Sermon - Lent Midweek 3, 2021

 Lent is a time of spiritual renewal. For Christians even just a couple hundred years ago, a large part of this spiritual renewal was fasting and other bodily preparations. During Lent it was standard to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, particularly to fast of richer and finer foods, such as meat. So it’s somewhat telling of our culture today in which, instead of fasting on Fridays, we feast on Fridays with fish fries and gorge ourselves on greasy fried foods. 

Nevertheless, for many of the past centuries, Lent was a time of fasting. So hearing this reading on one of the fast days would’ve been a reminder that our spiritual renewal doesn’t come from what we do or don’t put into the body, but what comes out of our body. Today we are reminded that true sin and true faith come from the heart. “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person… Whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled. But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.” 

The Pharisees were a very holy and righteous people. They lived virtuous lives. What they realized was that how you live matters, and that your actions are important. Thus, the Pharisees had a very stringent set of laws and traditions so that they would be holy and good people. One of those traditions was that before you ate, you had to wash your hands. Now, they weren’t thinking about germs the way we do, but they did believe that the outward action of washing the dirt off of their hands was a requirement for being a good and virtuous person. You want to be holy and clean, therefore you wash your hands when you eat so that the uncleanness from your hands doesn’t enter into you.

Seems logical, right? Well here’s what the pharisees didn’t understand: “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” Holiness and righteousness don’t come from outward actions. “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” To be holy and righteous people, our hearts must first be holy and righteous. Before an outward show of virtuous living, our hearts must be virtuous.

But how is it possible for us to have virtuous hearts? “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” What shall we do since we are conceived in sin, and the heart of man is evil? Like David teaches us after he was caught in his sin with Bathsheba, he prayed to the Lord: “Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” The Lord makes us holy. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Holiness and righteousness begins not with our actions, but with Christ’s actions. He, our Lord, became sin for us and like a sponge absorbed our iniquity in the Jordan river. He bore those sins and lived the sinless life, so that on the cross He might make atonement for those sins. The blood He shed was the sacrifice appointed to make us holy and righteous people. If you wish to be holy people, if you’re looking for a spiritual renewal, then look no further than Christ who shed His blood for you.

But lest we forget, the holiness of the heart has consequences for our lives. The virtuous lives of the Pharisees weren't all bad, and we mustn’t deceive ourselves into living as though our outward actions do not matter. Afterall, if sin comes from an unclean heart, then holiness shall come from a clean heart. The ten commandments, of which we heard the second table this evening, they matter and God wants us to live according to them.

“Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” It’s kind of a strange paradox; God doesn’t want us to fear Him such that we flee from Him. However, He does want us to fear Him so that we hear His Word and keep it! When God speaks He desires that we change our lives and live according to His commands, because this is good for us. “You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.” God’s Word is such a precious thing because it is alien to our sinful world, it’s like nothing else we could ever read; these are words from heaven! The promise of the Savior is God’s Word from heaven and it is precious to our ears and hearts! So are God’s commandments precious to us, because they also are God’s Word spoken to us from heaven!

When God speaks and His Word is read among His people, His name is remembered. “In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.” What a powerful promise God has given to us here in Exodus! When God speaks to us today, He comes to us and He blesses us here, in our little church this very evening!

Through His Word, God does visit us, His people, and blesses us. When He blesses us, He reorients our hearts towards Him. Though our hearts, so often, are far from our Lord, He comes near to us and cleanses our hearts. He plants within us living faith, so that God would never uproot us, but He always continues to water and nourish us. During this season of spiritual renewal let us always remember God’s abundant promises of blessing found in His Word, so that with hearts cleansed by the blood of Jesus, we would always be near to God both now and in eternity.