A sermon on Matthew 6:16-21 for Ash Wednesday. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.
In the Gospel lesson for Ash Wednesday, Jesus talks about fasting. And this topic is maybe a little uncomfortable for us (especially since we just finished having a meal), because it’s something that Jesus takes for granted that isn’t really all that common among us. And there’s more that could be said about that, but I think what maybe will be more beneficial for us today is to move beyond the surface topic of fasting and onto the real content of Jesus’ warning against hypocrisy. Especially as we are entering this penitential season, as we are about to confess our sins, this is something that we need to stay on top of, something that we need to examine in our lives. This Ash Wednesday, Jesus shows us how to truly practice penitence. And although we often harbor hypocrisy in our hearts, we are saved by our Savior’s sincerity.
I. The Heart’s Hypocrisy
Jesus’ warning against hypocrisy is maybe one that falls on deaf ears because of how we conceive of and use this word. If you call someone a “hypocrite,” that usually means that they are acting with malicious intent. Right, to be a hypocrite is to say one thing and do another or to make it seem like you’re doing something but really your heart’s in a different place.
When we talk about hypocrisy, when we view and encounter in Scripture the Pharisees that Jesus is condemning, we usually think that they’re bad guys. They’re trying to impress everyone when really they’re scheming in their hearts. There’s this mask that we think we can easily see through.
And while that is what hypocrisy can mean and look like, there is some danger in only defining it in this narrow way. With this conception of hypocrisy, it’s pretty rare, not really a danger for us as we usually try to be authentic and act with good intentions, certainly we’re not secretly scheming like the Pharisees.
But that’s to miss out on the other, more dangerous side of hypocrisy. Yes, hypocrisy is deceiving others, but it’s also deceiving yourself. In Matthew 15, Jesus says about the hypocritical Pharisees, “They are blind leaders of the blind.” The Pharisees don’t see clearly.
It’s not like they can see and they’re intentionally herding the blind masses into a dangerous place. No, they’re blind as well. Yes, they’re pretending, but even they don’t know they’re pretending. They’re acting with good intentions, they think they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing, hypocrisy is a lot more subtle, a lot more common, and a lot more dangerous than a few bad actors. Jesus’ warning against hypocrisy applies even to us.
We don’t intentionally scheme to receive the praises of men, at least, I hope that’s not the case. But our hypocrisy is a lot more subtle, a lot more nuanced, we’re a lot better at it than the Pharisees.
Because we’re good on justification. We have a right understanding of the role of good works. We know that we’re not saved by our good works, we know that things we don’t make us better than anyone else, we have the right theology in our heads, but that only makes our hypocrisy even harder to root out.
We’re never going to consciously say, “I’m going to go to church so everyone can see how good I am.” That’s a pretty common example in sermons, but a pretty ridiculous thought. But we all have smaller things that we use to make ourselves better than someone else.
Maybe your prayer life is structured and routine and regular, of course that means that you’re a better Christian. Maybe you take pride in the way we worship, we’re not a concert church, we don’t have screens, we’re superior. What little things do you use to define yourself over against others?
Maybe your hypocrisy is on the other side. Maybe you think, “I’m so more intellectual, so more advanced, I don’t need any little devotionals or structure, I can just read my Bible and pray whenever I feel like it and that’s good enough for me.” Maybe you take a complete disinterest in how our worship is done as if it’s not important or consequential, “I don’t have any strong preferences, I’m so much more mature.” What little things do you do to look down your nose at those who are authentically practicing their piety?
Maybe there’s a feigned pride in how sinful you are. You proudly confess, “I, a poor, miserable sinner,” and just wallow in that. “Works don’t matter, I can’t do anything to better myself,” ignoring the call to improvement, that Jesus does want you to do better.
Hypocrisy isn’t rare. Jesus isn’t going to warn us against something that’s vanishingly uncommon. Hypocrisy is real. It’s in your heart, it’s in my heart. It’s a barrier to true repentance, an obstacle to receiving forgiveness.
II. The Savior’s Sincerity
What’s the solution? How do we get out of this pit? It’s not like we can just try harder. The deeper we dive into ourselves, the more we improve, the more we realize the problem is even bigger than we first thought. The answer isn’t in ourselves. It’s in Christ.
Where we have acted with hypocritical hearts, we see the deep sincerity in the life of our Savior. When we have prayed to be seen by men (Mt 6:5), we see our Savior departing to a solitary place to pray (Mk 1:35), not because that made Him better, but because He knew that is what His soul needed. When Jesus railed against the worship abuses in His time, He did not do so out of pride, but because “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up,” (Jn 2:17), out of a desire for worship to be pure and focused on God.
Jesus was never concerned about Himself, but how He could accomplish the will of His Father. Jesus was truly authentic, deeply sincere, in everything He did. Honest and intentional in every word and deed. He lived a life of perfect holiness not to be seen by men but to give His perfection to men.
This Lenten season, we see everything Jesus had to endure for our salvation. We see the depths of His passion, the extent of His pain that He endured willingly for you. This life of sincerity led Him to the cross to make the payment for all of your sins. The solution is in Jesus. He pulls us out of the pit that we are digging for ourselves, gives us forgiveness and perfection and invites us to follow in His footsteps, to imitate Him, to be conformed to the holiness He has given you.
Jesus has enabled you to live an authentic life. He has rescued you from going through the motions, from doing the outward thing without the inward thing. He has saved you from your pride of thinking that the outward thing doesn’t matter at all. But He enables you to do both, He has given you a pure heart so that that can overflow into everything else, be manifested in outward ways.
In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus teaches on what have been called the three pillars of Lent: charity or almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. And the solution to these pitfalls, the way to avoid hypocrisy isn’t to avoid doing those things altogether. If you’re not fasting because you don’t want to be prideful, you’re certainly not saying the same thing about prayer or generous giving—not doing the good thing isn’t the solution to avoid the bad thing.
Rather, we can see in our Old Testament lesson how God wants both. That the outward is good when it flows from the inward. God tells His people, “Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly,” gather for worship. “[R]end your heart, and not your garments,” doesn’t mean “don’t rend your garments.” It means, “Rend your heart first, then that appropriate outward action can follow.”
The life of a Christian is not this interior, spiritual thing entirely disconnected from everything else. But our faith manifests itself in these outward expressions which can be perfectly sincere. So do the things! Bow (before Him) and kneel. Fast and pray and give. Don’t be worried about pride or what other people might think, Jesus has freed you from that. Be authentically present in worship and all of its actions and ceremonies, be open to being led deeper in because Jesus gives you the freedom to do such things. He has set your heart free and given you to liberty to worship Him in spirit and in truth AND with your body and your senses. The Christian life is all-encompassing. Let your faith spill over into everything else. That’s what Jesus has made you for.
This year, Ash Wednesday happens to fall on the 480th anniversary of Matin Luther’s death. His last words, written on a scrap of paper were, “We are beggars! This is true.” This perfectly echoes the first of his ninety-five thesis, which he has posted twenty-nine years earlier, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.” This Ash Wednesday as we listen to Jesus’ warning of hypocrisy, as we are led to repentance, not as a one-time thing, but as a life of repentance. We recognize that we are beggars in the presence of God. But God loves you. He is generous. He freely gives you forgiveness you do not deserve, He graciously pardons all of your sins because Jesus lived a perfect life for you and shed His blood for you. Let us now confess our sins. Amen.
