Toxic
Luke 14:1-14[1]
I find it interesting how words and symbols change. I think
just about everyone here, from young to old, knows the word “toxic.” It’s a
word that’s fairly commonly used these days. But when I was a child, we used
the word “poison.” And there was a skull and crossbones symbol that marked
things that were poisonous made the warning clear: stay away from this, because
it can kill you! In our day, that symbol is still used, but the one on the
PowerPoint slide today is much more common. It’s called the “biohazard symbol.”
It tends to be used for anything that can pose a significant risk to life. Even
though you can find it pretty much everywhere in our world these days, and
those of us who are adults tend to recognize it, I’m not sure it’s as effective
a symbol as the skull and crossbones was, especially for children. When I was a
child, the skull and crossbones symbol was fairly scary, and it got the point across.
Of course, I’m sure that there were people back in the day who routinely
ignored the “poison” symbol just as much as we may ignore the “biohazard”
symbol today.
The idea that something is toxic is much more widespread in
our day than “poison” was back then. But then that’s also because we’re much
more aware of how widely toxic substances have spread in our world. I
personally find myself dismayed at the information we just recently gotten
about “microplastics.” Apparently, they are everywhere. In the soil, in our
food, in our water, in our very bloodstream. What an irony that plastic, a substance
that was designed to make our lives more convenient, has turned out to be
toxic. And these microplastics are so widespread that they are not only
affecting us and our children, but also just about every species of wildlife.
More than that, they are threatening the very wellbeing of the planet itself. I
refer you to the huge “islands” of plastic pieces floating in both the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans at this very moment.
But my sermon is not about the dangers to the environment
posed by short-sighted thinking on the part of policymakers. My sermon is about
our reading from the Gospel of Luke for today. Essentially, Jesus used the
situation of healing a man with a chronic illness on the sabbath to point out
the fact that the religion of the Jewish leaders of his day was toxic! If you
are familiar with Jesus’ interactions with the Jewish religious leaders, you
know that this wasn’t the only time they clashed. I find it significant that
Jesus clashed with them more often than not over the sabbath day. Their focus
on the religious rules of their own devising was so single-minded that they
valued their rules over the welfare of people. Jesus had to remind them that
the whole point of the sabbath was to honor God by helping people. Their rules
for observing the sabbath prevented them from saving life. The scenario of
rescuing a child or an ox that had fallen into a well was literally a matter
the Jewish religious leaders debated! That should have been a huge red flag!
Of course, Jesus didn’t specifically call the religious
leaders out for being “toxic.” He used other words. One that we’re most
familiar with is “hypocrite.” He chastised them for putting on a show of being
“holy” while their hearts were selfish and full of their own ego. They were
more concerned about using their religion to make themselves look good than
they were with the welfare of other people, particularly those who were
“beneath” them. The very people God wanted them to help! Another word that Jesus
used for the religious leaders was “wicked.” That may come as a surprise. It
may come as a shock. For centuries, the word “wicked” has been used in our
language to describe “sinners,” those who are judged to have turned away from
God, those who are judged as morally defective, those whose life is
characterized by vice or addiction. In short, “wicked” is a word that has been
used to stigmatize anyone who doesn’t live up to the social conventions that
define what makes a person “good.”
The Bible has a lot to say about what it means to be wicked. But most of it directly contradicts our social conventions about what it means to be “good” or “bad.” In the Bible, the wicked are those who take advantage of the weak and the vulnerable just because they can.[2] In the Bible, the wicked use lies, dishonest schemes, and even violence to enhance their power or enrich themselves at the expense of those who have no way to protect themselves.[3] And in the Bible, because they have the means and the power to get away with it, the wicked take their wealth and their power as evidence that they are right, maybe even “blessed by God,” in what they do. But the Bible calls that being “haughty” and “arrogant,” and defines it as renouncing God and God’s ways.[4] The Bible’s definition of “wicked” is very different from ours. And in the Bible, the definition of God’s ways is “justice” and “righteousness.” One of the cornerstones of God’s justice is caring for the weak and vulnerable, including specifically orphans, widows, and resident immigrants.[5]
Now, of course, you may have noticed that the word “wicked”
doesn’t appear in our Gospel reading for today. Only once in all the Gospels do
we have record that Jesus called the religious leaders “wicked,” and we
probably shouldn’t be surprised that it’s in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 11:39).[6] But he
did so in other ways. He told parables that highlighted all the ways that they
directly contradicted God’s justice and used their position to benefit
themselves.[7] He
praised Zacchaeus, who was the very definition of a “sinner” in their eyes,
because he vowed to give half his wealth to the poor. Jesus called them out for
“devouring” widows’ houses (Lk 20:47), for their need for their obsessive need
for attention and recognition (Lk 10:43), and for the fact that they only added
to the burdens that the weakest and most vulnerable people in society were
already carrying by the religious rules they imposed on them (Lk 10:46).
But mostly Jesus called the religious leaders out for being
“wicked” by doing on the sabbath what their rules branded as “sinful.” He
healed people who needed healing. He helped people who needed help. And by
doing so, he was actively confronting him for their refusal to practice true
“righteousness.” He was effectively saying through his actions on the sabbath that
the religious leaders were the “wicked” ones in the world of the day. They knew
it, and they plotted to kill him for it!
I think in this day and age, the word “wicked” means too
much to be of any value. In traditional circles, it still designates those who
are judged to be morally deficient. But “wicked” is also a way of saying that
something is “outstanding.” That’s why I think toxic is a better word for what
Jesus was trying to say to the religious leaders. He was trying to help them
see the folly of their ways. He didn’t give up on them. He was trying to open their
eyes! But because of their obsession with their rules, they were blind to the
people who were in genuine need. That made their religion toxic, and because
they defined themselves by their religion, it made them toxic.
We’re familiar with “toxic” people, “toxic” work
environments, and “toxic” relationships. These phrases are commonplace in our
world. But those of us in the church haven’t tended to even consider whether
that our religion might be toxic. The sad truth is that religion always brings
with it a temptation to be so focused on what we believe is right that we can
overlook our own shortcomings. As Jesus put it, we can be so offended by the
“speck” in someone else’s eye that we overlook the “log” in our own (Lk 6:41).
I think if we’re going to take to heart the message of our Gospel lesson for
today, we may need to take a long hard look at ourselves through Jesus’ eyes. Perhaps
we need to take a look at ourselves through the eyes of the most vulnerable people
in our community! It may be disturbing, but there are times when we need to be
disturbed! We may need the words and actions of Jesus to disrupt our routines
in order to take a hard look at ourselves. Sometimes that’s what it takes for
us to make the changes that the kingdom of God demands of us!
[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/31/2025 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. Ps 10:2, “In arrogance the wicked persecute the
poor”; Prov 29:7, the “wicked” ignore the “rights of the poor”; Isa 32:7, the
“wicked” “ruin the poor with lying words.”
[3] Cf. Ps 10:3, “the wicked boast of the desires of their
heart; those greedy for gain curse and renounce the Lord”; Ps 37:14, “The
wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy”;
Prov. 17:23, “The wicked accept a concealed bribe to pervert the ways of
justice.”
[4] Cf. Lk 16:14, where Luke calls them “lovers of money.”
Cf. also Ps 10:3; Prov. 17:23, “All day long the wicked covet, but the
righteous give and do not hold back”; Isa 13:11, “I will put an end to the
pride of the arrogant and lay low the insolence of tyrants”; James 3:16, “where
there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness
of every kind.”
[5] Cf. Deut 10:18, God is the one who “executes justice
for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food
and clothing”; Deut 27:19, all the people are to acknowledge that “‘Cursed be
anyone who deprives an alien, an orphan, or a widow of justice.’ All the people
shall say, ‘Amen!’”; Cf. also Isa 1:17, where “doing good” and “seeking
justice” means to “rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the
widow”; Jer 22:3, among other things, “acting with justice” means to “do no
wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow.”
[6] Cf. Lk 16:15, “You are those who justify yourselves in
the sight of others, but God knows your hearts, for what is prized by humans is
an abomination in the sight of God,” which is again a somewhat indirect rebuke
(cf. Prov 15:9, “The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord”!).
[7] Especially the Good Samaritan (Lk 10), the Widow
Seeking Justice (Lk 18), and in our Gospel reading for today the Parable about
Places of Honor at Table (Lk 14).
