Macbeth thinks he hears a voice:
Lady Macbeth doesn't think he should be so troubled:
Macbeth will not return to the scene of the crime, so Lady Macbeth goes off with the daggers to leave them where they will most incriminate the grooms. She returns saying:
But it is not as easy as that and the disturbed sleep-walking Lady Macbeth says:
We can in fact look at guilt in two ways. On the one hand a person can feel guilty about something that they have done - and even sometimes about something they have not done! People can be declared innocent of any wrongdoing and still feel guilty about it. People can even confess to a serious crime that they haven't committed.
In a number of her murder mysteries, Agatha Christie has several characters wishing someone dead. Then, when the murder actually happens, there is a cloud over the whole community because they have all thought it, even though only one person has had the intention of carrying it out.
But then the question is always "Whodunit?" - not, "Who feels guilty?" but "Who is the person who has done this crime?" So we make a distinction between psychological guilt - the feelings of guilt that we may have - and real guilt - based on what we have actually done.
The two aspects of guilt can be closely intertwined or separated from one another. When Martin Bryant seemed so cheerful when convicted and sentenced for the Port Arthur massacre, we become aware that a person may truly guilty - whether he/she feels guilty or not. But it is also possible for a person to be declared innocent and to carry through life a crippling load of guilt feelings. In Macbeth the psychological guilt follows closely on the real guilt.
In Isaiah's time the Lord's people were really guilty but seemed to have no guilty feelings about it. They continued to go through all the rituals of worshipping the Lord - offering their sheep and bulls, attending the services of the Temple, burning incense, observing the New Moon Festivals and Sabbaths... But all these observances are "a burden that" the Lord is "tired of bearing" because "they are all corrupted by their sins".
"When you lift your hands in prayer, I will not look at you. No matter how much you pray, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and learn to do right. See that justice is done - help those who are oppressed, give orphans their rights, and defend widows" (vv. 15-17).
God looks at the heart. He knows all about us. It is not a question of whether "everyone is doing it" in society about us - or about whether we are comfortable about all that we are doing. It is not enough to come to Church, to do all the good religious things. God looks at the heart - the life we live and our motivation for living. He sees, not only our Sunday morning, but our whole week. He sees, not only our religious observance, but how we live in the home, how we relate to other people, how we handle our possessions and our money...
"Who asked you to bring me all this when you come to worship me?" Well, you did, Lord! But as we also note in Mic. 6.8, "The Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God."
When I read through Paul's letter to the Romans, I imagine a sense of spiritual satisfaction over his Jewish readers as he recounts the prevailing sins of the Roman empire. But God who looks on the heart can see that even the Jew who depends on the Law, boasts about God, knows what God wants him/her to do and has learnt from the Law to choose what is right (2.17-18) - that even the Jew is guilty of sin. Paul concludes that "everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence" (3.23).
In chapter 6, Paul describes his own spiritual struggle. Even when he seeks to do what is right he finds an evil principle within leading him to do what is wrong. "What an unhappy man I am!" he writes, "Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death?" (7.24).
But the Lord is gracious. In Isaiah, we hear him calling his people to consider the matter, to repent and to change their ways. He is offering forgiveness and cleansing for their sin. They have the choice to respond to his grace.
"Now, let's settle the matter. You are stained red with sin, but I will wash you as clean as snow. Although your stains are deep red, you will be as white as wool" (Is. 1.16).
Dr. A.I. Pierson once wrote, "In a paper mill what a contrast between the heap of filthy rags at one end and the pure and spotless white paper at the other! What a trial the rags go through before they emerge in this new form! Torn to pieces and ground to pulp, bleached with chloride of lime till all stains are removed, washed over and over; submitted to another bleaching by the action of chlorine and alum; washed again, till the pulp or stuff is white as cream or snowflakes! Caught upon a wire cylinder, after the severe shaking by the Fourdrinier process which crosses the fibres and gives compactness and firmness to the fabric; and then passed between and around the hot surfaces which makes the paper smooth and even - how like the divine discipline by which our filthiness is cleansed away; how like the tribulation out of which all come up who have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb!"
The Lord is gracious! But there are steps to receiving his grace. We cannot be made clean while we insist we are not dirty. Jesus grieved over the Pharisees. He had come for them too, but they acknowledged no need of his saving work. It is the Lord himself who offers to wash us clean. We live after the coming of the Christ and know that he has done it through that one, full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We receive by faith what Christ has done for us.
As Paul says, "There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death. What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like man's sinful nature, to do away with sin. God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according the Spirit, and not according to human nature" (Rom. 8.1-4).
We are forgiven. God has removed our guilt and now, by his Holy Spirit, seeks to change and transform us according to his will.
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