Woe to them and to us!

Matthew 23:13-22

Jesus said to the people: "I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God's kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won't let anyone else in either. 15" You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double- damned. 16 "You're hopeless! What arrogant stupidity! You say, 'If someone makes a promise with his fingers crossed, that's nothing; but if he swears with his hand on the Bible, that's serious.' 17 What ignorance! Does the leather on the Bible carry more weight than the skin on your hands? 18 And what about this piece of trivia: 'If you shake hands on a promise, that's nothing; but if you raise your hand that God is your witness, that's serious'? 19 What ridiculous hairsplitting! What difference does it make whether you shake hands or raise hands? 20 22 A promise is a promise. What difference does it make if you make your promise inside or outside a house of worship? A promise is a promise. God is present, watching and holding you to account regardless.

Food for thought!

Jesus directs a series of seven woes against the Scribes and Pharisees. It is hard to translate woe for it includes not only wrath, but also sorrow. It is righteous anger; it is the anger of the heart of love, broken by the stubborn blindness of men.

The word hypocrite occurs here again and again. It means an actor in the worse sense of the term, a  pretender, one who acts a part, as in theater, one who wears a mask to cover his true feelings, one who puts on an external show while inwardly his thoughts and feelings are very different.

To Jesus the Scribes and Pharisees were simply actors. What he meant was this. Their whole idea of religion consisted in outward observances, the wearing of elaborate clothes, the meticulous observance of the rules and regulations of the Law. But in their hearts there was bitterness and envy and pride and arrogance. To

Jesus these Scribes and Pharisees were men who, under a mask of elaborate godliness, concealed hearts in which the most godless feelings and emotions held sway. And that accusation holds good in greater or lesser degree of anyone who lives life on the assumption that religion consists in external observances and external acts.

Religion is first and foremost an inside experience; it is our spirit talking to God, and God talking to our spirit. The external acts of religion are meant to reflect and mirror the internal acts of the spirit. Not vice versa. The same with religious rules and regulations; they're are not meant to complicate but to enhance the inner religious experience. If and when they begin to compromise religion, they cease to be relevant. Unfortunately we have not a few of these.

The Lord save us from hypocrisy, from seeming to be religious when we are not. Let us strive to really be and not just seem to be religious, to really be and do good and not just seem to be and do good, to be Christians and not just seem to be Christians.