Who are you trying to impress

 This week's verses are Luke 12:1-3:

Meanwhile, when many thousands of the crowd had gathered so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing is secret that will not be made known. So then whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops.

 These verses are about how we behave when we think nobody is looking. But they're also about how we see others, and where we derive our self-worth. There's a lot stuffed in this tiny package!

Jesus uses the analogy of yeast. Yeast spreads. It eats away at the sugars in whatever it's in and puffs it up or fills it with a tasty poison called alcohol. So Jesus is saying there's a thing that eats away at our religious community, and puffs us up, and maybe even poisons us in a way that seems pleasant to us. He's talking about hypocrisy.

We all want to make a good impression, right? We want to be accepted and loved. We don't want to be "that person" with the problems, the sinner, the one we all look down on. But nobody can be that good, except maybe other people, the ones we get compared to, and compare ourselves against.

We look up to the people who have it all together. We wish we could be that good, but we just can't. But what if it was possible to pretend in a way that was convincing? We wouldn't even have to lie; we could just say spiritual things at the right time and act a little. We could wait for people to be looking before we help others, so maybe they would think we always did that, not just "on camera."

The problem, as Jesus points out, is that hypocrisy is useless. People are going to find out who you are eventually. Even if your sin is a secret till the grave, it will be revealed in heaven. We all think we're being so clever, but we're only fooling ourselves in the end.

In fact, hypocrisy is worse than useless because it destroys community. If everyone is pretending, who can you be real with? You can't get an honest, well-needed hug in a culture of politeness. And how will you know if someone needs your help, if everyone is busy "playing church?" And how will people react to sin, if they live in a world where they think nobody sins ever? And who will confess and be forgiven, if we are all holding back? If conviction is necessary for clemency, hypocrisy is perjury and resisting arrest. Neither of those things ever helped a man's case in the long run.

Who is the hypocrite trying to impress? Is it their community? Is it their friends and family? Maybe even themselves on some level? They're certainly not trying to impress God. In a sense, the answer to that question is the answer to where their treasure is found. If "so and so" thinks you're a good person, then you are good, but if they see you for who you are, then you are damned. But only God has the final say on damnation, and his verdict is our salvation. So why do we do it? Who outranks God?

This is why Jesus tells us not to go down that sugary path. When we dabble in hypocrisy we flirt with idolatry. When we lie to get close to others, we put a wall between them and us. When we take the shortcut to having a righteous reputation, the eternal results may not be as kind to our self-image.

Jesus also warns us not to go there because it is dangerous. Does anyone start out consciously wanting to be a hypocrite? Maybe in our cynical, narcissistic media-focused society a few people might, but most hypocrites would honestly say they didn't intend to be hypocrites. And once you have the reputation and the followers and all of the payday-loan goodness of people's admiration, it's really hard to throw it all away. You're trapped, drunk on your own self-deception, puffed up too big to move.

So be on guard against the yeast of the pharisees. Look at your words and actions not in the light of how they might seem to others, but in how authentically they reflect who you are inside. Only then can you and others get an honest assessment of how far you are from being like Jesus Christ in your day to day life. And that's the best place to start if you want to become that person you pretend to be.