you is going to pass through that word and come out clean. That's what Jesus promises you.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to do this all yourself, you're under the law. And anything then that goes into you passes through that law and all your works and it comes out filthy. But if you are in God, if you're in Christ, all that which goes into you comes out of you and it comes out clean. It’s true that the things of this world may not be redeemed. I think for instance, of all of the evil things that we see on TV or in movies, or we listen to on the radio or in talk radio, all these things can go into us and it may not be redeemable, but they're no longer there to defile you. Now you have the wisdom which comes by faith, the wisdom to know what is true and what is false. And you can hear these things and reject them according to the word of God. You know that what the world has to offer for you is not going to be good. And still, you can hear these things and know that the word of God stands against them.
Is it not true, Christian, that you know what is right and you know what is wrong and you want to do what is right? It's because you have the understanding. It's because you have the faith that Jesus is talking about here today. You know Him who is wisdom. You know Christ and He resides in you forever. And even though it's true that we deserve nothing, but hell, He gives us nothing but mercy, because of His great love for us.
Because we have faith in him, we have no fear of what is to come. We have nothing to fear of what Christ is going to say to us on that last day, because we'll stand before him and we will say, Dear Lord, grant me your mercy and look to your righteousness. I am your humble servant. And He will say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the rest prepared for you by your master, Me. And we will have great joy in that day, for all of the promises of Christ in that day will come true. And we will see that we are no longer defiled, but that we have been made glorious as He is glorious. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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