A Misfit Savior for Misfit People

Hebrews 2:10-18

Delivered by Thomas J. Boone, Ph.D.

Central Presbyterian Church, Mobile AL, December 30, 2007

Nineteen eighty-six was a miserable summer to live in Philadelphia because a municipal worker’s strike had the rather miserable result of creating too much trash. The plan to incinerate all the accumulated garbage resulted in an amazing 15,000 tons of burned refuse! Thinking they could make a buck, the operators of a ship called the Khian Sea traveled between various ports to sell Philadelphia’s waste as fertilizer. But trash is trash, and no one wanted it. For fourteen years the Khian Sea traveled across the globe and in the end had dumped over 10,000 tons of the contaminated refuse into the ocean, while the rest they dumped in Haiti. In 2000 one author wrote, “In these last 14 years, countless Philadelphians who contributed waste to the Khian Sea ash heap have preceded it into the ground; their garbage has seen far more of the world than they ever did.” What started as an orange peel from an orange someone had eaten on a hot summer day eventually became biohazardous waste. That’s what happens when trash isn’t dealt with properly.

It’s not a far stretch to see Khian Sea as an analogy for the trash we accumulate in our hearts. Like the Khian Sea, we allow fear, anger, guilt, pessimism, bitterness, bigotry, anxiety, and deceit to build from minor trash to major toxin. It’s cargo that has no business being in our hearts, yet for some reason we hold onto it. And the stuff we hold onto today, can destroy us tomorrow.

Today’s thoughts are tomorrow’s actions. Today’s jealousy is tomorrow’s temper tantrum. Today’s bigotry is tomorrow’s hate crime. Today’s anger is tomorrow’s abuse. Today’s lust is tomorrow’s adultery. Today’s greed is tomorrow’s embezzlement. Today’s guilt is tomorrow’s fear. Today’s trash is tomorrow’s toxin.

At the gangway of your heart is one who wears a dark robe with a rotting orange peel in his hand. We don’t want his garbage, but it would be so easy to let him board our ship. It would be more than justified. That abortion, that affair, that drinking problem, that workaholism, that racism, that destructive ego, that unloving, unemotional detachment from family, all those unfulfilled promises; oh yes, these all invite him into our hearts. But, if we let him in, it won’t take long for the orange peel to turn into a methane producing landfill. Who can redeem us from this peril?

In Isaiah and Hebrews we’re told not only that Jesus came to redeem us from the death stench and immobilizing toxicity of sin, but that he did it in a way that allows us to trust him. We’re told that Jesus was just like us. He went through it all just like we do. In Jesus, we have a savior who can identify with us. God didn’t just wipe sin away, He wanted us to trust Him. He wanted a relationship with us, not just for us to have a cleaned-up heart. “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”

Jesus was tempted to take on some trash. Remember when Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan?” Well, he said it because he didn’t want the trash of Peter’s seductive words to enter his heart. Jesus had just finished saying he was going to be crucified, but Peter didn’t think that was good. And to Peter’s well-meaning criticism Jesus refused to let the temptation of a cross-less life enter his heart. “Get away. You have no room in my heart.” Another Khian Sea forever fumigated.

Fumigated cargoholds of a ship laden with trash turned toxic; that’s what our scripture is offering us today.

In his life Jesus cleaned up people’s trash-laden hearts. There was the tax-collector, Zaccheus, whom Jesus noticed hiding in a tree, went to his house, and then fumigated his heart of the trash of guilt, selfishness, anger, greed, and betrayal.

There was the woman at the well who drew water for Jesus, but this wasn’t just any woman. Her heart was filled with the toxicity of anger at being discriminated against for being a woman, a Samaritan, and a divorcee not just once, or twice but four times and the man she was with by the time she saw Jesus wouldn’t give her a ring. Certainly not a candidate for being an elder or deacon. But sure enough, Jesus powerwashed the toxins out of her heart and she went back to her village saying, “He loved me despite all that.”

There’s a great proverb that reads, “Be careful of what you think, because your thoughts run your life.” And, from Philippians listen to this: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” God longs for us to get rid of the garbage, not accumulate it. It’s the way to be the way He designed us to be.

But it takes Jesus to get us there. Have you become burdened by fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, or pride? Jesus is not only your savior eternally, he’s your savior in the here and now. He wants to get into your heart where the trash has become toxic and clean it up entirely. Have you become driven by revenge? When someone does something against you does rage flare? Jesus was tested with those same temptations. He completely understands what it’s like to be harmed and long to get even. But Jesus knew that God doesn’t want us to get even, he wants us to be whole again and so he showed us the higher road.

So, how do we get all the trash out where it belongs before it enters our hearts through temptations as sweet as honey? It takes knowing Jesus and accepting the way God sees us. Jesus came as a misfit Savior, which means that people didn’t necessarily like him. Remember when he returned to Nazareth where he grew up. What words did he use to summarize his visit? He said, “A prophet isn’t accepted in his hometown.” One time he was at the temple and when he saw that people were using the sacrificial system as a way of making money unfairly, what did he do? He overturned tables, he got rid of the trash without compromise. People used this as an excuse to arrest him. When he was with leaders who wanted to use him as a political messiah he told them outright that he wasn’t here to serve their agenda. He was a Savior who came to help people find their way back to God by cleaning up the trash that had accumulated in their hearts. It made him a misfit Messiah because it meant he had to get as dirty as we are, yet opt for the higher road of uncompromising allegiance to the Father’s will.

Do you struggle with a body racked by pain day in and day out? Jesus did: he had sore knee joints, tired feet, blisters, a few smashed fingers from misdirected hammer strikes. Do you struggle with letting anger take control? Jesus did. People didn’t like him, he didn’t meet their expectations, he had to put up with long lines after long days of walking, and he was tempted to use cross words to people who did nothing but complain. Do you struggle with letting materialism form your identity? Jesus did, believe it or not. In Jesus’ day Jerusalem had become one of the shining jewels of the Roman Empire. There was great wealth among Jews at this time, and there were many who didn’t have much. Jesus, being God, was amazingly talented, but he chose not to let all his gifts go toward making a great name for himself and accumulate wealth. But he gave all that up for the sake of our salvation. Rather than respond in ways the world expected, he said “No” to the dark-hooded man who wanted to bring just a bit of trash into his heart.

In Colossians Paul begs us to let Christ’s words dwell richly in us. Without Jesus, we will choose to let the trash keep building up in our hearts rather than allow Christ’s words clean it all out. Salvation doesn’t begin with our good choices, it begins with a Savior who made choices that didn’t fit with the way the world works. The world says take on the trash, Jesus says dump it.

So how do we do this? I’m offering a challenge to everyone this year, and it’s quite simply this: let’s allow God’s word to dwell in us. In Philippians 4:8 Paul wrote, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” What does it mean to think? For us it means something a bit different than what it meant for Paul. For us it’s possible to think about something and not embrace it. We can think about doing something, but never do it. But in Paul’s day the mind was the center of all action and the essence of one’s being. To think about God’s word is to accept it in a deep manner, meditate on it, commit ourselves to it and let it be the fuel that drives us.

Each month of the newsletter this year you’ll see a daily list of scripture to read and I’m challenging myself, and you, to read it. We will have copies available in the office and at both services each Sunday starting tomorrow. There will be some breaks in the schedule so if you miss a day or two, as we all do, catching up won’t be a problem. At the heart of this challenge is to let the Holy Spirit transform our hearts through God’s Word. Let’s see what God can do here through just this one commitment: to let God’s Word clean out the trash in our hearts. When our misfit Savior was tempted by Satan in the wilderness He showed us the way to keep the trash from entering His heart: he used God’s Word. If God’s Word was good enough for Jesus, shouldn’t it be good enough for his misfit followers? I think so, and I’m setting out this year to see what happens in my life as a result. I believe that Jesus wants to transform my heart this year through His Word, and I believe the same is true for the heart of this church. Hallelujah. Amen.