Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

How many times has your pastor told you, “You give too much money to the Church”? Probably not very often, if at all. Could it ever be possible that someone is giving too much money to the Church? In today’s reading from the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus told the Pharisees that they were teaching people to give too much money to the temple, or rather, to give money to God that should have gone elsewhere.

 

“You say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father’” (Matthew 15:5-6). In other words, if you don’t want to give it to your parents, you can give it to the temple.

 

Now, in a way that doesn’t sound too bad. Which is the better place to give? Is there anything wrong with giving to the temple or to the Church? In fact, is it not better to give it to God than to give it anywhere else, father and mother included?

 

Doesn’t St. Paul tell us that our first priority should be to give to the needs of the Church? “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper” (1 Corinthians 16:2). If it is already in the offering envelope on Monday, as St. Paul directs, is it right to take it out and use it for anything else before Sunday rolls around again? That seems abhorrent, does it not? Can we not sympathize a little bit with the Pharisees in urging that the money or goods you have promised to the Church shouldn’t be redirected?

 

All kinds of cases of casuistry arise in our minds. What would be an acceptable reason to do that, to take money that was intended for Christ’s Church and use it for something else? Jesus latched on to the case of honouring father and mother. The Pharisees said it should not be done if it would take money away from the needs that the temple supplied. Jesus replied, it is the commandment of God.

 

There is no other information given. We are not told if they were referring to a case where mother and father were in desperate need of medical care, or if they had lost their home to a fire, or if a feast of honour needed to be hosted to recognize a wedding anniversary or lifelong service to some community charity, or if it were to buy them a mint ‘57 Chevy exactly like the one they had when they were first courting. Where would you draw the line? What would be acceptable and what would not?

 

You probably have a pretty clear line of demarcation in your head. But Jesus does not offer you that option. He simply points to the commandment, “Honour your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12). But... but... it’s obvious, isn’t it? It is to you. But the only thing that is truly obvious is Jesus quoting the Fourth Commandment. That is to be the final rule and norm of a godly life.

 

If there is no commandment backing your position, then no matter how obvious it may seem, no matter how perfectly it makes sense to you, no matter how fair and just and holy it may seem, you are on dangerous ground. Our Lord Jesus Christ points out, “So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites!” (Matthew 15:6-7).

 

You, know these are the kinds of things that cause the really big arguments and divisions in families and among church members. Everyone is so convinced of their position, that where they would draw the line is the correct and exact place that the line should be drawn. We will stake our name and reputation on it.

 

People will stop talking to family members over stuff like this. They will stop coming to church over things like this. They will switch church membership and even give up the Church altogether if people disagree with them on something like this. You might even now be getting so upset that you are ready to do something like that or have a conversation with the pastor about this later.

 

The disciples came up to Jesus after this and said to Him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” (v. 12). Well, of course they were. We all are offended. Our determination of right and wrong has been taken away. We are convinced that we have been right and Jesus says it is wrong.

 

“Hey, you should wash your hands. Hey, that money is supposed to go to the Church.” Jesus should be thanking us for having such standards of right and wrong, but instead He condemns us for it.

 

The bottom line, the place where the trouble starts, is identified by Jesus. We want our thoughts on the matter, our conclusions, and our opinions to set the rules. The Commandments are good so far as they go, but we want to determine the fine points of their interpretation for ourselves and for others. That is what the Pharisees were all about. And so Jesus points out that even when the rules are coming from our well-intentioned hearts there is a problem.

 

The hearts of mankind are fallen. They are not pure. They have been infected with the poison of sin, so much so, that it makes us delusional to think that it is our heart that is the determinate factor for what is right and what is wrong. If you know it in your heart, then it must be true. Jesus warned that out of the hearts of men come things like “murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness and slander” (Matthew 15:19).

 

Notice that theft is part of that list. We cannot trust our hearts to determine where the money belongs. Our hearts are inclined to steal it away from where it ought to go. And not necessarily that we financially benefit, but perhaps also that our pride is fed, our ego is enlarged, and someone else is condemned by our great pious and exacting standards.

 

It is so much a part of our societal thinking: that any individual gets to determine for themselves what is right and what is wrong. So you’re told that you are not allowed to say that sexual immorality is wrong for someone else. You can decide that for yourself, but you have to let other people decide it for themselves, too. After all, that is part of those great virtues of tolerance, individuality, and self-determination that are inalienable rights for all people.

 

You have probably been told what Canadian values are, and probably disagreed with some of those things, at least in principle. I cringe whenever I hear the government spokesman speak about Canadian values. I feel less like a Canadian every time I hear about Canadian values. But you have your own values by which you live and judge others, too. As much as any segment of society wants to declare its values to be supreme and impose them upon everyone else, so do you with your own values.

 

You don’t get to have that authority of judgment and self-declaration. You are not qualified to be the spokesman of universal values for all, because of your fallen heart spewing forth all kinds of evil that you don’t even see. And it all defiles you from within.

 

What can cleanse you of such defilement? This season of Lent helps us to redirect to a posture of repentance. And sometimes the message hits us hard and we want to object and put in our argument for why something is right when it is really wrong, or why something is wrong when it is really right. But most especially, why we should get to decide whether it is wrong or right.

 

Jesus points us to the commandments, the fourth commandment and all the others, and says that the holy Law of God must be the only line of judgment. We cannot assume to take God’s place even if we are convinced down to the very core of our being that we are right. The very core of our being is where our heart is, that corrupted source of defilement.

 

Jesus leads us to repent and to pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). The heart of Jesus was not subject to our fallen nature. It was fixed on the commandments, for He is the very Word of God Himself. He doesn’t just know the commandments, but He is the commandments, and all the Word of God in the flesh.

 

When we are directed back to the commandments to see our sins, we also see Jesus; His faithful interpretation and keeping of the commandments, and the blessed salvation for our breaking of them, even our well-intentioned, blind breaking of the commandments when we thought we had it so right. We pray for God to forgive our specific sins against His commandments, but we also pray for Him to forgive and rescue us from a heart that defiles each and every intention that does not have its source in Him and His Word.

 

The holy heart of Jesus was pierced upon the cross for our salvation. The blood and water flowed to cleanse us from our defilement and to be the price of our redemption. Out of the crucified and risen Jesus, the Spirit of God has come to us. Through the Word of God that we hear read and preached the Holy Spirit renews our spirit. He creates in us a clean heart in place of that heart full of defilement.

 

That same Spirit is the focus of the Second Petition of the Lord’s Prayer. We pray that God’s kingdom would come. And it does, “when He gives us His Holy Spirit so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives according to it” (Small Catechism. II. Second Petition). That is, not according to our defiled hearts, but according to His Word. His Holy Spirit must direct our determinations about His commandments for ourselves and for others.

 

We must believe and trust in the Word of the Lord if we are to live truly holy lives. It is His Word that points out the dangers of our hearts, and His Word that reveals His own loving and merciful heart. Our holy lives in Jesus are lives forgiven and guided by His Spirit.