DOWN WITH CEREMONIALISM!

by Pastor Paul Naumann

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. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!" But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 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? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." 

— Matthew 12:1-8

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Ceremonialism is the strict — almost fanatical — adherence to the rules and traditions governing a particular ceremony. In Washington, D.C., there is a group of people who are perhaps 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, guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and 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 meaningful and God-pleasing. You'll know what it's not 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. 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 guys 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, they were thinking of 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 they 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 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 they 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: 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? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?"

As you may know, my father is a pastor. Well, 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 got a spanking 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 temple. 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 men 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, "I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." In other words, DOWN WITH CEREMONIALISM!

...Now, I know what you're thinking! "This 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!" 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 got very upset. He said angrily, "I've been an usher 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 I was there, and I heard him say it! 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 is what 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 I said 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 may have 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 vain 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. Wonder of wonders, 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 by 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 place 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 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 our sin! Freedom from eternal death! Freedom to live and reign with our Savior forever in the paradise 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, 17 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, because it's convenient. It does seem rather fitting, 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 liturgy, our hymns, our order of worship. But these things can and do change from time to time. And that's alright, as long as we 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 I guarantee we'll 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 the 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 a few months ago, the question was answered for me when a young woman 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. Me, 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 CEREMONIALISM! AMEN.