The Eight Woes – Part 2
Matthew 23:15-22, NRSV - Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and
you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. “Woe to
you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by
nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.’
You blind fools! For which is greater,
the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the altar is
bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound
by the oath.’ How blind you are! For
which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it
and by everything on it; and whoever
swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it; and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the
throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.
Matthew 5:5-6, NRSV – “Blessed are the meek, for
they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Those
who have spent anytime using a copy machine know that a copy of a copy loses
some quality. The quality of the copy
decreases with every “copy of a copy of a copy.” This is similar, in my estimation, to what
Jesus is saying about the religious leaders of His time. They are all about attracting followers, but since
they are already a copy of a copy, their followers are even worse than they
are. This is why Jesus makes it clear
that there is no longer a need for people model themselves after spiritual leaders. They now have the “original” available.to
them, the original being Jesus. In
these “Eight Woes.” Jesus pointedly asserts that the eventual result of primarily
following the Pharisees and other religious teachers is expanding
hypocrisy.
The religious
establishment cared more about how many followers they have than how many
followers God has. As further evidence
for this hypocrisy, the fourth woe issued concerns the religious leaders
instructions on swearing oaths. They
taught loopholes on vows. If you swore
an oath only generally on the sanctuary, this is an oath that is breakable; if
you swear by the gold of the sanctuary, you have the keep that promise or
else. This is legalism at its finest,
and Jesus rightly condemns it.
These third
and fourth woes recall the third and fourth beatitudes listed above. The meek don’t seek to build kingdoms of
followers for themselves. They humbly accept
the blessings that naturally come to them when they welcome the kingdom of
God. They “inherit the kingdom” by
forsaking the building of their own.
Likewise, true followers of God aren’t looking for loopholes that excuse
them from keeping their vows. True
followers seek to be righteous as Jesus is righteous. They are driven by gratitude for what God has
done for them and because of that, they seek to live the way God teaches. They “hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
We live
in a time when our value and the value of our organizations are often measured
by the number of followers on social media, the number of subscribers podcasts
have, or the number of views livestreams receive. Often lost in the mix is whether or not our
efforts are actually drawing others into meaningful relationships with God and
people. In such a time, loopholes abound
for every kind of behavior. The root meaning
of “righteousness, “which is “right relationship,” takes a back seat to technicality
arguments and drawing moral “lines in the sand.” To put it more bluntly, the
goal of the Christian way of life is not to hold a perfectly right position on
every hot-button issue; the goal is a relationship with God and people that is
primarily characterized by love as demonstrated by Jesus. This is the “righteousness” that “fills”
people according to the beatitude promise.
Questions: Have you ever been guilty of “majoring in the minors?” Have you ever found yourself putting more
stock in what a leader says than in what Jesus says?
Prayer: Have mercy on us Lord, for we often don’t see
our own hypocrisies. Point them out to
us as we look to the teaching of Jesus Himself, the Author and Finisher of our
faith. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for peaceful resolutions of conflict around the world today.
Song: Give Us Clean
Hands – Mark Schultz
No comments:
Post a Comment