Article XXII
“The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping, and Adoration, as well of Images as of Relics, and also invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.”
1 Timothy 2:1-6
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.
Mark 7:1-13
The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honour me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”
And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
The Bible is our guide to how healthy different spiritual practices are for us. We can have direct access to Jesus and do not need any other mediators or intercessors to put in a good word with him for us in heaven!
And so, we are continuing our series thinking about what it means to be Anglican. And I have a friend who is a family mediator. That means when, for example, a husband and wife fall out with one another, she gets involved to sort it out between them. She sits there in a room with them and stands between them, as it were, sorting out the problem.
Now, many people are surprised to hear that the basic starting point, the basic message of Christianity is not, you and God are on great terms, everything’s fine. Rather, it is this, your relationship with God has got so bad that you need a mediator to sort it out.
Now, my family mediator friend will say, when it comes to sorting out marriage problems, it’s never 100% the fault of one of the partners. It’s what they may perceive that to be the case, but actually, it’s often a shared responsibility.
But what Christianity says is this, when it comes to our relationship with God and the fact that it has broken down, it is 100% totally the fault of one side, and that’s the side of humanity.
You see, God created us, he gave us life, he gave us a beautiful world to live in, and most importantly of all, he gave us that which is most precious to him, his own son. And yet, by nature, humans completely shun, deny, and refuse to thank him as we should.
And it wouldn’t be right for God to just pretend that none of that matters. It does, more than we can possibly understand. And so if we are to have any chance of restoring the relationship with God, we need a mediator to sort it out.
Now I’d like you to imagine with me a marriage where the husband has stolen all the wife’s money, sold all possessions, kidnapped the kids, and then burned the family house down. Now would it be right, after all that, for him to find his wife, turn up with her in her new flat, sit down next to her, and just have a nice chat to her as she’s eating her corn flakes, as if nothing has happened? Well, no, it wouldn’t.
In the same way, God is within his rights not to simply carry on with us as if nothing has happened. We need not only a mediator to heal the relationship, but also to convince us just how much we’ve hurt God. And this is where Jesus comes in.
As our reading from 1 Timothy tells us, God wants all people to come to that mediation meeting and be saved. That is to have right relationship with Him restored. The reading then tells us that Jesus is that one mediator that we need, and He has solved the whole problem by giving Himself as a ransom.
So let’s think about that for a second. Going back to our image of the ill-treated wife and criminal husband, justice would rightly require that he restore to her all that he stole and destroyed. In the same way, justice rightly requires that we restore to God what we have stolen from him. A massive problem for us is that we can’t. That’s because what we owe him is a perfect, sinless life of worship and thanksgiving. So Jesus has himself provided that restoration in his own self. He is our mediator, standing between us and God the Father. And to God the Father, he says, you can now carry on as if nothing has happened, because I have restored to you what they stole.
Only Jesus as God has the power to supply what we cannot, and only Jesus as a human himself can act on our behalf towards God. Jesus and Jesus alone has what it takes to be our mediator, as St. Paul says in our reading from 1st Timothy.
Now I want you to imagine now that the husband and wife we just thought about are now back together happily. It’s a year later, the mediation has been completely successful. She’s forgiven him, he’s truly sorry, he’s completely changed for the better and they’re living happily with their kids in a new house. But now along comes the wife’s sister. She’s not happy at just how easily she thinks the husband’s got away with it. One day he comes back from work to find the sister standing in the hallway, standing like this with her hands on her hips. She says, I know what you’re like. My sister may say she’s forgiven you, but I haven’t forgotten what you did. So I’ve taken the kids to live in my house to protect them, and if you want to speak to my sister again, you’re going to have to do it through me.
Do you see what’s happened? My sister just can’t believe that forgiveness and healing have actually happened. So she set up herself as a self-appointed mediator between the reunited husband and wife.
But upon hearing this, the wife is horrified, what are you doing? She asks her sister, I’ve told you many times, I’ve really have forgiven him. We really are completely happy and back to normal now. What you’re doing shows you don’t actually believe me. You think I’m lying.
You see, here’s the rub. The sister actually refuses to believe what the now happy and placated wife says from her heart. Why am I saying this?
Well the early church was one of a bounding joy. Those early Christians knew that despite all they had done, despite all their sin, God had completely forgiven them through Jesus. And their relationship with God was pure and happy.
But then, very sadly, voices started to appear which said, do you know what you’re kidding yourselves? You’ve been let off the hook too easily. God isn’t in fact happy. The relationship isn’t in fact back to normal. If you want to get back in his good books, you need to do it through us. Just like the sister said.
This went from a whisper early on, gradually over the centuries, sadly to the majority opinion in the church in the medieval era. The church came to see popes and priests and patron saints like the sister in our story as the new mediators between an angry God and sinful mankind. If you wanted to get to God, you had to go through them. They put in a good word for you. But all the time, Jesus was calling like the wife in our story. What are you doing? I’ve told you many times in the Bible I have completely forgiven my people. We’re completely happy and back to normal now. What you are doing shows you don’t believe me. You think I’m lying.
Thankfully, the Protestant reformers heard Jesus’ voice. They wanted to get rid of the whole medieval system of mediators, of gatekeepers, whether priests or patron saints. They proclaimed the loving message of Jesus, I have completely forgiven you. Who told you that’s not the case? It wasn’t me.
That’s why our Anglican faith rejects purgatory relics and prayers to the saints. Because behind these stands the message of the sister from our story. God in fact is still angry with you because of your sin. If you want to get back in his good books, you’re going to have to work for it yourself. Whether in purgatory or at least getting the saints to put in a good word for you.
But Anglicanism, the Bible and Jesus, like the wife in our story, say please ignore all that. I never said you have anything left to pay me back, says Jesus. Now just come and enjoy full and forgiven relationship with me. It’s all forgiven, it’s all forgotten.
So where do we fit into this? Some of us here this morning may still live like God is angry with us. If you carry guilt for past sin, bring it into the light this week. Tell a Christian friend, confess it to God and then say out loud, Jesus is my mediator. He has made it all all right. When the voice of the sister whispers again, no he hasn’t, no it’s not. Respond with the voice of Jesus on the cross, it is finished.
There’ll be some of us that keep trying to prove to God that we’re good enough or our attitude is I really hope I’m good enough in the final reckoning. I often hear parishioners say this to me, if that’s you, you might be saying prayers and going to church, perhaps deep down as a way of earning goodness points with God. But remember it’s the sister who says goodness points still need earning. God himself is clear, you have nothing left to earn. So ask yourself, am I living with joy and freedom or still trying to pay God back? There are people in your life who probably still believe that God is cold and angry and distant.
Every one of us will probably know people who think that of God. And so will we pray this week for an opportunity to share that message of joy? The way is open, Jesus is enough. Think of the one person in your life who you think needs to hear that there’s only one mediator and it’s not them. Pray for them this week that they would come to know the joy and the peace that Jesus offers.
Maybe you yourself have always thought of Christianity as a religion of rules or effort. Often I ask people what do you think the way of Christ is? What do you think Christianity is all about? And they often respond, be a good person. But actually that comes second.
Firstly, Christianity is about reconciliation, the healed relationship with God. That’s why Jesus came. He’s the only one who can bring us home to God. So if we haven’t asked him to do that for us, let’s do it today. And so let’s now pray that God would be working in our hearts to convince us of the peaceful relationship that we have with him.