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Good morning.
My name is Denise Yon.
I'm part of the San Francisco Community Group and Women Reading Women.
Today's scripture reading is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, verses 37 to 54, as printed
in your liturgy.
When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him, so he went in
and reclined at the table.
But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
Then the Lord said to him,
Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full
of greed and wickedness.
You foolish people.
Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?
But now, as for what is inside you, be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for
you.
Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue, and all other kinds
of garden and herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God.
You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful
greetings in the marketplaces.
Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.
One of the experts in the law answered him,
Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.
Jesus replied,
And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with the burdens they can
hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed
them.
So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did.
They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.
Because of this, God in his wisdom said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some
of whom they will kill, and others they will persecute.
Therefore, this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been
shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah,
who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary.
Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge.
You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.
When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of law began to oppose him fiercely,
and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Thank you, Denise.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer as we open up his word.
Father, I do not presume to have anything to say in and of myself to your people,
but you are God who speaks, and you speak truth, and you speak grace,
and I pray that you would give us ears to hear and to receive your truth and your grace today,
that we might behold your Son, the Savior,
that we might earnestly desire pure hearts in your eyes,
and that we might behold the wonderful news of how you've made provision
for our cleansing and our purity in Christ.
Give us a heart for Jesus, we pray, in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
So you may have noticed over the past couple weeks as we've been getting deeper and deeper into Luke's gospel
that Jesus has been having more and more, like, really tense interactions
with this particular group of religious folks called the Pharisees.
And in this text that we just heard read, this is definitely the most direct,
it's the harshest, the most confrontational, and offensive
that we've seen Jesus speak to anyone so far in the gospel of Luke.
Now, maybe some of you are desensitized to this, how lambastic Jesus is being here,
because, hey, these are the Pharisees, right?
Even if you're not a Christian, you know that you don't want to be a Pharisee.
You don't want to be a Pharisee.
These are the bad guys, the hypocrites, the self-righteous, legalistic, judgmental, hard-hearted,
lacking in compassion, arch-nemeses of Jesus throughout all the gospel accounts.
So in our minds, like, yeah, get him, Jesus, right?
Pile it on, amen, amen, woe to you, Pharisees.
But, you know, that we view the Pharisees as bad guys is actually more a testament
to the pervasive influence of Christianity in the modern Western world
than an actually helpful way to approach this episode in Jesus' life.
Because, listen, the Pharisees may be the bad guys to those of us living in a Western civilization
that's been undeniably shaped by the life and teachings of Jesus,
but I guarantee you that in this moment, around this super-awkward dining table in Luke chapter 11,
and across the whole Jewish community at this time, the Pharisees and the experts in the law,
they had a very different reputation.
See, the predominant thesis of the Jewish people in Jesus' day was that the reason
that Israel was under occupation by the Romans was that their forefathers had disregarded the prophets,
rebelled against God, and chosen to live in uncleanness and unrighteousness.
And the people who most believed this thesis and who devoted their whole lives
to bringing the nation back to a kingdom of purity and cleanliness before the Lord,
the people who led the way and who were looked to for direction about how to live a clean life,
it was the Pharisees.
According to New Testament scholar Lynn Kohik, the majority of the evidence indicates
that the Pharisees were seen as on the people's side while preserving the highest goals
and the highest standards of purity.
So the Pharisees really were the champions of Israel.
These were the national heroes, believed to be the most righteous,
the purest people in the community, the very preservers of Jewish life,
Jewish religion, Jewish culture.
And they bravely lived strict and disciplined Jewish lives,
even while Roman soldiers marched through their streets and pressured them to just assimilate,
right, to Greco-Roman culture.
So it should actually stun us to observe how aggressively Jesus goes at his dinner host
and his fellow guests here.
I just want you to imagine yourself sitting around that table, right?
Verse 37 says that the Pharisee invited Jesus into his own home.
So it's not like this was one of the more antagonistic or jealous Pharisees from the start.
Not every Pharisee was a Jesus hater.
This Pharisee, this host probably was even sympathetic and curious about Jesus.
Jesus was probably his guest of honor, right?
Then verse 38 simply says the Pharisee was just surprised
when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
Who knows if he even said anything?
Maybe he raised an eyebrow.
Maybe he said something like, hmm, oh, that's interesting.
He didn't wash his hands.
We don't know exactly.
But what we do know is that that was all it took
for Jesus to become the kind of dinner guest
that we all dread to have in our homes, right?
The kind of dinner guest that we pray our children will never become,
insulting the host, insulting the fellow guests,
calling people fools at the table,
and pronouncing woes around the table, right?
This is the kind of story that makes me question the bright rainbow WWJD,
what would Jesus do, bracelet used to wear in my youth, right?
It's like, really?
Would Jesus do that?
Should I do that too?
I don't know, right?
But of course, if he's Jesus,
and our core confession as Christians is that Jesus Christ is Lord,
we've got to recognize he's not wrong here.
So the question we need to ask is,
what was it that got Jesus so fired up?
What is it that brings out the fire and ire of Jesus
and leads him to cut the cordial
and break all social conventions of politeness and niceness?
So again, here Jesus is,
not having washed up before eating,
but FYI, there is actually no commandment in the law of Moses
saying that people need to wash their hands before they eat a meal.
Only the priests carrying out their ceremonial duties in the tabernacle
were commanded to wash their hands before eating.
Or people who'd become unclean by coming into contact with a dead body
or with blood or an unclean animal,
those were the only times you need to wash before eating.
So it's not like Jesus was breaking any of the laws of Moses.
So what was likely going on here was that the Pharisees,
in their dedication to making Israel clean again,
they applied these ceremonial washing practices
just to everyone, just to be safe.
And not just to the priests
or those who'd come into contact with unclean things,
they applied it to everyone.
So again, Jesus hasn't broken Moses' law,
he's merely broken an extra law and custom of the Pharisees.
But at the same time,
it's still a surprise for the Pharisees to see this.
And I so love how Luke writes here in the next verse,
then the Lord.
He didn't say then Jesus, but he says then the Lord.
Like Luke's emphasizing, he may be a lunch guest here,
but Jesus is never a mere guest.
He's always the Lord of every table.
And as the Lord, he has something to say to the Pharisees
about what it means to be clean.
Now the word for washed here in verse 38
is the word baptizo.
All right, where we get the word baptized.
It's the word baptizo.
So you have this Pharisee who is surprised
that Jesus didn't baptize himself before the meal.
And so Jesus is like,
oh, you want to talk about baptism?
You want to talk about what it really means to be clean?
Verse 39,
now then you Pharisees,
clean the outside of the cup of the dish and the dish,
but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
He's saying, wait,
you guys with your triple washed hands
are getting caught up in the fact
that I haven't baptized mine before eating?
That's really your biggest hangup?
This external, superficial,
even maybe superstitious act of cleansing your hands?
Well, I have a question for you.
What about your hearts?
Have you cleansed the greed and wickedness from your hearts?
Or are you the kinds of people
who only clean the outside of the cup,
but not the inside?
Anyone have a roommate like that?
It's gross.
I've had many roommates like that.
Jesus insists that we got to be clean both inside and out.
Verse 40,
you foolish people,
did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?
Both inside and out matter to God
because he made both.
And just because something or someone
looks clean and nice and good on the outside,
it doesn't mean that they're clean on the inside.
It doesn't mean that at all.
So Jesus says in verse 41,
but now as for what is inside you,
be generous to the poor
and everything will be clean for you.
And what he means here isn't,
okay, do this different external religious act
of giving to the poor instead
and that act is gonna make you clean
rather than just washing your hands before a meal.
No, actually, the Pharisees,
actually, they might have given more alms out
to the community than anyone else in their society.
The key words in this verse, verse 41,
are as for what is inside you.
In the Greek, you could also translate this as
give alms with respect to what is inside you,
meaning don't just do the deed with your hands,
but actually do the deed from your heart,
like with actual care and compassion
and love and zeal for God.
See, Jesus sets a much higher bar for righteousness
than mere external acts of religiosity or even charity.
If you truly want to be clean, he says,
it's gotta start with your heart.
And this bar is high and it's hard and it's heavy
because it really is so much easier
to just follow a rule and check a box, right,
than to cultivate love and compassion in our hearts.
Like here in verse 42 where Jesus says,
woe to the Pharisees for giving a tenth
of even the tiniest herbs
and paying so much attention
to every single little piece of mint and rube
but neglecting justice and love for God.
It totally makes sense to me though
how people, myself included, could get caught up in that.
For so many of us, especially those of us
who are like me, grew up in an evangelical upbringing,
churchgoers all my life,
we've been doing church for a really long time.
Many of us can find ourselves
in a set it and forget it kind of mode, right?
We show up to church every week,
but it's out of habit, no problem.
It's just built into our way of life.
It's built into our life that once a month
we're going to help prepare the communion table,
be on the welcome team,
help with the kids' ministry.
It's just built in.
We've also, you know,
just figured out how to habit stack, right?
We figured out how to have our daily devotions,
read our Bible and pray every day.
We just stack it onto our daily coffee.
It's done.
It's automatic.
We also electronically automate our giving.
10%, I don't even see it.
I don't even feel it anymore.
It just goes.
And we don't even, like, think about it
when we give.
We're fine.
We're good.
We're clean.
We don't curse.
We don't gamble.
We don't get high.
We don't get drunk.
We're on cruise control.
This is what our parents taught us to do.
This is what we do.
So can I please get my Stellar Christian sticker now, right?
An A plus on my spiritual report card.
Well, Jesus would remind us
that it is possible to do all of this
and more,
and yet to neglect justice
and the love of God.
Like, you may have checked all the boxes,
but when was the last time you checked your heart?
When was the last time you prayed Psalm 139?
Search me, O God,
and know my heart.
Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me
and lead me in the way everlasting.
We need to be a self-examining,
heart-examining people.
We need to be regularly asking ourselves
and each other in community,
are we growing in our love for others
and our love for God,
or have we been content to check the boxes
and just live our lives unexamined
and on autopilot?
Now, in case you thought
I was just going to go after
the conservative religious evangelicals,
I also have a word
for the more theologically liberal
of those in the room.
Maybe you have a mainline background.
Maybe you especially love passages like this
and you're cheering Jesus on at this point
because you see Jesus in this passage
like polemicizing against meticulous,
petty rule following.
And you love this
because you yourself
are not really interested
in getting into the details
and the specifics
of honoring every part of God's law
with every part of your life.
You're just focused on love and compassion,
just broadly speaking,
without much definition.
Well, I want to remind you
that Jesus also says here
at the end of verse 42,
you should have practiced the latter,
so you should have practiced justice
and love for God,
without leaving the former undone.
Jesus is not criticizing
the Pharisees' attention
to detail in tithing,
just their neglect
of the even more important things.
But make no mistake,
Jesus wants it all,
and he's worthy of it all.
So yes, we need the big boulders in place.
Pursue justice.
Have compassion for people.
Love God from your heart.
And then though,
look for all the many infinite ways
you can express that justice
and love and compassion
in the details of your life.
So if this is you,
my question for you is,
are you pursuing
a dynamic relationship with God
in all the details of your life?
Are you searching the scriptures
and seeking to apply them,
or have you settled
for some just broad,
generalized,
culturally acceptable,
ambiguous notion of love,
and following this kind of Jesus
that you just imagined in your head,
but that you haven't investigated
in his words?
Jesus wants us to grow
in the former and the latter,
justice for the world,
love for God,
and intense attention
to all the infinite ways
we could honor and worship him
in the minutest details
of our lives.
Because again,
he's worthy of it all.
So like,
how are we using our commutes?
How are we using our leisure?
How are we thinking about
even our family vacation?
Sure, God doesn't bind us
with legalistic rules
for what to do on BART,
or what to do with the last half hour
that we have before we go to sleep,
or how to use our PTO,
but it all does still belong to him.
And I wonder how many of us
acknowledge the truth
that it all belongs to him.
The next thing Jesus criticizes
the Pharisees for in verse 43
is their love of status and respect
in the synagogues
and the marketplace,
their lust for popularity
and influence.
According to Jesus,
they are blind
and they don't realize
their actual status
in the eyes of God.
He likens them to unmarked graves
in verse 44.
Because see,
in their society,
it wasn't like they had cemeteries
where everyone was just buried
in the same place.
No, people were buried
all over the place,
so it was very important
to mark those graves
or else you would be stepping
on someone's burial site
and in the Jewish faith,
you would be considered
as unclean.
So Jesus was saying,
not only were the Pharisees
not nearly as clean
as they thought,
but that they were also
unknowingly
making others unclean.
See,
this is not just about
us being clean
in the eyes of God,
like individualistically.
We need to check our hearts,
we need to practice
self-examination,
and we need to take
a good long look
at ourselves
in the mirror
of the Scriptures
because our cleanliness
or lack thereof
has major implications
for others,
for our community,
for the world,
our coworkers,
our children,
our neighbors.
And the question is,
what if you
are an unmarked grave
and you don't realize it?
Don't you want to know?
And might you be willing
to ask God to show you
and to change you
if need be?
The Pharisees
and the law experts
weren't willing
to acknowledge
these realities
or even the possibility
of these realities
or to make any changes
to their lives
and lifestyles
and how they viewed
the world.
Verse 45 says,
one of the experts
in the law
answered him.
He didn't say,
oh, that was really convicting.
Tell me more, Jesus.
He says,
teacher,
when you say these things,
you insult us also.
He was upset.
And Jesus is like,
yeah,
I meant to be offensive.
I know.
Verse 46,
and you experts
in the law,
woe to you
because you load people
down with burdens
they can hardly carry
and you yourselves
would not lift one finger
to help them.
He continues to go at it.
As the guy's putting
a matzo ball in his mouth,
Jesus keeps going, right?
See,
while these experts
in the law
believed themselves
to be so pious
because they had given
themselves to understanding
and teaching the law
of God to the people,
they'd gotten so fixated
on being right
rather than being righteous,
on knowing the truth
without applying it
in love.
They missed the point
of the law.
We sang about this earlier.
The law was never meant
to save anyone.
And yet the focus
of the experts of the law
was telling people
what the law meant,
what it said,
and burdening them
with all the details
of how they'd fallen short
of these laws.
These laws that tell us
that we are unclean
and impure
and unrighteous sinners
before a holy God
who will not abide
in the midst of our filth.
These law experts
were content
to only have bad news
for the people.
And they thought
that that was
their righteousness,
their knowledge
about the law.
Zero compassion,
zero grace,
zero personal relationship
with God,
only truth
about other people's
uncleanness
and about the reality
and about their teachings
that even these law experts
were the cleanest
in the community.
And the worst part
is this.
The Pharisees
and these experts
in the law,
they actually have no idea
how far they are
missing the mark.
They have no idea
of how unclean
and complicit
with even evil
and murder they are.
You know,
in this ancient
Jewish tradition
that the Pharisees
and the experts
of the law
were a part of,
they actually prided
themselves
on venerating
and honoring
the prophets
who they recognized
that their forefathers
had rejected
and not listened to
and got them
into the mess, right?
So this generation
of Jewish religious leaders
were known to build
and decorate
these beautiful tombs
to honor the prophets
who they recognized
as they were right
all along.
But the question was,
were they going to recognize
the next prophets
that God sent to them?
Like John the Baptist?
Like Jesus of Nazareth?
See, Jesus is saying,
your opposition to me
and the offense
that you're taking at me
is the same thing
your fathers felt.
And every rebellious,
hard-hearted generation
since the beginning of time,
it's what they all felt
when confronted
by truths
they didn't want to hear,
truths that didn't fit
their preconceived notions
about the world.
So you Pharisees
and law experts
may indeed build
and decorate
beautiful tombs,
but really,
you're just accomplices
with every other
prophet-murderer,
every other murderous generation
that hated truth,
even while thinking
they belonged to the truth.
Jesus says,
you are more like
self-serving,
self-interested,
envious and murderous Cain
than righteous,
worshipful,
and sacrificial Abel.
And just as your kings
of old,
stoned prophets
like Zechariah
who rebuked them
for worshiping idols,
all their blood
is just as much
on your hands
even though you think
your hands are clean.
And Jesus recognizes
what a tragedy
and travesty this is
because experts
in the law,
sorry,
and Jesus recognizes
what a tragedy
and travesty this is,
says in verse 52
that they're the ones,
these experts in the law,
are the ones
who are supposed
to have the key
to knowledge,
but they don't know
the truth themselves.
They don't know
God themselves.
And they're not only
blind to the truth,
but they're hindering
others from entering
into the joy
of knowing the truth
themselves,
of knowing God
themselves.
Now maybe you're
thinking to yourself,
cool,
thanks,
I know where this is going,
the lesson here,
the application is,
don't be like the Pharisees,
right?
And you wouldn't be wrong.
Don't be like the Pharisees,
focus on being clean
on the inside
and the outside,
got it.
Get rid of greed
and wickedness
in your heart
even while you go out
and feed the poor.
Make sure you tie it
to God
while not neglecting
justice and love for God.
Make sure it's genuinely
from your heart
and out of compassion,
right?
Don't use your religion
to pursue status
and popularity.
Check yourself
before you wreck yourself
like an unmarked grave,
right?
Don't just burden people
but help people
bear their burdens.
Don't be so sure
you're much better
than those prophet-rejecting,
prophet-killing ancestors
and also quit hindering
others from knowing God
by your failure
to know God yourself.
Got it,
right?
Don't be like the Pharisees.
Let's wrap up.
Let's pray.
Go in the name of Jesus
to love and serve this world
and try not to be a Pharisee,
right?
Is that the benediction today?
Well, that's definitely
a huge part of this.
These are the things
that Jesus hated.
These are the things
that fired Jesus up
and made him the dining guest
that none of us
would want to have.
But if that's the only thing
we get from this passage,
then I think we've also
missed the point.
You know,
one principle
of biblical interpretation
that I learned in college
and that I want to pass on to you,
one question that I think
will help you understand
the Bible a lot better
is this question,
well, first,
you know,
most of us,
when we pick up the Bible
and we read this or that story,
we think,
okay,
what is the moral
and or who is the hero
so I can copy that,
right?
And who are the bad guys
or what are the bad behaviors
that I'm not supposed
to emulate?
And also,
you could do a lot worse
in reading the Bible,
but what if our approach,
and this is the question,
what if our approach
began with asking ourselves
the better question,
how am I worse
than the worst characters
of the story?
How am I in more need
of confession
and repentance
and redemption
than the bad guys here?
And how is Jesus
the only real good guy?
And what good news
does he offer
bad guys like me?
Have you ever read
the Bible that way?
Like,
what if we're not supposed
to simply identify
with the good guys
and the heroes of faith
in these stories?
What if we are the bad guys
in the story?
We're worse.
Needing to repent,
needing to be transformed.
What if we're the ones
desperately in need
of redemption?
So sure,
we should definitely
watch out for every single thing
that Jesus mentioned
around this awkward
dining table,
directed at his host
and his fellow guests.
But man,
if the Pharisees,
with all their devotion
and dedication
and good intentions
and discipline
and knowledge
of the Scriptures,
if they could be blind
to what Jesus
wanted them to see,
how much more susceptible
might we be
when we spend
our free time
not memorizing Scripture,
not giving alms
to the poor
or trying to bring revival
to our nation,
but scrolling our phones
and busying ourselves
with pleasure
and consumption.
If the Pharisees
could not see reality
as God saw it,
when they're trying
so hard
not to miss it,
how much more
might we be missing it
as some of us
are complaining
about grayscale
and this digital detox
during Lent, right?
You know,
it is so sobering
and so striking to me
how this passage ends.
Jesus has just been
a very unconventional guest.
He's very directly rebuked
everyone around the table.
He's called them
a whole bunch of things.
He's called them out
on a whole bunch of things
in their lives.
And you know,
this presented them
with a choice, right?
They could repent,
confess,
and try to change
or they could even
just at least be curious
to learn more.
Like,
oh my goodness,
we might have been wrong.
Please tell us more.
But they chose
the nuclear option.
Verse 53,
when Jesus went outside,
the Pharisees
and the teachers
of the law
began to oppose him
fiercely
and to besiege him
with questions
waiting to catch him
in something he might say.
Their choice
was to be offended
at Jesus,
to start viewing him
as a threat
and as an enemy
and as someone
to take down
rather than even
considering the remotest
possibility
that there was something
in their lives
that needed to change.
Even the smallest speck
of dust in their eyes,
no,
they couldn't even
entertain that possibility.
Instead,
they fought back
and looked for an opportunity
to catch him
in something he said,
which by the way
shows that he hadn't
said anything yet
that they could pin him
down on.
Everything he said
was true.
They just knew
that they didn't like
what he was saying
to them as a prophet.
They didn't like
what he said to them
about the changes
they need to make
in their lives
at the deepest level
of their hearts
in order to truly
be clean
in the eyes of God.
They couldn't see
who was truly
the master and lord
at the table.
And so,
of course,
he was offensive
to them.
So my question is,
are you willing
to let Jesus
be the lord
of your table?
Are we willing
to admit
that there might
be far more
uncleanness
in our lives
and in our hearts
than we realize?
Are we open
to hearing
that hard word
from God?
God.
The Pharisees
and the experts
in the law,
they couldn't bear
to hear such
a hard word.
They couldn't bear
to entertain
the slightest possibility
that Jesus
was telling the truth
about them.
Why?
Because in their minds,
if they really were
as unclean
as Jesus was saying,
how could they
ever wash themselves
clean enough
to stand
in the presence
of God?
If Jesus was right,
then triple washing
their hands,
baptizing themselves
a million times
a day would never
sufficiently
purify them,
especially not
all the way inside,
right?
But you see,
that was precisely
the problem
with their thinking
and precisely
the religious ideology
that most fired
Jesus up
with wrath
and with anger.
He wasn't so much
mad at the Pharisees,
he was mad
at their way
of inhabiting the world,
at their thinking,
at their ideology.
The Pharisee host
raised an eyebrow
when Jesus didn't
baptize before the meal
and this was because
he had no clue
the point
and the picture
of baptism.
He had no idea
that the way
to a true relationship
with God
is not to keep
yourself clean,
but to admit
that you can't
and to be cleansed
by another.
To get baptized
is not an active thing
you do to yourself.
No, we get baptized.
It's a passive activity
that we undergo
and the baptism
that we must undergo
is the washing
that Jesus offers us
through his own baptism
into a bloody death
and resurrection.
That is the only way
we can truly be clean
in the eyes of God
by faith
in union
with Jesus Christ.
This Pharisee
and his guests
couldn't see it
so they pushed Jesus
further away
rather than pursuing
closer intimacy
and union with him.
But what we're going to see
as we continue
journey through Lent,
as we continue
journeying through Lent,
what we're soon
going to be reminded of
is another table,
right?
Where the host
of that table
doesn't scoff
at the uncleanness
of his guests
or demand
that they clean
themselves
before they eat
with him.
But this perfectly
pure host,
he gets down
on his knees
to wash their feet.
I have to wash you.
I have to wash your feet,
he tells them.
It has to be me.
And it is my greatest joy
to do so,
even if it requires
a cross.
And this,
this is the gospel.
Jesus demands
the utmost purity
and cleanliness
from us
and the fact of the matter
is that we are filthy
from head to toe,
inside and out.
None of us could stand
the rebuke he leveled
at the Pharisees
and experts in the law here,
let alone live up
to the rest of the commandments
that we find
in his word.
We have chosen death
and uncleanness instead,
but the good news
is that so did he.
He chose death
in our place.
He chose uncleanness
upon his body
on a cross
to put it to death
so that by his resurrection
we might live
in his light
and purity.
This is the gospel.
And it's only when
we've internalized
this news
that we will ever
begin
to have cleansing
within.
It's only when
we've internalized
the gospel.
This news that Jesus
offers us
a better cleansing
by his blood.
That he's willing
to cleanse us
when we can't do that
on our own.
It's only when
we accept this good news
and let it bury itself
deep into our hearts
and souls
that we will ever
live the kinds of
inside out
clean lives
that we all know
we want to live up to
for our neighbors,
for our children,
for the world,
for the Lord.
Lord,
we have to
internalize
the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
Let's pray.
Lord,
we thank you
for the devastating news
that we cannot
clean ourselves
and the even better news
that you
and your son
were up to the task
and at great cost
and a great expense
to yourself.
So let us respond
in worship,
oh God,
to the one
who's cleansed us
by his blood.
In his name we pray.
Amen.