First off, let me say that pretty much everything in today's passages is worthy of posting about. We start off with the Greatest Commandment, there's the story of the woman who gave all she had, and then the woes to the Pharisees, or hypocrites. It makes picking something to post about a challenge.
I think we often find that greatest commandment difficult, although it sounds simple. To love God with all our heart, soul and mind is difficult to do when we are so easily distracted and discouraged about what it means to follow Him. Or else we profess to love him, but there is little evidence of it in our lives. Loving our neighbour as ourselves - well, that's a tough one too. It's easy to love someone who treats you kindly and with respect. I think we all know that our neighbour, in this case, doesn't just mean those who live in close proximity to our homes, but anyone with whom we come in contact - be it at home, at work, or elsewhere. There are a lot of people we come in contact with who are difficult to love. Part of loving, and thereby serving, our neighbours, involves doing it because we have compassion for them and not to make ourselves look good.
I've been reminded of the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World (author: Joanna Weaver) several times in the past couple of weeks with our Bible readings. Obviously, the book is about the sisters, Mary and Martha, and to a lesser extent their brother, Lazarus. It has an entire chapter devoted to Mary's extravagant love - the story about her anointing Jesus' feet with perfume.
It also talks about service - serving others in any way we can. I believe this to be one of the key factors to loving your neighbour. There is a box in one of the chapters called "Checking Your Motives". It contains an excerpt from the book Living a Purpose-Full Life by Jan Johnson. When we want to fulfill the commandment to love our neighbours as ourselves, while we will probably feel some kind of personal gratification for giving to someone or helping someone, these are the questions Jan suggests we ask ourselves in order to make sure that we are doing it for the right reasons and with the right attitude.
* Am I serving to impress anyone?
* Am I serving to receive external rewards?
* Is my service affected by moods and whims (my own as well as others')?
* Am I using this service to feel good about myself?
* Am I using my service to muffle God's voice demanding I change?
Hmmm. Maybe I should ask myself those questions more often.
I found this commentary by Bob Deffinbaugh taking about the "woe" passage where he speaks out against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. I was surprised, as Mr. Deffinbaugh was, to find that some people actually question whether or not Jesus actually said this because of the relative harshness of the words. Here is a little bit of what he had to say about it.
The scribes and Pharisees are not only going to play a leading role in the arrest and crucifixion of our Lord, they are the “blind guides,” who are responsible for leading others to hell (Matthew 23:13-15). Jesus not only speaks strongly and with severity to the scribes and Pharisees because they are hypocrites; He speaks strongly in the hearing of the masses, because they must know who it is they are inclined to follow. To choose to follow the scribes and Pharisees is to choose to proceed on the path to certain damnation. This is no time for warm, fuzzy talk when judgment is both certain and near.
Now let us consider our Lord’s “hard words” in Matthew 23 in the light of the last three verses of this chapter. Allow me to make several observations concerning these verses.
(1) When Jesus speaks here, He speaks as God. Prophets spoke for God, but Jesus spoke as God. Jesus is not merely a prophet, He is the Prophet. He is the One who sends out prophets and wise men (Matthew 23:34). He is the One of whom all the prophets spoke (John 1:45; 1 Peter 1:10-12). He is the One who desires to gather Jerusalem’s children and keep them under His protective “wing” (Matthew 23:37). He is the One who is going to return, and when He does people will say, “‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Matthew 23:39). Jesus speaks as One having authority, and not as their scribes (see Matthew 7:28-29). You expect one with infinite authority to speak in an authoritative way, especially when judgment is needed.
(2) Jesus speaks severely, but with tears in His eyes. I am reminded of the harsh words with which Joseph addressed his brothers and also of the tears he shed in private (Genesis 42:9-24, 30; 43:30). These last verses inform us that our Lord loved Jerusalem and His chosen people deeply. He takes no delight in the eternal destruction of lost sinners:
For I take no delight in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live! (Ezekiel 18:32)
(3) Jesus speaks as One whose desire it is to lovingly protect His own people, as a mother hen protects her chicks. The imagery here reveals the heart of Jesus, and of His compassion.
(4) Jesus’ words of condemnation, like those of John the Baptist and other prophets, were strongly stated, but with the goal of calling men to repentance.
6 “I, the Lord, say, ‘O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter’s hand.’ 7 There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or a kingdom. 8 But if that nation that I threatened stops doing wrong, I will forgo the destruction I intended to do to it (Jeremiah 18:6-8).
Jesus, who was the fulfillment of all the prophets of old foretold, was totally in character with those prophets in condemning sin and warning sinners of the coming wrath of God, unless they repent.
(5) Jesus speaks strongly here of judgment that is actually coming upon those who have rejected Him, and this judgment is coming soon. Is it harsh to tell a cancer patient that they will soon die unless they undergo major surgery? Is it harsh to strongly warn motorists that the road ahead is washed out and that unless they turn around they will plunge to their death? The peril of which our Lord speaks is real. The shocking bluntness of Jesus is a measure of how real and how terrible it is.
(6) Jesus speaks here of His return and of the blessings that will accompany Him. It will only be a few hours before the people will cry out, “Away with Him!” (John 19:15). These people know that He is coming back, and His return will mean blessing to those who receive Him for who He is.
(7) Jesus speaks more broadly here, and not just to the scribes and Pharisees, but to all Jerusalem. While the scribes and Pharisees must bear their guilt as leaders, the people of Jerusalem will bear their guilt for choosing to follow the wrong leaders, and thus for their participation in the death of Jesus. Until now, it was the favor of the crowds that kept Jesus alive, but that is about to end. Jesus’ words of imminent judgment include the people of Jerusalem, along with their leaders.
I think in some ways churches today feel that presenting the loving, forgiving side of God will draw more people to Him, and it probably does work, at least to a certain extent. But I also feel that they then lead people into the theory that "He loves us and doesn't want anyone to perish, so He would never condemn us to eternity in hell." Which can then go as far as to say hell doesn't exist, and the devil doesn't exist. I'm not favoring the hellfire & brimstone style of preaching, but the sweetness & light style isn't working either. I'm afraid that many spiritual leaders, ministers, etc. in our society are as guilty as the Pharisees of being "blind guides," leading people down the path to destruction by trying to make the black and white of the Bible more and more gray to make it more palatable.
Then there is the story of the woman who gave the two small coins, worth so little, and yet it was all she had to live on. I can't count how many times in the past I've told myself that I can skip my tithe this week or whatever because we needed this or that, and while it is true that we did need this or that, it is also true that I was not trusting in God to provide for our needs if I gave him what little I had. This is something I've been making a conscious effort to rectify in the past two years, and guess what? Every time, our needs are provided for, somehow. I'm not saying it's easy, and surprisingly, while it gets easier, it is still not easy to write that cheque every two weeks. There are still times where I wonder "How is this all going to work?" I admire the faith of that woman to give all she had.
Tomorrow's passage: Mark 13:1-31; Matthew 24:1-35; Luke 21:5-33.
3 comments:
Great post, Miriam! It's interesting that even though we're in the New Testament, the subject of God's judgement is still popping up regularly. How sad that we claim we're "little Christs" and yet water down His urgent message to the point that it's become unattractive and ridiculous to most.
PS. I went through "Having a Mary Spirit" (the sequel to the book you mention) in an online Bible study a while back. I loved it. I need to go back and read my posts more often!
Great thoughts here Miriam.
Those were some seriously harsh words Jesus had for the Pharisees, that's for sure! But leaders are held to higher standard, and are held accountable for how they lead - and those who lead people astray will be dealt with harshly indeed!
One verse that jumped out at me was Mark 12:37 where it said "The large crowd listened to him with delight". With delight! We have access to the words of Jesus every moment - are we reading them with delight?
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