S116P2 – Difficult truths: the teachers and Pharisees

Mt. 23:27-28

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Being raised in a fundamentalist household, his experiences were a set of extremes.  What he was taught in their lessons was a standard of living that he had difficulty meeting, especially as a young man.  He messed up, and he messed up often, which brought him much guilt and discouragement.  The biggest problem was that he did not live in an environment of grace.  He witnessed his parents and other adults of authority in his life defy the very rules that they enforced upon him.  Yet, he was expected to uphold those rules and was chastised when he failed to do so.  Ultimately, the rule of law that was in place to build him and improve him was wielded to tear him down.

Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law as people who were entrusted with authority.  These men were not merely men who had it wrong.  Their flawed teaching was then used to mislead their flocks and hold them in a spiritual prison.  Under their direction, one could not encounter the truth.  The response of Jesus to these groups of men over the course of the Gospels has so much to do with the authority they carried in that culture.  Not only did they have it wrong, but they took the law designed to illuminate our sin and instead used it to try to hide their own.  In doing so, they held themselves out as the perfect examples they never could be, and this was not unknown to them.

In this chapter of Matthew, Jesus really lays into the religious leaders. He calls out exactly how they have twisted and misused their faith and their position to lead the people to hell. There is no confusing the message here; these men were not misled but knew of their faults. Their practices were an intentional design to meet their desired end of power and control. Without their image of piety, they could not retain control of the people. This is why the truth brought by Jesus was so offensive and dangerous to them. The truth shed light on their evil hearts, as evidenced by their response to him. Father, show us where we have gone wrong in our theology or our practice of faith, that we would not be like the evil hypocrites but like the Good Shepherd.