church

INI
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
September 2, 20012
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

DOWN WITH CEREMONIALISM!
Matthew 12:1-8

To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor
and glory forever and ever, Amen. This morning we turn to the Gospel of
Matthew, the twelfth chapter, beginning with the first verse, as follows:

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His
disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 And
when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing
what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!" 3 But He said to them, "Have you not
read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4
"how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful
for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 "Or
have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple
profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 "Yet I say to you that in this place
there is One greater than the temple. 7 "But if you had known what this
means,`I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the
guiltless. 8 "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Thus far our text.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Who is Lord even of the Sabbath, Dear Fellow
Redeemed,

Ceremonialism is the strict - sometimes fanatical - adherence to the rules and
traditions governing a particular ceremony. Some time ago there was a
fascinating program on PBS about a group of people who may be this country's
greatest experts on ceremonialism. They are the United States Marine Corps
Ceremonial Guard. These are the Marines you see on television, standing watch
at the White House or accompanying the casket at state funerals. They are
experts on ceremony. Their dress uniforms are perfect, from their spotless white
gloves, to the crisp crease in their trousers, to the mirror shine of their shoes.
When they perform a ceremony, their weapons are immaculate and gleaming,
their steps are perfectly synchronized, and their salutes are crisp and
well-executed. And this, of course, lends a great deal of dignity to a ceremony,
whether it be the swearing-in of a political leader, the welcoming of a foreign
ambassador, or the funeral of a president.

In it's place, ceremonialism can be a good thing. However, it can also be a very
bad thing, especially when it overshadows the real meaning of a given event. In
our text for today, Jesus shows how the ceremonialism of the Pharisees - with
their various rules and regulations surrounding the Sabbath - had corrupted the
real meaning of worship. In the process, Jesus also shows us what it is that
makes our Sunday worship truly meaningful and God-pleasing. What is it? Well,
you'll know what it isn’t when you hear this morning's theme --

DOWN WITH CEREMONIALISM!
I. Jesus condemned it even when Jewish regulations were in force.
II. Jesus has freed us from it now that Christian liberty is here.

Jesus and His disciples were in Galilee, the northern part of Israel. It was
Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. They happened to be passing through a wheat
field, and the disciples were hungry. So they did what came naturally. The
plucked off a few of the heads of ripe wheat, rubbed them between their hands,
and ate the kernels. This works, by the way - you can try it yourself if you're
ever near a field of ripe, standing wheat. It's not very tasty, but it is food.

Anyway, some of the Pharisees saw it, and they were very upset. They
immediately jumped on the opportunity to find fault with Jesus' disciples. They
said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the
Sabbath!"

The first thing you might ask yourself is, what in the world were these men so
upset about? What did it matter that the disciples had fed themselves from a
few stalks of standing grain? Well, the Pharisees thought they were breaking the
Law of God, by doing work on the Sabbath Day. And indeed, God did
command the Jews, in the Old Testament book of Exodus, "...but the seventh
day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work." 20:10.
If they'd have stuck to what the Bible said, they'd have been ok. But the
Pharisees weren't thinking of the Bible. What they were thinking of was the
Pirkei Avot, the Traditions of the Jewish Fathers, which stated specifically, "He
who reaps the very least on the Sabbath is chargeable; and to pluck ears is a
species of reaping." You see, to God's eternal Word the Jewish leaders had
added their own man-made rules. And according to these rules, the disciples
had done the work of "reaping grain," and were guilty of breaking the Sabbath.

Now, it was the Sabbath. And the Word of God about resting on the Sabbath
was still in force (and would be right up until the death of Jesus). But what the
Pharisees were saying -- that wasn't God's Word. That was ceremonialism, pure
and simple. And Jesus condemned ceremonialism, even when the Jewish
regulations were still in force.

Jesus used two examples from the Bible to show how foolish the Pharisees
were in condemning the disciples. He said, "Have you not read what David did
when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 "how he entered the
house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor
for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 "Or have you not read
in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath,
and are blameless?

Jesus' point? -It's wrong to confuse the outward elements of a ceremony with
the meaning of the ceremony itself. Once when I was a little kid, I got curious
about those little wafers that the people ate in church on Communion Sunday.
So I got into the place where my father kept his supply of ceremonial wafers,
and I ate them all up. I was punished for that -- but not because the bread was
somehow holy in itself. It's not. It doesn't become holy until Christians receive
it in faith as the real body of their Savior, "given for them for the remission of
sins." Likewise, in I Samuel 21, you can read about how David and his soldiers,
when they were hungry, ate the ceremonial bread in the tabernacle. Now,
ceremonially, that bread was only for the priests to eat. But Jesus was saying
that God didn't want ceremony to stand in the way when people are hungry.
Why, even the priests - Jesus said - were technically "breaking the Sabbath"
when they offered sacrifices. That's slaughtering, and slaughtering is work. But
technicalities and ceremonialism weren't what God meant the Sabbath Day to
be all about. And that's why Jesus condemned ceremonialism. He said, "Yet I
say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 "But if you
had known what this means,`I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not
have condemned the guiltless. 8 "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the
Sabbath." In other words, DOWN WITH CEREMONIALISM!

By now you may be thinking, "This is all very interesting, but it really has
nothing to do with me. Those Pharisees were hypocrites! I'd never condemn a
man for plucking grain on the Sabbath. I'd never let ceremonialism get in the
way of God's Word!" But wouldn't you? Don't be so sure! I knew a man once, a
faithful churchgoer a lot like most of you. This man had, for years, been an
usher in his home congregation. One day the pastor asked the ushers if they
would excuse all the members down the center aisle after services, instead of
letting some of them exit by side doors, as had been the custom. Well, this
fellow became very upset. He said angrily, "I've been an usher in this church for
35 years, and this is the way we've always done it. If you try and change it now,
then I'm quitting the church!"

-It seems ridiculous, but it happened. I heard it with my own ears. It's one
example of how ceremonialism can get in the way of real worship and God's
Word. And there are others. You'll find people who mistakenly place their faith
in the outward trappings of their religion - the church building, a specific liturgy,
the altar, the stained glass windows - rather than in Christ and His Word, which
is supposed to be the center of our worship.

To all this, Jesus says, DOWN WITH CEREMONIALISM! Remember that
God desires mercy more than sacrifice. Remember that Christ is Lord, even of
the Sabbath! He's the one who tells us what real worship is. His Word tells us
what is essential to our worship, and what can be changed. And that's especially
true now. Why now? Because you and I are no longer living under the Old
Testament Sabbath regulations. Jesus has freed us from ceremonialism now that
Christian liberty is here!

This whole argument in our text was really an argument about the Sabbath
Day, which as you know was Saturday. Did you ever wonder why we Christians
worship on Sunday, instead of Saturday? After all, in the Old Testament, God
clearly told His people that the seventh day - or Saturday - was the day of rest.
You’ve probably heard of the Seventh-Day Adventists; they're a denomination
that insists that church services must still be held on Saturdays. So how come
we don't?

Well the answer lies in the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ. One of the
reasons He came to earth was to fulfill the Law for us, and to grant us freedom
from ceremonialism. Why, Jesus Christ was the reason the Sabbath Day was
established in the first place! The very word, "Sabbath," means REST. Every
time God's Old Testament people rested on the seventh day, they were to
meditate on God's promise of a Savior. Every time they went to church and
watched a lamb being ritually slaughtered by the priest, they were to remember
that the real Lamb of God was coming - "the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world." The Sabbath day of rest was to remind them that, one day,
Messiah would arrive, and He would give them REAL rest: rest for their souls
in the forgiveness of sins!

The Jews soon forgot this real meaning of the Sabbath, and lost themselves in
empty ceremonialism. All these Old Testament regulations had been meant to
be a "shadow" of the coming Christ, but by the time Jesus actually arrived, the
Jews were so distracted by their ceremonies that they ignored the actual Savior,
who was standing before them in person.

You and I won't be caught on that treadmill, however. We know that Jesus
fulfilled and cancelled all the Old Testament "shadows." He kept not only the
ceremonial Law, but all of God's Law perfectly in our place. And that's the
important thing. Our walk through life has been crooked and curved, with
much disobedience and many transgressions of God's Law. But Jesus, in His
life, walked a straight path of perfect obedience. He kept each commandment
perfectly. His righteousness was spotless. And the most wonderful thing of all is
that today God offers to you that perfect righteousness of Christ as a gift!
Today God says to you that, simply by receiving Jesus as your Savior in faith,
you can cast off the spotted garment of your sinful flesh, and put on the pure
white robe of Christ's righteousness!

"Yes," you say, "but what about my many sins? Surely they must be paid for
somehow!" That's true, and your Lord Jesus took care of that, too. He took the
whole burden of your sins upon Himself, and carried them down the Road of
Sorrows on Good Friday. When the Roman whip fell upon His back, when the
crown of thorns was placed upon His brow, when the nails were driven through
His hands, He was suffering the punishment for your sins. When He cried out
from the cross, "It is finished," all the sins you've ever committed were atoned
for in full.

And do you know what happened then? Jesus had his own day of rest. He
rested in the grave on Holy Saturday, fulfilling, for the last time, the observance
of the Sabbath. When He rose triumphant on Easter Sunday, it was to proclaim
a glorious freedom to you and all mankind. Freedom from the consequences of
our sin! Freedom from eternal death! Freedom to live and reign with our Savior
forever among the spendors of heaven!

And that brings us back to our question: why don't we worship on Saturday?
Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament shadows -- and since they were no longer
needed, He abolished them. That's why, in this New Testament era, God's
people no longer have to sacrifice animals in our worship services. We no longer
have to restrict ourselves as to what kind of foods we eat. And we no longer
have to worship on Saturday. To us New Testament Christians, the Bible
clearly says, Col 2:16-17 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or
regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to
come, but the substance is of Christ.

So, DOWN WITH CEREMONIALISM, and up with the true worship of our
Savior, the Lord of the Sabbath! We worship on Sunday mainly because it's
convenient. It does seem rather fitting, though, since this is the day our Lord
rose from the dead, and this is the day the New Testament Church was born, on
Pentecost. But we can, and often do, worship on Wednesdays, or Thursdays, or
even Saturdays. What really matters, and what pleases our God, is that we
"keep the Sabbath Day holy" by regularly gathering to hear His Word and praise
His name together. Yes, we have customs and traditions: our particular liturgy,
our hymns, our order of worship. But these things can and do change from time
to time. Which is fine, as long as we’re careful to follow our Lord's directive in I
Corinthians 14:40 "Let all things be done decently and in order." These
outward forms of our religion will always be kept in their proper place if we
remember that it's our Savior Jesus we came to worship. And it’s certain that we
will have the proper, joyful attitude toward worship we should have -- if we
bear in mind everything our Lord Jesus has done to save us!

You know, I'd have to admit that, as a pastor, I've always had one particular
hang-up about ceremony. That is, I've always wondered what I and the
congregation would do if something disastrous happened right in the middle of
a church service. Should I conclude with the Lord's Prayer? Should I make the
sign of the cross and say, "I hereby suspend this worship service for the
moment"? What would be the proper thing to do? Well, I worried about that for
years. And then one Sunday the question was answered for me when a young
woman sitting near the front of the church collapsed in a faint during the
Apostles' Creed. I found out I didn't have to say anything! In their kindness and
concern, all the people immediately rushed to her side to see what they could
do to help. I did, too. And when it was over, we just picked up the service
where we'd left off. It wasn't very ceremonious, but I think that's exactly what
Jesus was talking about when He said, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." As for
us, let us continue to worship the Lord Jesus, our Redeemer, in decency and
order. And let us continue to say, with Him -- DOWN WITH EMPTY
CEREMONIALISM! AMEN.