December 9th, 2021
Matthew 23:13-26
‘But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
‘Woe to you, blind guides, who say, “Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.” You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? And you say, “Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.” How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it; and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.
‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.”
Holy Questions
Jesus has come to the end of his patience with the very people who ought to be the first ones to recognize who he is and what he’s up to. The scribes (“lawyers” in older translations) were the educated class, trained as readers and interpreters of the Torah, the teachings and traditions of the faith of Israel. As such, they ought to have understood that the Messiah, the Chosen One, God’s Special Servant, would not be in the mold of a political or military power broker, but rather one who would step away from such aspirations. This peculiar Redeemer would even go so far as to allow himself to be put to death, rather than resort to the tools and techniques of imperial violence and domination. (At the very moment of his arrest, Jesus will order his followers: “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matt. 26:52) A strange sort of Savior indeed!
For their part, the Pharisees were devout and earnest lay people. They wanted to make the ways and practices of faith available to all the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—not just the clergy and the elite classes. “As a lay movement outside of the Temple administration, the goal of the Pharisees was to renew and extend the observance of Jewish practice in society.” (The Jewish Annotated New Testament, p. 64) They appear most frequently as opponents of Jesus and his followers in the Gospels, perhaps because they have the most in common. “Adherents of a particular group or set of beliefs often polemicize most strongly against those who share similar, but not identical, beliefs.” (TJANT, p. 41) Beliefs and practices of all sorts, ranging from proper Sabbath observance, to customs around washings and meal rituals, to acts of charity and healing—all these mattered to Jesus and his followers, and to the Pharisees as well. So, they too, in the estimation of the author of the Gospel of Matthew, ought to have been among the first ones to understand what Jesus was doing during his earthly ministry.
This passage, and indeed most of the Gospel readings appointed for the Daily Office during Advent, do not feel particularly ‘Christmassy’ to us.
Because in the Gospel, it’s not Christmas. It’s Holy Week.
Time is up—for Jesus and his followers.
The Advent—the Coming, the Visitation—of God is upon them all.
The Last Supper, and Jesus’ crucifixion and death and burial, are just around the corner.
Jesus is on a bit of a rant at the moment. “How is it that you do not understand?” he cries out in frustration at the seemingly willful resistance he encounters, from both trained scholars of the scriptures, and from well-meaning and serious-minded people who are committed to the practices of faith in daily life. And yet even with all that training, in spite of all those good intentions, they have somehow missed the point. “You tithe…[but] have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.…You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!”
What would Jesus say to us? I wonder. How have I been “Pharisaical”, commending faithful behaviors and habits to others, while neglecting them in my own life and practice? How have I ignored the connections and conflicts between my own awareness of Holy Scripture, and my lived experience? How have I refused or neglected to acknowledge Christ’s presence in my encounters with others, in even the most ordinary circumstances? What gnats have I strained out of a cup, while consuming entire camels without noticing?
Lord, have mercy.
O Wisdom,
coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the other mightily,
and sweetly ordering all things:
Come, and teach us the way of prudence.
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Jason Haddox
Priest at Trinity Church, Guthrie
Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma