Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: We’re happy for Jesus to see the sanitized version of ourselves, but we can hardly bear the thought of Jesus seeing beneath that polite veneer, gazing into our heart of hearts. The thought that Jesus Christ has X-ray vision that reveals the most hidden corners of our lives, now, that's a very, very unsettling thing to consider.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I’m Steve Hiller, and Jonathan, I’m always amazed and amused at how we may have this tendency to put up this Christian front, as you called it, a veneer, as if we think we’re going to fool God into thinking that we’re a better person than we really are. Do you think that's because sometimes we don't want to have to admit the ugliness of the sin in our own lives?

Jonathan Griffiths: I think that's absolutely the case. And this business of putting up a front or a veneer, we can sometimes manage that before other people, not generally those who know us really well, but there will be those within our circle of acquaintance, perhaps within our community or our church. We can maintain a front.

But before the Lord, we are utterly incapable of doing that. He sees the heart; He sees everything within. We mustn't deceive ourselves to think that we can hide the true reality of our heart and our life from God. He sees it all. One of the things that happens within our passage today that we’re going to be considering is Jesus calls out the ugliness of the heart, and He shows us that the source of our trouble is within. That's such a help because before we can find the cure, we need to know the nature of the disease, and Jesus gives us a profound diagnosis as to the illness of the human heart in sin.

Steve Hiller: Let’s continue to look at this from the book of Matthew. We’re in chapter 15 today as we begin a message called "The King Who Judges the Heart."

Jonathan Griffiths: It’s a very unsettling thing, isn't it, when you become aware that someone can see right through you? There are some people who seem to have an uncanny knack for doing that in conversation. Their gaze is just penetrating. You just sense that they’re evaluating you on a deeper level, and it seems rather hard to hide from them what you are really thinking. It’s a bit like going to an airport and being asked to walk through one of those new body scanners. They make you go and stand inside this little box, and this machine just sees through everything. You feel utterly exposed, nowhere to hide.

In Matthew chapter 15, the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrates His penetrating divine insight into the people around Him. As He engages with them, He reveals their heart. As we observe the Lord Jesus Christ going about doing this, we’re going to find that it is a very, very uncomfortable thing. You and I would prefer to engage with Jesus on a very superficial level. We would like to present to Him our best selves. We would like Him to see us when we are on our best behavior, when we come to church in ironed clothes and with brushed hair, speaking kindly to other people, sitting reverently in a service of worship, making polite conversation in the foyer.

We’re happy for Jesus to see the sanitized version of ourselves, but we can hardly bear the thought of Jesus seeing beneath that polite veneer, gazing into our heart of hearts, reading our intentions, evaluating our motivations. The thought that Jesus Christ has X-ray vision that reveals the most hidden corners of our lives is a very unsettling thing to consider. Nonetheless, here in our passage, we learn that it’s true. As the Lord Jesus looks upon the people before Him in this chapter, His penetrating X-ray vision sees their heart within. What He reveals defies expectation and it brings profound insight to you and to me.

He reveals, first of all, the hypocritical heart of religion. Religious leaders, scribes, and Pharisees, teachers of the law of God, they come to Jesus in verse one. They’ve come a distance, probably well over 100 kilometers. Jesus is ministering in the north, and these leaders have decided to make the trip up from Jerusalem to see Him. They’ve done so, it becomes clear, not to benefit from His teaching nor to receive His healing touch. They’ve come to express a gripe and to deliver a complaint. It’s given in the form of a question, but it’s a very pointed question, one loaded with judgment. Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.

We don't know with certainty what prompted this visit, but maybe some of the friends of the Pharisees and the scribes had been by the shore of the Lake of Galilee that day in the previous chapter when Jesus fed those 5,000 men, plus women, plus children. Maybe these friends went excitedly back to Jerusalem and described what had taken place there that day, how the disciples had distributed all this food, how thousands upon thousands of hungry people had been miraculously fed by Jesus. Perhaps when these religious leaders heard the story, when they received the report, when they pictured the scene, rather than rejoicing and marveling at what God had done that day by the lakeside, they ignored all that and turned to ask the question: Did the disciples wash their hands properly with the appropriate religious procedure before they participated in the meal, before they gave out the bread?

Let’s just stop here and pause on that. Jesus has been going about the region performing miracles, demonstrating that in Him and through Him the very kingdom of God has come near, that even now the new creation is breaking into this sin-stricken world. The sick are healed, the lost are instructed, the hungry are fed. It is marvelous, wonderful, and glorious. And the religious leaders, as they hear the reports of these things, they’re asking if appropriate procedures have been followed all the while. They’re asking if the traditions have been kept. They’re asking if the disciples washed their hands first.

The Old Testament set out certain requirements for hygiene and for ceremonial purity before God, but alongside the scriptures, there had developed over time a wide-ranging set of oral traditions that sought to explain and develop the principles of scripture, and that functionally just added extra regulations to the Word of God. That's what Jesus is talking about when He speaks about the tradition of the elders. The point here is not so much that the disciples of Jesus have broken the Torah, the written law of God, but rather they have failed to give due respect to the traditions, to these extra regulations. Now comes the challenge from these religious leaders.

As we read this and let it sink in, we just have to stand back from all this and ask ourselves the question: Are you kidding me? Is this really all they have to say? Trying to conceptualize this, it’s like a truckload of firefighters. They get back from fighting a major blaze in an apartment block. They’re out there most of the night. They saved 23 lives, there’s no fatalities. They stumble back, exhausted, into the station at 3:00 a.m., and the station manager is standing there at the doorway with arms crossed. He says to them as they walk back in, "Did you fill out the health and safety checklist before you left the station, before you entered that burning building? Did you do a risk analysis and file it properly in the filing cabinet? Did you tick every box on the form? I haven't found the forms. Where are your forms?"

It’s that kind of spirit. It’s that kind of outlook. Or to try another example, you’re driving along in your car and you see someone injured and bleeding by the side of the road, and you stop your car. You pull over to help them. You jump out, you run to them, you bend down, and you hold pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding. You take out your phone, you dial 911, you call for an ambulance. You save this person’s life. And then the police eventually arrive on the scene, see all that has taken place, and they issue you a ticket for parking your car in a no-stopping zone. It’s just absurdity. It represents a profound loss of perspective; it reveals a deep illness of heart.

Jesus is engaged in a major rescue operation. His disciples have been at His side assisting Him. All these religious leaders can think about is whether they’ve been washing their hands properly as they’ve done this. And while you and I might be inclined to scream at someone who behaves like this, Jesus answers with a calm spirit, with wisdom and deep insight. He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" Those words are spoken with an even voice, we imagine, and in a rational tone, but the message that now comes is truly devastating. "For God commanded, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' But 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.' So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God."

The commandments make it very clear that it is a primary duty of the people of God to honor their father and to honor their mother. The commandment is not hard to understand. The principle here is not a matter of debate. It’s clear enough. No teacher of the law in Israel would deny that. But the traditions of the elders, the oral law, it added in a dynamic here, an interesting one, one that could very easily be abused. It was possible under the tradition of the elders to dedicate some portion of one’s property, of one’s wealth, of one’s assets to the temple for the time of death. To say, "50% of my wealth is set apart for the temple. I can use it for my lifetime, but it is set apart, it is Corban." That's the term that's used. "And when I die, it must go there."

On one level, that sounds very generous and very noble. What a wonderful and lovely thing to do. But here's the catch: I can use my assets in my lifetime, but I cannot give them away once they’re dedicated. I’ve promised them now to the temple; I’ve made a formal commitment. And so if someone comes along and needs something from me, even though I have the resources, I am now in the position to be able to say, "No. I’m so sorry. The wealth has been promised elsewhere. It’s destined for the temple."

Here is where the sharp end of Jesus’ argument comes in. You could pledge wealth to the temple, declare it Corban, and then turn around to your needy parents whom the law of God says you must honor, who perhaps now need support in their old age, and you say to them, "I would love to help you. If I could, I’d love to help. Really would. It’s so tough for me. It’s quite burdensome for me to see you not properly housed, hungry, and cold. But the wealth is now promised to the temple, dedicated to the Lord. It may look like I’ve got cash to spare, I understand that, but the Ferrari has been deeded to the temple. The beach house, it is gifted unto the Lord. The yacht, it has been promised to the priests. Nothing I can do. I so wish I could help."

In the name of religion, the word of God has been set aside, the law of the Lord has been trampled into the dust, the name of the Lord has been dishonored. And so comes the verdict in verse seven: "You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'" Jesus quotes from the prophet when in another era, the Lord had declared the worship of His people empty and vain because their hearts were so far from Him. Their religion, it was worldly. It was man-made rather than truly God-honoring.

Now, what's the point? What's the lesson? What's the scandal here? Well, the lesson is simply this: it is fearfully possible for people, even for you and even for me, to be outwardly religious but inwardly godless. It’s fearfully possible.

Steve Hiller: You’re listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths, and a message called "The King Who Judges the Heart," part of our series "In the Presence of the King." We’re looking at Matthew chapter 15 today. If you joined us late or you have to leave early, you can always listen online at encounterthetruth.org. You can also listen via the Encounter the Truth app. You’ll find it for free at your app store. Let’s get back to the message. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: What's the point? What's the lesson? What's the scandal here? Well, the lesson is simply this: it is fearfully possible for people, even for you and even for me, to be outwardly religious but inwardly godless. Over time, there had in Israel grown up traditions that outlined what it looked like to be a religious person. You keep these rules, these patterns of behavior, certain types of washing, certain financial commitments, and so on. And as long as you were ticking all the boxes of traditional necessity of outward conformity, you were deemed to be in the right, in good standing, a member of the community of the people of God.

Jesus looks with His X-ray vision through the veneer of religion and He gazes into the heart, and He says your human-made religious traditions are actually a disguise. They have become a cloak to conceal a heart that is very, far from God. And the traditions themselves, far from honoring God, they have become a means, a mechanism actually for dishonoring Him and for flouting His word.

I really wish I was insightful enough and clever enough to give us a long list of religious traditions today that fit into this category, traditions that you and I regularly practice that mask an inward godlessness. I’m afraid I’m not clever enough. I don't have that. I guess if I did, I’d be in a good position to try and put a stop to them within our fellowship. I don't have a list of practices that we should axe. But here's what I think we need to do with this warning, with this admonition that comes from Jesus. We need to look within, each one of us. We need individually and personally to have a good look at our heart. I need to look at my heart; you need to look at yours. We need to stand under the X-ray and look at the picture ourselves.

What is it you see when you do that? Do you see a heart that loves the Lord Jesus, that serves Him out of a desire to please Him, to glorify Him, to respond to His gospel grace with gratitude and with praise? Is that what's going on inside? I hope so. But I know as well how very, very easy it is to engage in religious activity, in service, in disciplines of life out of other types of motivation.

I want to be accepted within my Christian community, or my little subsection of the Christian community, the one that matters to me. To do that, I’ve learned that I need to tick certain boxes. I need to do certain things. I need to participate in certain ways. I need to demonstrate my commitment through certain activities, certain patterns of life.

I want to try and get others to behave in a certain way. I’d frankly like them to conform to an ideal that I have for what it looks like to be a Christian, a member of the church, a part of this community. And so I’m going to model certain types of behavior, I’m going to commend certain types of behavior, I’m going to cajole other people to conform to my pattern.

I’m aware of sin in my own life. I’m aware that in some ways I’m actually leading a kind of double life. I don't want people to see that side of me, of course, so I’m going to work hard at projecting a certain kind of image: a dutiful, reverent, thoughtful, active, serving Christian kind of an image. I’m going to polish very carefully that image.

All those motivations and patterns of behavior that I’ve just described, I think I’ve seen all of them. All these motivations give rise to patterns of outward behavior that functionally make religion a disguise for the heart. Outward religion becomes a cloak that attempts to hide and disguise a heart that is actually really quite far away from the Lord and growing further, a heart that does not honor Him. You may well be religious, you may well be disciplined in some respects in your way of life, you may be active in serving within the church, but none of that is impressive to Jesus in the least. His penetrating gaze looks within, and the question is simply this: Is your heart close to the Lord or is your heart far from the Lord?

Being religiously observant and active, showing up at every church event with a big Bible under your arm, it is absolutely meaningless if your heart is not devoted to the Lord Jesus. It seems so obvious to say, but how easily you and I deceive ourselves. Jesus reveals, first of all, the hypocritical heart of religion. Next, He reveals the defiling heart of sin.

The COVID pandemic has given to all of us a very keen sense of disease and infection and separation and quarantine. We could hardly be more tired of these things if we tried, but it has been so much on our minds and so much a part of our experience. I’d like you to imagine someone who is COVID positive but doesn't know it. They’ve been perhaps cautious about the virus. They go about the city wearing a mask, perhaps wearing gloves, seeking at all times to insulate and protect themselves, avoiding other people, treating others as first and foremost virus carriers, staying away from the crowds, cleaning surfaces, sanitizing hands, refusing to eat anything that doesn't come from a reliable source.

But what this person doesn't know is that they are themselves carrying the virus. The source of their infection is now found within their personal cocoon. They have placed themselves within a bubble of protection, but the danger is actually found within. It is the essence of worldly religion to think that moral filth and moral defilement is to be found out there somewhere. My job within worldly religion is to get clean and stay clean by means of rite and ritual. That was the instinct of the religious leaders who confronted Jesus that day. They ignored the wonderful reality of what Jesus was doing and achieving through His ministry, and they were obsessed with defilement that came from outside.

Into this confusion, into this inverted thinking, Jesus speaks these words of profound importance in verse 10. And He called the people to Him and said to them, "Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person." The conventional thinking of worldly religion, of the religious mind, has it wrong, has it backwards, has it inverted, says Jesus.

The disciples then come and tell Him that the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they were offended by this. No surprise there. Jesus is taking aim at their system of thought, at their basis of power through policing these things in the religious community. Jesus says in essence, "Don't worry about it. The Father's going to determine who is the real deal. He will weed out those who are not good plants, not the ones He has planted in His garden. Leave those guys alone; they are blind guides who are leading the blind. When the blind lead the blind, it must end badly. Both guide and follower will fall into a pit." That's where worldly religion is heading: not to the heights of heaven, but to the pit of hell.

And so Peter says, "Okay, please explain to us then what you meant." And Jesus does in verse 16. And He said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that 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." You won't become unclean, really unclean, spiritually unclean in the sight of God through touching something in this world, through brushing up against some particular object or eating some particular kind of food. True defilement actually comes from the inside. And here's what it looks like, verse 19: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person."

Steve Hiller: We are going to have to pause right there, but we’ll continue next time on Encounter the Truth. Our message is called "The King Who Judges the Heart," part of our series "In the Presence of the King." If you ever miss a broadcast, come and listen online at encounterthetruth.org. Encounter the Truth is a listener-supported program. We’re able to be on this station because of your generosity. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a book called "An Anchor for the Soul" written by Paul Mallard. Jonathan, what's this book about?

Jonathan Griffiths: This is a book about walking through trial while trusting in the Lord. It’s grounded in Psalm 22, where the psalmist expresses that agony of facing real trial, but it points us at the same time to the Lord Jesus Christ, who entered into suffering for us and in our place at the cross of Calvary.

Steve Hiller: We want to send you a copy of this book as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online when you visit our website, encounterthetruth.org, or call us at 1-833-99-TRUTH. That's 1-833-998-7884 or encounterthetruth.org. You can also write to us at Encounter the Truth, P.O. Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario, K2C 3M1. Or in the US at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Breda, I’m Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you’ll join us next time.