Vital Choices - Clean Hands or Dirty Tasks 4/4/43

Scripture: Matthew 27: 15-26

Text: Matthew 27: 24 “....he took water and washed his hands, ...... saying, I am innocent...”

I was once invited to take part in a public reading of the play, “The Servant in the House.” A British clergyman in the story has been quite earnest in his profession, is successful in considerable measure; but is not particularly happy in his success, or in his comfortable status. He has a crude, ne’er-do-well brother who dislikes him and his ways and his household. The brother can be quite obnoxious when he comes around occasionally, for he takes no pains whatever to conceal his dislike and contempt for what he regards as the hypocrite in his clerical brother. He is an embarrassment and an annoyance to the minister, until a dirty task brings them together.

An obstruction in the drains of the house makes the place all but untenable. The renegade brother is an expert with “drines” (we should call him a plumber), and he volunteers to crawl into the old-fashioned things and get them cleaned out. The supposedly-proud ministerial brother rises greatly in the renegade’s estimate, and gains a good deal in his own self-respect, when he determines to crawl along with him, taking his own share of the filth and rats and danger of disease. A dirty task, willingly undertaken without shirking, drew two somewhat estranged brothers together in common understanding and mutual respect.

“Clean hands” is the expression often used for innocence of anything blameworthy. It is used to indicate an attitude of aloofness, or perhaps of neutrality, in the face of unpleasant situations or troublesome occurrences.

We occasionally hear, for instance, in relation to the present war, that Christians must remain aloof from the contest, so that when it is over they may be able to “lead the world into a better day.”

There is everything important to be said for Christians holding steady in the spiritual fellowship of Christian people of every land; for refusing to bow to the gospel of hatred and vengeance. If anyone is able to look through the clouds of battle to a constructive peace to follow, men and women of Christian faith ought to be able to do so.

But as for remaining aloof from the dirt that is a part of warfare, it seems neither possible nor right to make such an attempt. For one thing, if anyone refuses to share in the struggle and suffering, he may have no moral influence that will find a hearing after the war.

For another, are we sure that God is so concerned about our having “clean hands?” As a symbol of a clean and upright life, yes! The eternal standards of honesty, purity, high duty, demand hands clean of falsity, foulness, or faithlessness. The hands spattered with innocent blood and filled with stolen loot will always stand under condemnation of the Almighty, and of His loyal people.

But if having “clean hands” means that we have refrained from unpleasant duties thrust upon us by an evil world, that is another matter. A man is not to keep his hands unsullied in the face of grave wrong and great need. God does not want us to be neutral in the face of great moral issues.

A bishop asserts to his people, and to all of us, that “neutrality in things good or evil is both odious and prejudicial.” Another remarks that “neutral men are the devil’s allies.” An ancient prophet cried out, “Curse ye Meroz because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” [Judges 5: 23].

Of course it is presumptuous, and spiritually dangerous, to assume that the cause we have espoused is necessarily the Lord’s cause, unless we have “waited on the Lord” for leading and light far more than most of us are prone to do.

Some of our enemies speak of the present struggle as a “holy war.” I for one hope that we shall not indulge in similar statements, for I am not willing to apply such a splendid, sacred word to a situation that involves so much human guilt.

Nevertheless, there are issues at stake which require the loyal participation of people who have a concern about right and wrong. If there is dirty work to be done, moral issues demand the doing.

At its recent biennial session, the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America has said, “We do not regard the present war as merely a conflict between national self-interests or rival imperialisms. If the war could be fully described in these terms, the Christian Church, as a supranational, ecumenical fellowship, might have little or nothing to say about the issues at stake. Beneath the conflict of nations we discern a crisis of civilization itself - - a conflict of moral ideas and of two different conceptions of the meaning and end of human existence. In this conflict, the Christian Church has a valid and inescapable concern.”

There is one well known historic instance where a man washed his hands as a sign that he wished to be clean of guilt, and that he would have nothing to do with a perplexing and unpleasant responsibility.

A Man named Jesus, who came from Nazareth, was being “framed” by enemies whose entrenched self interest was threatened. He was brought by these enemies before the political and legal head of the state for judgment. A brief examination failed to produce any evidence other than the undesirable “stirring up” of the people. The Roman governor tried to reason with the accusers. He found them stubborn. He knew he was in the presence of innocence. Yet here were these people to be reckoned with, too.

Efforts to transfer the case to Governor Herod failed. So at length, unwilling to risk a nasty popular uprising, which might be embarrassing to explain to Rome, he went through the form of washing his hands -- did so ceremoniously, before all those assembled -- and said “see ye to it,” as though that relieved him of responsibility. For 2000 years, Church folk reciting a creed have chanted in his memory, “suffered under Pontius Pilate.”

In Jesus’ parable of the “Good Samaritan” a wounded man, robbed and beaten by gangsters, lay by the roadside, nearly dead of the treatment. A Priest came by an passed on the other side. A Levite looked at him and passed on. Both kept their hands clean. A Samaritan, a “foreigner” from a disliked neighboring tribe, came by, dismounted (in similar danger to himself), gave the wounded man a drink, bandaged his wounds, took him to the hotel, paid for his keep, guaranteed more if needed. Helping and bandaging this wounded man; weak, bloody, dusty, must have been a dirty job. The Samaritan man’s hands became grimy as he fixed up this Jew. But his dirty hands went with a clean heart! [Luke 10: 30-37].

Some men may have good reasons for wishing to remain aloof from the conflicts of today; but clean hands, in the selfish sense in which the term is often used, is not a Christian reason. The toilers and workers of the world rarely have clean hands. Mothers and housewives, nurses and doctors, farmers and miners, carpenters and plumbers -- people who do the hard and necessary work of the world, enabling others and themselves to live in peace and comfort, will not be able to present to God a pair of clean hands. Their hands become soiled and lined and often grimy with the marks of their toil. Statesmen have to deal with dirty matters, too.

Our Lord himself, at his crucifixion held out his pierced hands, dirty and bloodstained, to his Father as the price of our world’s redemption. Here was the one complete, perfect sacrifice in God’s sight. It must be so with his followers. Cleansing the Augean stables is nothing compared with some of the tasks we face today. Our tasks can be done only by men and women who are willing to risk soiling their hands in an honest attempt to clear away the dirt and filth of a sin-stained world.

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, April 4, 1943

W.F.H.R., Wisconsin Rapids, June 9, 1943