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Today’s reading is Matthew 23:1-24:51.

Just right out of the starting gate, today’s reading smacked me with an open can of humility.

Speaking of the Pharisees, Jesus said, “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” (Matthew 23:5-11).

Certainly, we go to other passages to learn that there are roles within Christ’s body. Ephesians 4:11 says God gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. There is nothing wrong with calling someone who is a teacher a teacher or who is an evangelist an evangelist. Jesus’ point was not so much about titles as it was about attitudes. 

Sadly, those of us who are evangelists, teachers, pastors or some other role can very easily jump into arrogance. We can look forward to someone introducing us, “Oh, you just have to meet my preacher.” “This is so and so, he’s one of the shepherds in our congregation.” “This is sister such and such, she’s one of our top Bible class teachers.” 

Sure, we have roles to fill within the congregation. We all have roles. But not one role is above another. There is no role that makes us higher or more important than anyone. The highest rank in Christianity is servant. 

The question for me today is not how great of a preacher I am. Rather, it is how can I serve someone today?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

P.P.S. Just a reminder: I’m sorry about being sporadic. However, my family and I are in countdown mode. In 6 weeks, we will be moving to Brownsburg, Indiana. Right now I’m covered up with working on our house and trying to get everything in order to move. That is significantly impacting my writing and internet time. Please be patient with me and keep praying for us.

James Joseph Jacques Tissot-"The Prodigal in Modern Life: The Return"

Today’s reading is Luke 15:1-16:31.

Luke 15:33 stood out most to me in today’s reading.

“What?!” you say, “There is no Luke 15:33.” Exactly, and that is what stands out the most to me. Don’t you feel the story of the prodigal’s brother just ends kind of abruptly? What happened next. Did the older son soften and enter the party? Did he argue more with his Father? Did he stalk off and hold it against his brother for the rest of their lives? Did he slowly come around to seeing things like the Father? What happened next?

John MacArthur raised this question in his book A Tale of Two Sons. His answer shocked me. He pointed out the reason this story stops abruptly is because when Jesus told it, the story hadn’t ended yet. However, the story did come to an end. The older brother grabbed a stick and beat his father to death with it.

Think about it. Who does the older brother represent? The Pharisees and scribes who grumbled against Jesus, the father figure, who was eating and celebrating with the tax collectors and sinners, the prodigals. Instead of rejoicing that these sinners were accepting the salvation offered by God through Jesus Christ, the Pharisees and scribes stood outside the celebration whining, moaning, complaining.

Jesus told three stories in succession to make his point. If a shepherd said he found his lost sheep, the Pharisees and scribes would rejoice with him. If a woman found her lost coin, the scribes and Pharisees would rejoice with her. However, a father is finding his lost children and the Pharisees and scribes are pitching a huge fit. As Jesus ends His telling of the story, He essentially says to the Pharisees and scribes, “The ball is in your court. What will you do with it?” 

Sadly, instead of rejoicing, they plotted to kill Jesus. They didn’t want this radical who was turning their religion on its head speaking of forgiveness for these irreligious people just because they turned and submitted to Him. If folks would be saved, they needed to turn to the Pharisees and scribes and jump through their hoops. They would prove it. They would put Jesus to death and then where would He be and where would all those sinners be?

Of course, you know that their action is what actually secured salvation for us. However, the point of these parables is not to see how our salvation was secured. In fact, if we check this context, the point of these parables is not actually to teach us the lessons about the prodigal and his return to the father. That was simply the means to get to the point of how the Pharisees and scribes would not rejoice when sinners came to Jesus.

How do I act when someone comes to Jesus? Especially, how do I act when someone comes to Jesus who has hurt me and those close to me? How do I act if someone dressed differently, with tattoos, piercings, spiked hair and chains comes to our assembly? How do I act when the person who cheated on my best friend seeks forgiveness? How do I act when someone who is “clearly” worse than me, wants to be part of Christ’s church? How do I act when the person who stabbed me in the back on the job shows up at a friend’s invitation to our assembly?

As with all illustrations, this parable breaks down. The fact is, these Pharisees and scribes were just as much prodigals as the tax collectors and sinners. The question for me is having been a prodigal myself, how do I act towards those who are still slopping with the hogs? How do I behave when they come to Jesus while still splattered with pig muck, wearing shabby clothes, stinking of pig filth? Do I bring them in and help dress them in fine clothes? Or do I stand outside and rebuke the Father for accepting them in? Worse yet, do I grab the nearest stick and start beating Jesus with it? That’s what the Pharisees and scribes did.

Their story didn’t end so well. How will mine end?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Interestingly, I hear all kinds of accusations about the Pharisees. Today, evangelicals and ecumenicalists are free with pointing the finger at all those awful, rotten Pharisees out there. Of course, the Pharisee accusation usually means LEGALIST. I find that interesting when we read Matthew 23. This is the most in depth rebuke of the Pharisees and yet not once does Jesus rebuke them for being legalists. Notice instead what he does actually rebuke them for.

1. Not practicing what they preach.

In Matthew 23:3-4, Jesus said the folks should do what the Pharisees taught. But not do what they did because they didn’t practice what they preached. Further, they would lay all kinds of burdens on the shoulders of other people but wouldn’t lift the finger to lift these burdens themselves. Now don’t read into this. Jesus didn’t rebuke them for laying heavy burdens on anyone. He rebuked them for not lifting the heavy burdens themselves.

2. They were self-seeking.

According to Matthew 23:5-15, Jesus says the Pharisees weren’t doing what they did out of humble service to God so that He might be glorified. They were doing things so others might see them and praise them for being so spiritual. Again, Jesus didn’t rebuke them for being legalistic about what they taught or practiced but for their motivation behind what they did and taught. This self-seeking led to some pretty awful results. First, their self-seeking caused them to lead a double life. On the one hand, they were taking advantage of widows. On the other, they were making long prayers for a pretense. The second negative consequence was their self-seeking caused them to make followers of themselves instead of followers of God. Thus, when they found a proselyte, the person did not get in a right relationship with God but became twice the child of hell as the Pharisees.

3. They were dishonest.

Perhaps Matthew 23:16-22 is where some folks find legalism. Certainly, they are drawing a bunch of lines on when to actually keep their word. But Jesus is not rebuking them for their lines. He is rebuking them for their dishonesty. He wants them to simply tell the truth, not make up rules about when they have to tell the truth. Further, notice that this issue of line drawing is not about adding burdens of greater weight about telling the truth but about trying to figure out how to get out of the real height of honesty God demands. I find it interesting that so many want to ridicule the Pharisees for making serving God harder, when here they were trying to get out of what God had commanded.

4. Disobeying the weightier matters of the law.

In Matthew 23:23-24, Jesus rebuked them for attending to minor details while they disregarded the more important parts of the law. I find this one intriguing too because many like to use the figures of speech used in these verses to claim Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for legalism. This is odd since they are actually trying to avoid keeping the law here. We should notice something pointed in these verses. Jesus did not rebuke them for keeping minor details. In fact, he says they should have done that. Rather, He rebuked them because they did not keep the weightier matters. He did not rebuke them for straining the gnats. He rebuked them for swallowing the camels. But what was Jesus’ overall complaint for them? It was not that they were getting too legalistic with God’s law. It was that they were not legalistic enough. They weren’t keeping the Law well enough.

5. Hypocrisy

In Matthew 23:25-32, Jesus got down to the major rebuke against the Pharisees. I know we expect it to finally be legalism. But, it’s not. It’s hypocrisy. In actuality, we already saw this building in the other rebukes, but now Jesus just spells it out, repeatedly calling them hypocrites. They simply worked on the outside and not on the inside. This doesn’t mean the outside doesn’t matter. Rather, Jesus explains if we get the heart right, then the outside will follow. The Pharisees, however, since they were self-seeking were only focused on whatever would make them look good, not would actually let them be good. Sadly, this hypocrisy led to one major consequence. When real men of God came in their midst, they persecuted and even killed them.

As Jesus ended this discussion, He pointed out the Pharisees would be judged. But He never mentioned legalism. In fact, I’m actually still waiting for a rebuke in the entire New Testament where the Pharisees were actually condemned or rebuked because they were legalists. Seems to me that is merely a modern statement because so many people today want to get away from being held accountable by a real system of law. They seemingly want to make Christianity a kind of free for all that says we are all allowed to do whatever we want in the name of Jesus and no one has the right to draw any lines. After all, look at how Jesus rebuked those pesky Pharisees for their legalism. Yet, I keep trying to find the passage where Jesus actually rebuked them for that. 

Can you find it? If you do, let me know. Until then…

Keep reading and keep the faith,

ELC

Sometimes it seems the only rule for today is don’t offend people. Of course, this rule isn’t applied to offending people because our language is crude. It doesn’t apply to offending people because we are being vulgar. It doesn’t apply to offending people because we are being sexually explicit. No, the only rule guiding society today is we are not allowed to offend someone by suggesting something they are doing religiously is wrong. After all, we are told, Jesus would never be offensive. He came down just to let everyone know how much He loved us all.

Yet, look again at Matthew 15:10-14:

“And he called the people to him and said to them, ‘Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.’ Then the disciples came and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’ He answered, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind both will fall into a pit” (ESV).

Oh…wait…maybe Jesus wasn’t as PC as modern folk want to claim. However, note that Jesus’ offense was not because of carelessness or lack of concern. He was merely going to teach the truth no matter what anyone thought about it. If if offended them, so be it.

We need to keep this in mind. As Christians, we should not be carelessly and recklessly offensive. Offending because we don’t care about people and therefore we mock them or treat them sarcastically should not be known among us. However, we need to come to grips with the fact that lots of people just won’t like the truth. Whether they like it or not, we have to teach it just like Jesus did. 

I think the key is to check our motivation. When we speak, are we speaking the truth in love? Or are we merely trying to put someone with whom we disagree in their place? Are we trying to help someone? Or are we trying to make them look foolish?

If someone is offended because we are being careless, reckless and sarcastic, then we need to repent and make amends. If someone is offended because they simply won’t accept the truth revealed in God’s word, then we should recognize them for the blind guides they are. 

Keep the faith and keep reading.

ELC