"Our Dark Side"
Mark 7:1-8,14-15
It is always good to have a scapegoat. If we lose a game, we can always blame the referee for making bad calls, we can blame the coach for making bad decisions, we can blame a teammate for missing the ball. If we do not do well on a test we can blame the teacher for not preparing us, for asking questions that we did not expect. If we are late for band practice we can blame our alarm clock for not going off. If we have a bad day we can blame God.
Why are we sinners? It is because of Adam and Eve. If they had not picked the fruit from the tree, we would all be perfect little angels. Well, maybe not all of us.
It is also good to have enemies, people we can blame for the upheaval in the world. If we have someone else to blame we can always make ourselves look good. I will be honest, I have been trying to make myself look good for years and it just hasn't worked.
When we read the Bible we can criticize the Pharisees. They were the brood of vipers. They made following their man made laws more important than reaching out to people. They criticized Jesus for violating the Sabbath. They wanted to know why the disciples of Jesus didn't wash their hands before they ate. Who did they think they were?
But we better careful with our criticism. We need to pay attention to what Jesus said to them. They were trying to protect themselves from the outside world. They were trying to keep anything unclean from entering their bodies. Jesus said it wasn't things on the outside that would defile a person, it is the things that come out of a person that defile them.
We all have a dark side, even Mother Teresa. When she was asked why she carried on her ministry of love she responded, because there was a Hitler inside of her.
We can wash our hands until they are spotless. The question is, What is in our hearts? Jesus, in quoting Isaiah said, "This people honors God with their lips but their hearts are far from God." Could those words describe us?
Thinking about this reminded me of a scene in the movie My Cousin Vinny. Vinny told his girl friend, Lisa, that the prosecuting attorney asked him to go hunting. Vinny was a city boy. He was not a deer hunter. He asked Lisa what he should wear to go deer hunting. Her response, Here you are, shooting a poor innocent deer. When you blow his brains out do you think he will really care about what you are wearing?
When we come before God, do we really think God will care whether our hands are spotless or not. God's concern will be about the heart. What is in that person's heart? And the reality is that not one of us has a clean heart. We can examine every member of every so called Christian organization. We can examine every member of every Presbyterian church. We can examine every member of every political group within the Presbyterian denomination. We can examine every elder, deacon and minister in this church. We will not find one with a pure heart. No, not one.
Remember the story of Abraham bargaining with God to save the city of
The good news. We have a scapegoat, someone willing to take the blame, someone willing to get down and dirty and bloody for us. His name is Jesus. And he says, Take, eat, this is my body, broken for you.