“God wants you to shut up because you are embarrassing him!”
- John Denver (from the movie, ‘Oh, God!’)
“The
wrath of God is understood as divine consent to our own self-destructive defiance.”
- Brad
Jersak
Jesus
is a master of turning his critics arguments back onto his critics. His
parables are masterpieces of reversals and when it comes to the art of satire
and irony, he stood head and shoulders above his opponents. Several times the
religious elite of Jesus day tried to insult him or argue with over his healing
people on the wrong day (the Sabbath) and not following all the rituals of
ceremonial cleaning and holding tightly to the traditions of man.
Jesus would show their hypocrisy by
turning their arguments against their own religious duplicity. They nullified
the Word of God by adding and subtracting and treating God’s commandments like
a rule book rather than a love letter. So like the old western classic
showdowns, its Jesus against the religious elites. It looks likes Jesus is out
numbered and outgunned but Jesus continually emerges the victor in episode
after episode until they literally nail him to a tree.
Jesus is in another confrontation with
the religious leaders, notice Jesus does not start these confrontations but
they keep getting initiated by his critics. Where is the gift of being a critic
a fruit of God’s Spirit? Jesus at times blasts them for their sheer hypocrisy
and spiritual blindness. Followers of Jesus need great spiritual discernment on
when to give a gentle answer and when only a stern answer may shake somebody
out of their spiritual complacency. I suspect the Pharisees and scribes are so
tough on Jesus because they see him as a young upstart and one of their own.
Why is it Christians so often shoot each other?
The discussion in Matthew 15 is over
the traditions of man and the commandments of God. The conversation hits a
crescendo when Jesus forcefully says,
You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: This
people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do
they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men (Matthew 15:7-9)
Jesus
quotes Isaiah 29:13 stern rebuke to the leaders of Israel Israel Judah
It is amazing not only to see Jesus
grasp of Scripture but how he can quote it at will and even add the larger
context in when quoting from one particular section. This should challenge us
today not just to memorize certain verses of Scripture but to understand the whole
canonical context of the whole book to even the whole of Scripture. It was more
important for early Jews to get the overall context right rather than can one
get every word and detail of a certain passage right. Again, this should
challenge contemporary readers of Scripture that it does not do much good to
recognize certain trees in the forest if we can not even see the forest because
of all the trees blocking our view.
If we are honest, did not Isaiah
prophesy about us? My spiritual blindness, hypocrisy, and saying one thing with
my mouth but my actions say something very contrary. Jesus gets at the very
heart of the issues by starting with the heart. It’s not what food or outer
body washings that makes someone clean before God, but what comes out of our
mouths reveals what is in our hearts. Bad attitudes lead to bad words which
further leads to bad behavior.
Isn’t it our quest for absolute
certainty that gets us in trouble with God and turns other people off to our
faith? Isn’t it like Isaiah says we care more concerned about our man made
traditions like no running in the church building with our children but we totally
miss the behavior our children are participating outside the walls of the
church building. Can we be more honest, vulnerable, and like one man who came
to Jesus say, ‘Lord, I believe, help my unbelief” (Mk.9:24).
There is nothing wrong with tradition
but when it nullifies the Word of God or becomes more important than people, it
turns into an idol and becomes full of dead men’s bones. How many people have
been turned away from a worshipping body of Christian believers because they
were wearing the wrong clothes or did not know the rules like ‘no wearing a hat
in the church building.’ What is really crazy is they did not even have church
buildings in the early church. Put your thinking cap on and chew on that one
for a moment.
Jesus continually witnessed to the compassionate
heart of God that people are more important than rules, traditions, or denominational
handbooks! People are what matter to God and Jesus shows this over and over in
his teachings and actions and even in his conflicts with his opponents.
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