Raising the bar too high
This week is on Matthew 23:1-4:
These verses are from a talk Jesus was giving about the problems in the church of his day. When you hear "teachers of the law and pharisees" think "priests, pastors, and self-righteous Christians," since everything he is saying is still true today. There are people in the church who have unreasonable expectations of others, or who constantly add requirements for acceptance, while skirting those same rules and expectations themselves.
The teachers of the law and Pharisees were in Moses' seat. That is, they passed along God's law to the rest of the nation around them. I've heard that the seat in the synagogue where the Torah scrolls were read to the congregation was called The Seat of Moses. So these guys were making an official delivery, and Jesus was saying to pay attention to the word of God, even though the delivery boys themselves were not to be trusted. If the word of God said to love your wife and support your family, for instance, you wouldn't ignore that just because the guy reading it was a known adulterer.
But the problem was that they added all sorts of other things in order for people to be accepted as "righteous." There was a meticulous system of tithing. There were regulations about what clothing was appropriate. There were rituals for washing hands and dishes. You couldn't just be right with God. You had to play their game too, and they made sure that game was never finished.
Fast forward to the present. You and Jesus found each other someplace, you gave your life to him, and he cleansed you of your sins and made you righteous by his mortal blood sacrifice. All set, right? Not even close! You're clean in Jesus' eyes, but the church has only gotten started with you.
First of all, you're going to have to go to church every week. Even Jesus didn't do that, but that doesn't matter. Someone is taking attendance. And if church for you is a small group Bible study, you'd better be at the Sunday service for that church too. And if you're only going to the Sunday service, you'd better be at that Bible study as well, even though the pastor and his family don't go to one. Is there a prayer meeting going on? Evangelism? A work detail? You'd better be at those things too.
So, your schedule is packed and you've punched your card at all of the weekly turnstiles. Done, right? Wrong. Have you done the year long ministry internship? Have you been to leadership coaching, the alpha course, membership classes, and the weekend getaway? Better have money for materials and travel. And if you're planning to be a missionary, you're going to need thousands of dollars for some kind of seminary accreditation.
And what about tithing? The finance people are keeping score, and telling the pastor who is a "cheerful giver." (I'd love to see the Pharisees' report on Jesus' tithing and synagogue attendance, what with all of his travel.) Do you volunteer for ministry with a team? If not, you're just dead weight. You want to be "a part," don't you? Surely if you learn guitar, clean the pews, and sit at the food pantry table once a month, surely then you're righteous, right? Wrong.
Do you struggle with mental illness or addictions? Are you too poor to afford nice clothes and a good hairdresser? Are you too fat or old? Do you speak English with a strong accent? Are you the wrong color? Wrong political affiliation? Did you commit a sex or drug related crime ever, even if it was forty years ago? Depending on the church, you may never be good enough!
Jesus loves, and accepts, and meets us where we are, as sinners in need of his grace. His death on the cross paid for all of the scorn and punishment we will ever deserve. We are placed beside him as brothers and sisters. Can anyone put themselves above that? Can anyone push us down if we are raised up by God himself as beloved family? Counted as righteous as Jesus himself? And yet the Church, the Bride of Christ, rescued from the whorehouse of the world by Jesus, is embarrassed to be seen with His family and feels the need to set some standards before she can love them.
But flip that around and look further. What about this? The pastor wants people at church and meetings every week, but does he spend an equal amount of time in self-improvement, accountable to others? After spending eight hours a day, five days a week, on exhausting labor that nobody else will ever see or appreciate? The board wants people do do a ministry course, but do they spend that much money and time every year improving themselves? Are they even at the volunteer events they ask everyone to attend? Do they expose their finances to scrutiny the same as they scrutinize the tithing in the church? It's hypocrisy and self-righteousness. "I'm different. I'm better. I have arrived. See if you can catch up with me. You never will."
It's complete absurdity. It drives people away from the church, and away from God, every year. Jesus urges us not to run away. Don't let the teachers of the law and the Pharisees put you off God with their oppressive, hypocritical, self-righteous behavior. And if you stick around, don't let yourself fall into that pattern of behavior. The yeast of the pharisees creeps in slowly, and before you know it, you're puffed up and smelling like dough.
If you're showing up to a church, and you see this sort of nonsense, as Jesus says, hear the word of God, but don't follow in the steps of the people sharing it. And if you're one of the people who are running a church group of some kind, examine yourself for hypocrisy. How much of a love gap is there between the pastor, the church workers, the people who have put in their time, and the new financially, morally, and/or aesthetically impoverished visitor to your group? Do you find yourself mentally preparing a cheese maze for them in your head? "OK, they'll come and then I'll get them into a Bible study, and then to volunteer during the service, then to do the internship, then the mission training program, and then I'll accept that they're a real Christian if they stick around. But only if they seem like they have something to contribute to what I'm building here." Did it ever occur to you to find out what they need instead of thinking of what you want from them or what they "should" be doing?
Jesus' selection of disciples couldn't have been more random. He didn't pick them for their looks, or their ability to further his career, or to pay enough tithes and tuition to keep his bills paid. He didn't have an oppressive yoke of rules and requirements for them. His burden is easy and his yoke is light. He was there to love them and help them to become who they were meant to be. He didn't place himself in a different class of person to them, even though he would have been justified in doing so. They ate together, and traveled together, and lived together. There was no years-long period of initiation before they could sit at his table. He washed their feet without demanding that they do it to him first.
So going back to encountering your new neighbor, how high does the standard of righteousness need to be, if they are already accepted by Jesus? How long do they need to prove themselves to you before you can love them? And I'm not even talking about loving as Jesus loved, just about what you can personally muster up. What credentials does someone have to present to you in order for you to acknowledge God's call on their life? These are all questions that the teachers of the law and the Pharisees had the wrong answers for. Maybe with God's help and better example, we can do better.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them."
These verses are from a talk Jesus was giving about the problems in the church of his day. When you hear "teachers of the law and pharisees" think "priests, pastors, and self-righteous Christians," since everything he is saying is still true today. There are people in the church who have unreasonable expectations of others, or who constantly add requirements for acceptance, while skirting those same rules and expectations themselves.
The teachers of the law and Pharisees were in Moses' seat. That is, they passed along God's law to the rest of the nation around them. I've heard that the seat in the synagogue where the Torah scrolls were read to the congregation was called The Seat of Moses. So these guys were making an official delivery, and Jesus was saying to pay attention to the word of God, even though the delivery boys themselves were not to be trusted. If the word of God said to love your wife and support your family, for instance, you wouldn't ignore that just because the guy reading it was a known adulterer.
But the problem was that they added all sorts of other things in order for people to be accepted as "righteous." There was a meticulous system of tithing. There were regulations about what clothing was appropriate. There were rituals for washing hands and dishes. You couldn't just be right with God. You had to play their game too, and they made sure that game was never finished.
Fast forward to the present. You and Jesus found each other someplace, you gave your life to him, and he cleansed you of your sins and made you righteous by his mortal blood sacrifice. All set, right? Not even close! You're clean in Jesus' eyes, but the church has only gotten started with you.
First of all, you're going to have to go to church every week. Even Jesus didn't do that, but that doesn't matter. Someone is taking attendance. And if church for you is a small group Bible study, you'd better be at the Sunday service for that church too. And if you're only going to the Sunday service, you'd better be at that Bible study as well, even though the pastor and his family don't go to one. Is there a prayer meeting going on? Evangelism? A work detail? You'd better be at those things too.
So, your schedule is packed and you've punched your card at all of the weekly turnstiles. Done, right? Wrong. Have you done the year long ministry internship? Have you been to leadership coaching, the alpha course, membership classes, and the weekend getaway? Better have money for materials and travel. And if you're planning to be a missionary, you're going to need thousands of dollars for some kind of seminary accreditation.
And what about tithing? The finance people are keeping score, and telling the pastor who is a "cheerful giver." (I'd love to see the Pharisees' report on Jesus' tithing and synagogue attendance, what with all of his travel.) Do you volunteer for ministry with a team? If not, you're just dead weight. You want to be "a part," don't you? Surely if you learn guitar, clean the pews, and sit at the food pantry table once a month, surely then you're righteous, right? Wrong.
Do you struggle with mental illness or addictions? Are you too poor to afford nice clothes and a good hairdresser? Are you too fat or old? Do you speak English with a strong accent? Are you the wrong color? Wrong political affiliation? Did you commit a sex or drug related crime ever, even if it was forty years ago? Depending on the church, you may never be good enough!
Jesus loves, and accepts, and meets us where we are, as sinners in need of his grace. His death on the cross paid for all of the scorn and punishment we will ever deserve. We are placed beside him as brothers and sisters. Can anyone put themselves above that? Can anyone push us down if we are raised up by God himself as beloved family? Counted as righteous as Jesus himself? And yet the Church, the Bride of Christ, rescued from the whorehouse of the world by Jesus, is embarrassed to be seen with His family and feels the need to set some standards before she can love them.
But flip that around and look further. What about this? The pastor wants people at church and meetings every week, but does he spend an equal amount of time in self-improvement, accountable to others? After spending eight hours a day, five days a week, on exhausting labor that nobody else will ever see or appreciate? The board wants people do do a ministry course, but do they spend that much money and time every year improving themselves? Are they even at the volunteer events they ask everyone to attend? Do they expose their finances to scrutiny the same as they scrutinize the tithing in the church? It's hypocrisy and self-righteousness. "I'm different. I'm better. I have arrived. See if you can catch up with me. You never will."
It's complete absurdity. It drives people away from the church, and away from God, every year. Jesus urges us not to run away. Don't let the teachers of the law and the Pharisees put you off God with their oppressive, hypocritical, self-righteous behavior. And if you stick around, don't let yourself fall into that pattern of behavior. The yeast of the pharisees creeps in slowly, and before you know it, you're puffed up and smelling like dough.
If you're showing up to a church, and you see this sort of nonsense, as Jesus says, hear the word of God, but don't follow in the steps of the people sharing it. And if you're one of the people who are running a church group of some kind, examine yourself for hypocrisy. How much of a love gap is there between the pastor, the church workers, the people who have put in their time, and the new financially, morally, and/or aesthetically impoverished visitor to your group? Do you find yourself mentally preparing a cheese maze for them in your head? "OK, they'll come and then I'll get them into a Bible study, and then to volunteer during the service, then to do the internship, then the mission training program, and then I'll accept that they're a real Christian if they stick around. But only if they seem like they have something to contribute to what I'm building here." Did it ever occur to you to find out what they need instead of thinking of what you want from them or what they "should" be doing?
Jesus' selection of disciples couldn't have been more random. He didn't pick them for their looks, or their ability to further his career, or to pay enough tithes and tuition to keep his bills paid. He didn't have an oppressive yoke of rules and requirements for them. His burden is easy and his yoke is light. He was there to love them and help them to become who they were meant to be. He didn't place himself in a different class of person to them, even though he would have been justified in doing so. They ate together, and traveled together, and lived together. There was no years-long period of initiation before they could sit at his table. He washed their feet without demanding that they do it to him first.
So going back to encountering your new neighbor, how high does the standard of righteousness need to be, if they are already accepted by Jesus? How long do they need to prove themselves to you before you can love them? And I'm not even talking about loving as Jesus loved, just about what you can personally muster up. What credentials does someone have to present to you in order for you to acknowledge God's call on their life? These are all questions that the teachers of the law and the Pharisees had the wrong answers for. Maybe with God's help and better example, we can do better.
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