Introduction

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Mr. Clean has been around for 67 years now. I tried to research why he had that iconic earring. The official story is that he was based off of a sailor in the Navy. Supposedly though he was originally designed to be a genie. The cleaning was so powerful it was like a genie in a bottle. The supposed original character had a nose ring, a turban, and always had his arms folded. But I guess they decided they wanted something more down to earth and moved the nose ring to his ear and made him a regular person.

Whether that origin story is true or not, the strategy behind Mr. Clean’s character is clear: the brand is so powerful, cleaning requires less effort. One of their early jingles claimed their product saved 50 seconds of every cleaning minute. In other words, what would originally take a minute to clean would only take 10 seconds with their product.

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We like things to be clean and often are willing to put in a lot of work to ensure cleanliness. The same thing is true of the inside of our lives too. We sometimes feel the need to cleanse our hearts just as deeply. We’re willing to buy the expensive product, go the extra mile, anything to get that smile from heaven and get rid of the guilt feelings.

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Jesus addresses our approach to God, especially in matters of cleanliness. Where does our purity come from? Does it come from within? Does it come from our performance?

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Matt. 14:34-15:6

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Matthew 14:34–36 “34 And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick 36 and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.” Revelation

This short story serves the whole gospel’s building action by showing the absolute popularity of Jesus throughout the whole area. Notice, they recognized him. Jesus is someone who is well known now and cannot fly under the radar when he goes somewhere. Then they send around to the entire region. It would be like if someone famous came to Goshen. Not only would you have the people of Goshen show up, but also people from the entire county, and beyond.

And they come to Jesus demanding to touch the hem of his garment. This tells us about Jesus: healing, completeness, wholeness flow out of who Jesus is. This is the exact opposite from how the Pharisees would operate. Pharisees and other strict groups considered it an abomination to rub shoulders in a crowd. As one commentator notes:

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke5. Transitional Summary of Constant and Unavoidable Ministry (14:34–36)

one never knew what ceremonial uncleanness one might contract

But strangely this is not Jesus’s concern. Cleanliness laws did not necessarily correspond to actual sinfulness. Instead they had to do with the ability to be in God’s presence. These laws prevented people who had close contact with the curse of death (in it’s many forms) to be in presence with God. Cleanliness laws were a constant reminder that no matter how much law keeping was observed, the curse of death was still deserved.

But Jesus had no fear of the curse of death because he had no sin. Imagine, Christ, the only one truly alive in the crowd of the dying. And yet, death and its affects are not being transferred to Jesus, but life is being transferred to the crowd in an almost mechanical way (as it is in the cleanliness laws).

But how can this be? According to the cleanliness laws it is impurity that is always spread, not the other way around. We get a glimpse of how it is possible in Isaiah 6 when Isaiah is brought to the throne room of God. Immediately, Isaiah in the presence of a holy God cannot get past his own uncleanliness. “Woe is me!” he cries, “I am a man of unclean lips who lives among a people of unclean lips!” And then the angel takes a hot coal and presses it to his lips, purifying him. The very impurity that should have prevented him from entering God’s presence was purified by God himself. This is the image Ezekiel gives in Ezekiel 47 when water flowing out of the temple becomes a great, life bringing river that makes the dead sea come alive again. Instead of the spreading of death, God’s presence brings life.Relevance

A few weeks ago, I noticed how dirty my truck had gotten. I had determined to go to a car wash. So I placed all the things in the bed of the truck in the cab in preparation. But while I was out in town, I wondered why would I spend money to wash my truck when I could just do it for free. So that’s just what I did. I got the soap bucked and towel and began washing my truck. But my truck was so dirty that the towel quickly stopped cleaning and began to just smear dirt around. It would lift the grime up and move it around. And it was so hot outside that if I did not rinse it off quickly, the dirt would just dry back on the side of the truck again. Eventually the towel itself became so soiled that it was really not even cleaning anymore, just relocating the dirt. And even soon after that, the soap bucket itself became unusable because it was so soiled.

We think we can clean ourselves up by doing certain things. “If I start going to church, that will fix my life.” “If I read my Bible more, that will help.” “If I pray more, maybe I can stop doing such and such.” “If I have this positive mindset all the time I will never be discouraged.” Our therapeutic culture produces these lies all the time. Why is the positive and encouraging radio always positive and encouraging when the Bible is not? Have you ever considered that? Why do some believers make it their main effort to present themselves as always happy all the time when the Bible does not present the faith that way? I mean, have you ever read the Psalms, Ecclesiastes or Job? I believe it is mass well-meaning deception. Deception that if you trust in Jesus you will always feel positive and encouraged. Deception that if you give your life to Jesus all your therapeutic goals will be fulfilled. Ah, we try to clean, but the rag is already soiled.

Isn’t our culture just a depressing parable? We give everything we’ve got for the pursuit of happiness in our jobs, distract ourself from every sad feeling in our entertainment, clean ourselves up with our religion, comfort ourselves with technology, and are statistically more lonely and depressed than any previous generation.

And that’s exactly what happens when we make our main goal simply to feel better, to stay positive, to keep our lives scrubbed up on the outside. The rag of self-effort and self-therapy is already dirty. It can’t cleanse the soul. It only smears the dirt around. But the gospel is not a call to ‘be more positive.’ It’s a call to be made new. Christ doesn’t hand you a magic eraser, he gives you a new heart. He doesn’t just tell you to scrub harder. He washes you in His blood. And unlike our rag or bucket, his cleansing never runs out, his Spirit never grows soiled, and his mercy never dries back onto you. So the answer is not that our efforts are pointless, but that our efforts must flow from the cleansing power of Jesus, not from our own soiled strength. When He washes us, then our work is not in vain, because it’s His work in us. Our efforts, our church attendance, our prayers, our bible reading, is a response to our already being cleansed by Christ. We do these things out of gratitude, yes, but even more than that, to see him more clearly: to commune with God. We are not those who touch Christ’s him, receive healing, and say, “Thanks, here’s your tip.” No, instead we now make it our every effort to be close to him.

I don’t make an effort to spend time with my wife, carry on conversations with her and the like just to ensure that she’s happy with me. I spend time with my wife because I enjoy being with her, I love her. If all I want is for her to be happy with me that shows I don’t really care about her, I just care about what I have, my status, my place in life, my contentment. You know the old saying, “Happy wife, happy . . .” Yes, there are a great deal of husbands who are great at manipulation just to save their own skin, to ensure their own happiness. If all your interactions with your spouse is just appeasement can you really call that marriage?

If all your interactions with God is appeasement can you really call that salvation?

Yet, this is the relationship certain Pharisees had with God.Move 2

Matthew 15:1–9 “1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”” Revelation

Notice that these Pharisees have come from Jerusalem. This is not just them standing around observing Jesus’s behavior then saying, “Aha! What about. . .?” No, they have decided to formalize their process a little more. They are not even around the disciples. It’s almost if they are standing in Jerusalem and someone says, “Have you heard Jesus is in such and such region.” And they decide, we need to put this to an end. Then they deliberate on the best way to undo this itinerate teacher. They decide to go from the angle that he goes against the traditions. Then they travel all the way to where he is to confront him.

The Pharisees are concerned with tradition. “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?” They ask. Because they do not wash their hands. It’s important to note that this handwashing was not done to prevent the spread of disease. Soap was not used, it was just water. The Talmud states that if you did not wash your hands a demon could attack. It also stipulated that you should walk even 4 miles to ensure one could wash his hands properly. But this is nowhere commanded as a law in the Old Testament.

But Jesus response get’s right to the heart. It is the Pharisees who actually disobey an actual command for the sake of a tradition. They do not honor their parents. One commentator states:

MatthewExegesis

Jesus’s point seems to be that truly honoring one’s parents as the Decalogue demanded providing the resources they needed when they were incapacitated by sickness or old age. Refusing to care for them devalued them and treated them as if they were worthless

So instead, the Pharisees would designate everything they have to be a gift to God, a gift given when they die. “Sorry,” they may say to their ailing mother, “I know you cannot afford you own medical care, but I’ve designated all my money to God, so I cannot help out.” “Sorry, I know you no longer have a place to live, but my home is designated as a gift to God, so you cannot live here.”

Jesus says in v. 6 that they have made void the Word of God. This is a legal term that the legal scholars like the Pharisees would recognize. They dared to rule the very word of God as unlawful. All based on some human tradition. Then Jesus quotes Isaiah specifically referencing this: “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”Relevance

A century ago, J. Gresham Machen watched as churches in America began to trade the Word of God for the spirit of the age. Instead of proclaiming sin and grace, they preached moral uplift and social progress. Instead of clinging to Christ crucified, they offered vague religious sentiments. And Machen said plainly: that is not Christianity, it is another religion altogether. Isn’t that still our temptation? To baptize the latest cultural therapy, the newest political cause, or the most popular slogan, and call it the gospel? Liberal Christianity did not die in the 1920s. It simply reappears in fresh clothing, whenever the words of men replace the Word of God.

We don’t have to look far to see how this happens today. The United Methodist Church has been splitting apart in recent years, not because Scripture is unclear, but because many leaders decided the clear Word of God on marriage and sexuality could be set aside for the sake of cultural acceptance. God’s Word says one thing; the culture says another. And when church leaders elevate human opinion above God’s authority, they may keep the outward forms of religion, but they lose the substance of Christianity itself. That’s exactly what Jesus warned against: ‘You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.

It’s easy to point a finger at a denomination publicly rewriting God’s word. But isn’t this the same thing we do if even in more subtle ways? We get angry and frustrated and just say, “I’m just an angry person.” We are called to forgive and then we say, “but you just don’t know what they did.”

But notice also the other part that was quoted from Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. . .” And I think that’s the worst of it all. The Pharisees are using God in order to get what they selfishly want. And that’s really what it amounts to. But this is not just about people out there, its about the sinful bent of my heart in here.

Notice the lyrics in this modern song by Christ Renzema called Hereditary:

Well, I’ve stood by in disbelief Watching the pastor pull up in a sports car to preach ‘Bout how blessed are the poor and blessed are the meek And I can’t help but see the irony ‘Cause that same impulse lives in me too Put me in the garden, I’ve taken the fruit The human condition’s not just for the few Oh, it’s here in me just like it’s here in you

When Jesus says, ‘You honor me with your lips, but your heart is far from me,’ He’s not talking about a bad habit you need to break—He’s exposing a deep sickness in every one of us. Why do we pray? Why do we read our Bibles? Why do we come to church? If we’re honest, so often it’s not because we love Him, but because we want something from Him: safety for our kids, blessing on our crops, relief from our guilt, maybe just a little more peace in our lives. I have this constant complex in my heart where I obey God out of a sense of duty in order to make him happy with me. And a lot of the time I see it as a child attempting to please his parents. I want to see that smile on God’s face so I do this and that to please him. And I need this constant reminder that I’m not Mr. Clean. I cannot clean up my evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander as Jesus lists in v. 19. And yet time and time again I believe the lie that if I do good enough today, this morning, maybe now God will have a smile on his face. But what could I possibly do to affect some change in the disposition of God? And what do I get out of such a smile from God? A sense of accomplishment? Unlocking an achievement? I function as though what Christ accomplished was not enough, that I need to make God more pleased that what his own Son did.

I use him instead of worship Him. And that’s not a small slip-up—that’s the very thing that nailed Jesus to the cross. Because we had hearts that loved His gifts but not him, he gave up His own life to give us new hearts. At the cross He didn’t just die for our sins—he died for our false worship, our lip-service religion, our tendency to treat God like a means to an end. And at the cross He offers a new center, a heart drawn near by grace, not by transaction. Only there can our worship be real, because only there do we finally want God Himself more than what He gives.

So throw down your dirty rags and run to the cross. Pick up the blood stained robe and be washed in the all-sufficient death of Christ.

How do you know you picked up the cleaning rag?

You focus on your own performance or failure

You see faith as a transaction or use God to get something you want

You have inner frustration of guilt

You compare yourself to others

But if you have picked up that rag, don’t despair. This is exactly where Christ meets you.