Holy Misperception!

The scriptures referred to are Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30.

We associate certain characteristics with holy people: they are ascetics and solitary. The monk who is also a hermit is an example. At the opposite pole are the bad boys: they like to party. They enjoy eating and drinking and being around people, especially disreputable people. So what do we make of what Jesus says in today's gospel about how the people of his day contrasted him and John the Baptist? John lived in the desert, ate a restricted diet and was the last person you would invite to a party. But Jesus is seen as someone who likes to eat and drink and hang out with folks who are not welcome in polite society. The point that Jesus is making in this comparison, as well as in the parable of children who won't respond to either dances or dirges, is that some folks won't be pleased with anyone God sends, however he or she acts.

But what struck me is how today most church members would not describe Jesus as anything like the caricature of himself he ascribes to the crowd. And a good caricature doesn't make things up; it exaggerates what is actually there, like Nixon's jowls and LBJ's nose and ears. A caricature has to be recognizable or it is just bad art. But if someone said to you, “What person in the Bible could people say was awfully fond of food and wine and hung around with bad people?”--would your first guess be Jesus?

Probably not, because Jesus is too holy. After all, he's God. We think of him as somewhat apart from humanity, walking in a stately manner, rather like a king deigning to meet with the common people. But you don't get that in the gospels. Rather than parting for him, crowds jostle him so much that the disciples think it is absurd for him to ask who touched him. He can barely find time to rest so that he nearly sleeps through a raging storm though he is lying in the bow of a ship that's almost being swamped. Getting a meal break is also a challenge so he accepts anyone's dinner invitation, be they a tax collector or a leper or even a Pharisee. In Jesus' day there was a category of religious leader so holy he was called the Bruised and Bleeding Pharisee because he would close his eyes while walking lest he look upon a woman and be tempted. So he would walk into walls or fall on his face. Could you imagine what such a person would do if a notorious woman started kissing and washing his feet while he was at a banquet? He's probably scramble across the table, stepping in everyone's food in order to get as far from her as possible. But Jesus didn't go scurrying off to get ritually cleansed when a bleeding woman touched him. In fact, Jesus actually taught women, which was considered scandalous. He even talked with Samaritan and Gentile women and publicly defended an adulterous woman.

Jesus is not an ascetic or a recluse or a hermit. He is a people person. He is holy but that doesn't mean he is standoffish. If we can't reconcile that with our idea of holy maybe it's because that word doesn't mean what we think it means.

At the root of the word “holy,” both in Greek and Hebrew, is the idea of being clean or pure. And if something is pure, that definitely sets it apart from the ordinary or common things of this world. Lots of things in this world are not pure. You could even see them as tainted. But with what? People will avoid things adulterated with something poisonous, something that will make you sick or kill you. Now we don't mind mixing things that are good, like spices and food. But you don't want to mix something bad with something good, like borax or formaldehyde and food. And such things were actually food additives in the late 1800s until they were outlawed in the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. But back in the days of the Bible, with much less knowledge of chemistry and biology, and no antibiotics, you wanted to err on the side of purity. You stayed away from plants, animals, and substances that made people sick. You didn't eat anything spoiled or rotten. And you stayed away from people with illnesses you didn't want to catch.

And this idea of separation from things that are poisonous, spoiled or unhealthy was carried over into the moral realm. Because there are ideas that spoil or pervert otherwise good ideas; there are words that poison relationships; there are behaviors that are unhealthy and harm people. So the concepts of good and healthy and pure coalesced into the concept of holiness. To be holy was to be free from the taint of evil.

And this is why Jesus' critics did not see him as holy. Not because he did evil (though some tried to intimate that his power came from Satan) but because he didn't stay away from people they saw as evil. Therefore he must be tainted by their evil. It never occurred to them that he might be purifying those he came into contact with.

To purify is to cleanse from contamination. Along with the many laws about staying away from unclean things, like diseased people and certain foods and acts, the Torah also includes ways for a tainted person to be cleansed. It might involve quarantine for a certain number of days, specific sacrifices and rituals, and often physical cleansing. The priests oversaw the whole process of diagnosing and cleansing everything, from leprosy to mold in a house to sin.

Priests, mind you, not handymen from Galilee. Jesus often sent those he had healed to the priests to have their cure verified. This allowed them to once again assemble and worship with the people of God. But Jesus was doing the actual cleansing. Worse, he was forgiving people's sins, something that was reserved to priests in the temple. As they see it, Jesus is taking over their job. But he isn't from the right family, a priestly family. He doesn't have the training. He doesn't work in the temple, the holiest place on earth.

Jesus does preach in synagogues. But he also preaches from boats and on mountains and on the plain. He touches and is touched by people who are unclean. He eats with them. His followers are fishermen and a tax collector and a former extremist and various women. How can he do all this and be holy?

“Holy” and “pure” are both adjectives. They modify an noun. If Jesus is pure, we have to ask “pure what?”

To figure that out, let's look at the clues.

First and foremost, Jesus heals people. He heals every kind of ailment: blindness, deafness, the inability to speak, paralysis, withered limbs, the inability to walk, leprosy, epilepsy, hemorrhage, fever, edema, and every kind of mental illness. He reattaches the ear of a man who has come to arrest him. He even restores the dead to life. What does this show? It shows he wants people to be alive and healthy.

He saves the wedding of a young couple by providing more and better wine. He provides food for thousands who are far from home. He provides a record catch for men whose nets are empty after a night of fishing. What does this show? It shows he wants people to have enough to eat.

He calms a storm about to sink his followers' boat. He secures his disciples' safety at his arrest. What does this show? He wants people to be safe.

He teaches people that God is just. He teaches people that God is forgiving. He teaches people that God is loving. He teaches people that God is more concerned with the state of their heart than the state of their finances or their position in society. What does this show? He wants people to get closer to God.

He teaches people that the most important of all the commandments is to love God with all they are and all they have. He teaches people that the second most important commandment is to love their neighbors as themselves. He teaches people that their neighbor is anyone they encounter even if they are from a different race or religion. He teaches people that this means they must even love their enemies. He teaches people they must love one another as much as he loves them. Then he demonstrates that by letting his enemies arrest him in exchange for letting his followers go. He lets the authorities kill him, while asking for forgiveness for his executioners and assuring a dying murderer that he will join him in paradise. 

What does all this show? It shows that Jesus is pure, all right: he is pure love.

Or as John Wesley might put it, holy love. When people think of holiness, they think it has to do with pure acts of devotion to God. They also think it means personal purity, staying away from evil. But they tend to forget the third part of it: pure love expressed in thoughts, words and actions towards others. That, too, is part of holiness.

In fact, in the 19^th chapter of the book of Leviticus, we find a Holiness Code. It begins, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Then there follows a long list of commandments on how to be holy. And ever so often one is followed by the words, “I am the Lord,” or literally, “I am Yahweh.” Why does this follow some commandments and not others? It looks like this is to emphasize specific ones, the way you might underline certain items in a list to make sure that those don't slip your mind. Perhaps because they are not things people normally associate with being holy.

So what commandments are followed by “I am the Lord” so that we pay particular attention to them? Some are the things you would expect in a list of holy instructions: don't worship other gods or make idols; don't misuse God's name; observe the Sabbath.

But half of them have to do with social ethics. “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time, or pick up grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:9-10)

“Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block on front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:14)

“Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:16)

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18)

“Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:32)

“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)

“Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19: 35-36)

Taking care of the poor, the disabled, the elderly, your neighbor and the resident alien and treating them lovingly, fairly and honestly, even in business, are all holy acts.

When we think about holiness, we tend to focus on the easier parts: acts of personal piety and avoiding activities that don't seem holy. We don't do what Jesus did: go out into a world that is not pure and deliberately engage people who are not holy and demonstrate the pure love that Jesus showed in his words and works. Jesus said that it's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. So he didn't focus on the righteous but the people who weren't. (Mark 2:17) And he made house calls. He went where the people who needed him were.

Many Christians have opted for the John the Baptist model of holiness: separation from the impure, which is to say most people, standing apart and calling for folks to come to them for cleansing. Few follow Jesus' model of holiness: wading into the crowds, actively seeking the impure out of pure love. It is harder and riskier Jesus' way. How do we stay holy when we are in contact with things that aren't?

Paul, under house arrest, probably looked at his Roman guard and came up with the metaphor of the armor of God. (Ephesians 6:13-17) Let me, a nurse, tell you about the Personal Protective Equipment or PPE of God. Put on the goggles or eye protection of truth, so you can see things as they are, neither rosier nor darker than the reality of the situation. Put on the hazmat suit or skin protection of righteousness, that is, being in the right relationship with God. Have the nursing shoes or foot protection of the good news of peace with God, so that you are comfortable and supported and stable. Put on the mask or respiratory protection of faith and trust in God, so that you don't inhale the droplets of doubt and fear others are filling the air with. Put on the safety helmet or head protection of knowing your salvation depends on God and not on your own efforts, to keep things from messing with your head. In nursing we don't have anything like a sword, but use the probing insight of the Spirit and the word of God, to make important distinctions and establish priorities rather than getting bogged down in trivial issues. Dressed in the PPE of God you can help those who need the healing which the good news of Jesus' holy love gives.

There may be times when you have to get away from the noise and craziness of the world and go on retreat. Jesus often withdrew in the early morning or at night to be alone with God and pray. But unlike his cousin John, he didn't stay there. He went where people were, where the need was. And he sends us, his disciples, out into the world. Apostle is a synonym for ambassador or emissary. It literally means “one who is sent off.” We followers of Jesus were never meant to stay in our comfort zones.

Switching to a metaphor Jesus, a man who spent all his time with fishermen, would appreciate: as someone once said, a ship is safest in the harbor, but that's not what ships are for. As someone else said, the place for a boat is in the water but you don't want too much water in the boat if it's to stay afloat. Trying to stay holy in a world that is anything but is difficult. But Jesus managed it. And if we let the one who is pure love take the rudder in our lives, we can weather any storm.