In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What Makes a Man Clean?
What makes a person clean? What makes a person righteous, fit to stand in the presence of God (Psalm 24:3–4)?
There are times when we try to do this for ourselves. We invent ways to get right with God, and ways to make other people think the best of us. We want a life that other people can look at and think, “Ah, he has it figured out.” Whatever that looks like for you, sometimes it is material stuff. Other times we say, “No, no, it is not about material stuff. I want other people to see that I am at peace, that I have it together.” And so we project that image outward, while inside we are anxious and spun up about everything.
Jesus says it has to start from the inside out (Mark 7:20–23).
Jesus says He must make us clean. He must make us right.
The Problem Is Within
The Pharisees are always gathered around Him, and at different times He calls them a brood of vipers (Matthew 12:34) and whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27). He says, in effect, “You paint yourselves up on the outside. You look good. But inside you are spiritually dead to the things that actually give life” (Matthew 23:25–28; Ephesians 2:1).
And apart from Christ and His saving work, that is all our lives (John 15:5).
We cannot do this for ourselves. We wind up with lives of seeming outward cleanliness, but inward filth. And out of that heart come things that have to be painted over time and time again.
Jesus talks about them. He says there is lust, deceit, slander, pride, anger. These things get out into our lives, and they tear families apart. They ruin friendships, neighborhoods, churches. Jesus says it is the things that start in our heart and come out into our life that actually defile us. That is what sin is (Mark 7:21–23; Matthew 15:18–20).
Outward Things Cannot Save Us
Our temptation is always to make it about the things we can control.
We think, “If I set aside those foods, that makes me good.” And fasting, as the Catechism says, is fine outward training. We train our bodies so that our bellies are not the boss of us, and so that we live for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, trusting that all these things will be added unto us (Matthew 6:33).
But those are outward things. Those are things we can control, boxes we can check.
And Jesus says, yes, but if this is not made right, if Jesus is not the one sitting on the throne of our hearts, then what does any of it matter (Ephesians 3:17)?
The hatred still comes out.
The words that hurt still come out.
The words that bring death to those around us still come out (Proverbs 18:21).
They come out in the breaking of the Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:14). They come out, and marriages are torn apart, and lives are destroyed for a few moments of passion. They come out in pride that puffs us up and cuts down everyone else around us (Proverbs 16:18).
The Morning After
Then come those moments of clarity.
The morning after, when we can hear what we actually said, what seemed like the right thing in the moment, and we can hear how it would have sounded to everybody else. We can look back and think about what the night before actually cost.
And if we are dead inside, then all of that just leads to guilt and despair, to crying out, “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1). And if there is no trust that the Lord will actually help and save, then you are stuck there.
Christ Tells the Truth and Cleanses Us
But Jesus came as someone willing to tell the truth about us and about our condition (John 2:24–25). He does not pretend when He looks at us and speaks about us. Thanks be to God that He does not.
We need someone who can look at us and tell us what is actually going on.
He sees our sin, and then He goes to the cross to save us from it (1 Peter 2:24).
He sees the things that defile us, the things He talks about, the things that come out of our heart and make a mess of our life, the things that make it hard even to look one another in the eye, let alone bear the thought of having God see all of us.
Jesus takes that.
He says: You need to be washed. You need to be cleansed. You need to be sanctified. You need to be justified (1 Corinthians 6:11).
And so He goes to the cross, and He opens His side for us, and pours out from His sacred heart the water and the blood that wash us and make us clean (John 19:34; 1 John 5:6). He frees our consciences from having to try to fix it on our own (Hebrews 9:14). And He returns us to His Word, the Word that kills the sin in us and makes us alive with Him before His Father (Romans 6:11; John 6:63).
A Lenten Practice of Repentance
Now this Lent we hear His words. We hear our lives being accurately diagnosed by our Savior. But we also have a Savior who loves us, who pays for us, and who does what is necessary to cleanse us. He kills our sins and gives us our life back (Romans 6:6–11).
So make this a practice in the remaining weeks of Lent:
Go through each of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1–17). Walk through each one. Consider your life. Stop and think about it. Confess each one specifically.
How have I not loved God with my whole heart (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37)?
How have I not kept His name holy (Exodus 20:7; Matthew 6:9)?
How have I not remembered the Sabbath Day (Exodus 20:8)?
And so on through the list.
And see, in your heart, where those things start.
If you notice, in all the explanations to the Commandments, they begin the same way: “We should fear and love God so that…” When we find ourselves doing the things we should not do, or failing to do the things we should do, it all traces back to the heart (Mark 7:21–23).
Create in Me a Clean Heart
Go through the Ten Commandments, and then make a point of praying a Bible verse that I know for sure each of you has memorized, because we sing it every week:
“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” (Psalm 51:10–11).
Ask God for that new heart as you confess your sins.
And then pray that with that new heart He would let you speak words that give life (Ephesians 4:29). Stop the gossip, the sarcasm, all the things that only wound. Look at your family life and say:
Lord, give me a heart that loves and honors my spouse (Ephesians 5:33).
Lord, give me a heart that does what You want me to do.
Lord, turn the hearts of fathers to their children (Malachi 4:6; Luke 1:17).
Lord, turn the hearts of children to their fathers and mothers (Malachi 4:6).
You want us to do these things, O Lord. Give us new hearts. Hearts washed clean from the inside out by the water and the blood (John 19:34). Give us Your life. Make us clean. Sanctify us. Justify us (1 Corinthians 6:11).
Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Amen.