July 18, 2007
Woe to the Pharisees ... to Us
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some fo whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”
Matthew 23 (ESV)
In the past few years, every time I’ve read this passage, I’ve wept. I cry because so many of the woes ascribed to the Pharisees and scribes apply so dangerously to the evangelical right ... to the culture that trained me, taught me ... to the people I love and who love me. How did it happen that we became Pharisees?
And is there any hope for us? Jesus—the one we claim to love and honor, the one whose “name we honor with our lips”—here gives the harshest condemnation he ever delivered on earth (to my knowledge), and it is delivered at the most religiously devout people of his time. Can there be any mercy for us? Any escape from the sentence of hell for the self-righteous? I draw hope from the end of the passage, as Jesus laments: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” It comforts me because He still desires Jerusalem, even though it “kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.” He still desires to “gather [its] children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” And I hope that he still desires us, self-righteous hypocrites though we be.
None are worthy of the grace of God ... yet we have heard those words from childhood and are deaf to their power. It is a mixed blessing to be raised in the faith, because you can so easily become innoculated to its power. Jesus’ quote from Isaiah can so easily apply to me:
You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.
Matthew 13:14–15 (ESV)
I guess I’m in a strange position; I’m almost disagreeing with Jesus. Lord, have mercy on us and forgive our pride and our many sins! Lord, do not abandon us. Have mercy on us ... and let us understand, not merely hear; and perceive, not merely see. Let us see with our eyes and hear with our ears and turn ... and be healed. Father, I pray for us, that we obey You when you say “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.” Show us that we are “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Show us so that we may come to you like the tax collector and pray “Lord, have mercy on us sinners!”
Let us spend more time rejoicing that our sins are forgiven instead of railing at the sins of the world.
Father, have mercy on me ... a sinner.
