Discipleship is Adherence to Christ

• Fourth Sunday in Lent

With Philippians 2:1-11 and Matthew 15:1-20

You know I’m a runner, biker… reader. My favorite book is The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. It’s something of a modern day fable, a timeless story of a young man who sets off on a journey following his heart.

Which is noble and needful and life-affirming. After all, what is life with a heart without passion, hopes, dreams, desires? It is passionless, washed out, tedious.

• However, the heart can be blind, can lead astray. There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is a way that leads to death (Prov 14:12).
A person cannot seek to follow their heart alone…
we need something external, a rule, a system, a law, a community.

• We may tend to paint them pretty negatively, but that’s what the Pharisees had: a rule, a system, a law, a community, because why? Because the heart can lead astray, because the individual unchecked can get lost and lead others – the blind leading the blind.

To be a Pharisee wasn’t a bad thing. It was what you wanted your kid to do, it was honorable. Paul was a Pharisee. Gamaliel. Josephus.

Two problems with Pharisees as often depicted in the Gospels, though:
they elevated the law above God, and they adhered to human tradition instead of to God. They placed some high standards and held others to them.

• High standards are not bad. Lexi’s favorite teacher had high standards, but students wanted to meet them, were drawn to her as an educator. The feeling we get from the Pharisees is that they were judgmental, not invitational.

• One of my favorite Bible verses is John 10:10, Jesus said I came that people might have life abundant. That’s not what we get from the Pharisees, life abundant. Life restricted.

• Jesus quotes Isaiah to the Pharisees… “These people’s hearts are far from me…” What does God want? Heart. And obedience, yes, but obedience follows heart.

• I’ve been reading Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship the last few weeks, and he talks about the relationship between heart and obedience… not as simple as I put it.
But a disciple is one who adheres to the person of Jesus… clings to Christ.

And when you cling to Christ, you do what Christ says,
and when you do what Christ says, you cling to Christ…

• And I say and I know that adherence to Christ means the reading and studying of The Word – the second person of the Trinity… instead of clinging to man-made rules and regulations, cling to Christ… Read, study, keep word, talk to, live and love Christ, learn to think like.

• Hymn 562 Jesus, Lord, We Look to Thee

Philippians 2:1-11 (CEB)

2 Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love, any sharing in the Spirit, any sympathy, ² complete my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, being united, and agreeing with each other. ³ Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves. ⁴ Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others. ⁵ Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus:

⁶ Though he was in the form of God,
       he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.

⁷ But he emptied himself

        by taking the form of a slave

        and by becoming like human beings.

When he found himself in the form of a human,

⁸       he humbled himself by becoming obedient 

        to the point of death, even death on a cross.

⁹ Therefore, God highly honored him

        and gave him a name above all names,

¹⁰     so that at the name of Jesus everyone

        in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow

¹¹         and every tongue confess that

            Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Matthew 15:1-20        (CEB)        03/15/15

15 Then Pharisees and legal experts came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ² “Why are your disciples breaking the elders’ rules handed down to us? They don’t ritually purify their hands by washing before they eat.”

³ Jesus replied, “Why do you break the command of God by keeping the rules handed down to you? ⁴ For God said, Honor your father and your mother,^{[Exodus 20:12]} and The person who speaks against father or mother will certainly be put to death.^{[Exodus 21:17] 5} But you say, ‘If you tell your father or mother, “Everything I’m expected to contribute to you I’m giving to God as a gift,” then you don’t have to honor your father.’ ⁶ So you do away with God’s Law for the sake of the rules that have been handed down to you. ⁷ Hypocrites! Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you, ⁸ This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. ⁹ Their worship of me is empty since they teach instructions that are human rules.”^{[Isaiah 29:13]}

¹⁰ Jesus called the crowd near and said to them, “Listen and understand. ¹¹ It’s not what goes into the mouth that contaminates a person in God’s sight. It’s what comes out of the mouth that contaminates the person.”

¹² Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended by what you just said?”

¹³ Jesus replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be pulled up. ¹⁴ Leave the Pharisees alone. They are blind people who are guides to blind people. But if a blind person leads another blind person, they will both fall into a ditch.”

¹⁵ Then Peter spoke up, “Explain this riddle to us.”

¹⁶ Jesus said, “Don’t you understand yet? ¹⁷ Don’t you know that everything that goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? ¹⁸ But what goes out of the mouth comes from the heart. And that’s what contaminates a person in God’s sight. ¹⁹ Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adultery, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies, and insults. ²⁰ These contaminate a person in God’s sight. But eating without washing hands doesn’t contaminate in God’s sight.”