This is hard. This is really tough, and each of you will need to go home tonight and think about your own lives and what it is that you can do to improve that relationship with Jesus Christ.
Well, there we go. The gospel is telling us not to come to church, isn’t it? Of course not. Of course not. What Jesus is talking about here are the hypocrites, the Pharisees and the Scribes. And when he calls them hypocrites, now we think of the word hypocrites in its modern meaning, which is to say one thing and do another, but in its Greek meaning, in the original meaning, as it’s written in the Gospel, it’s it is to say and to do something, but not to believe it in your heart.
That’s what Jesus is accusing the Pharisees and scribes of. He’s saying, you do these things, you say these things, and you do it so that everybody can see what you are doing, but you don’t really believe it in your heart. You are doing these things in order to have power and to have authority and to seek the admiration of the people around you. You give to charity with great fanfare because you enjoy the rewards of feeling good and of the people around you seeing what you are doing.
Jesus is telling us that’s not the way to do it. It is no good having a faith in God that has all of the outward signs of faith but doesn’t have that inner faith, doesn’t have that faith that sits in secret in your heart, that faith that only you and God know. That faith that you call on in the small hours when you are frightened and scared. That faith, that is a light in the darkness. And you see, that’s what Lent is about, that’s what this fast, this fast that starts today is about.
It is about examining your relationship with God and about the practices that you use in everyday life to examine them and to identify them and to say, is this leading to a better, deeper, more loving relationship with God or am I just going through the motions? Soat lent when we give things up, it’s not about giving something up, it’s not it’s not about the fast per sé, it’s about the examination of your life. And that examination can be hard, it can be tough because you have to face things that only you in secret know about.
Every lent. I face my greatest sin, which is gluttony. No great surprise there. When I’m frightened, when I am upset, when I am stressed, I go to the fridge, when I’m bored and I don’t know what to do. I go to the cupboard, when I open a packet of biscuits, I’m not content until they’re all gone. What should I be doing when I am frightened and I am in despair, I should be turning to God in prayer, I should be turning to God, my father in those secret moments and saying, Lord, help me, give me the strength that I need.
And so during Lent, I try to set those things aside so that I can concentrate on my relationship with Jesus Christ. I set aside the biscuits and the crisps and the ice cream so that I can try and come into a deeper relationship with God. That secret relationship in my heart that nobody else understands or sees.
This is hard. This is really tough, and each of you will need to go home tonight and think about your own lives and what it is that you can do to improve that relationship with Jesus Christ.
But this is where our gospel makes me smile as well, because that is hard work, but when you fast do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do, don’t pretend to do it, yes, we know it’s hard, do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do. I tell you solemnly they have had their reward, they’re putting their gloomy looks on so that people know how hard it is, what they are doing. People give their admiration for this hard task.
But when you fast put oil on your head and wash your face so that no one knows you are fasting except your father. This is a personal battle, a personal fight that you will wage over the next 40 days. But know, because we do know that on Easter Sunday, we face the resurrected Jesus. And so now we spend this time to examine ourselves and to prepare ourselves to meet the resurrected Christ.
Amen.