If you’ve read Matthew 23, you may remember that Jesus is
described as confronting the Pharisees of His day in ways that no other gospel
can match. He isn’t in the best of moods and sounds a bit like a Hebrew prophet
bringing a law suit against Israel for their unfaithfulness. The series of sayings that begin with “woe to
you,” or “Woe betide you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” as N.T.
Wright translates it in his Kingdom New
Testament, is a powerful reminder of the need for a serious course correction.
The woe that I personally keep coming back to – perhaps out
of some need to make sure it couldn’t be said of me – is the saying found in
verses 23, 24. Here it is from Wright’s translation:
"Woe betide you, scribes and Pharisees, yhou hypocrites!" Jesus went on. "You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and you omit the serious matters of the law like justice, mercy, and loyalty. You should have done these, without neglecting the others. You're blind guides! You filter out a gnat, but you gulp down a camel.
We first meet the idea of tithing when Abram gave
Melchizedek a tithe of the spoils of war gained from victory. (Genesis 14) In
the Law – Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy all insist that a tithe should be
given to the Lord. Most would assume that means a tenth of all of one’s income.
From the comments Jesus makes to the Pharisees – it sounds as though they took
the principle of tithing in an extraordinarily serious manner. They tithed
their herb gardens – mint, dill, and cumin included. With scrupulous detail,
they made sure “they paid their tithes” as I’ve heard some believers describe
the process.
Jesus is not opposed to such a detailed and determined
approach to tithing. “You should have done these” is how He responds to it.
Yet, that isn’t all that Jesus said.
“You omit the serious matters of the law like justice,
mercy, and loyalty.” They are “blind guides” because the rigid legalism with
which they tithe is not matched with a commitment to issues more important than
making sure you gave a teaspoon of mint, dill, and cumin to the Levites.
The Law had much to say about justice, mercy, and
faithfulness (covenant loyalty). The prophet Micah would have shouted a fervent “Amen!” to this
criticism Jesus offers. Do you remember what he said, summarizing much of what
the Law pointed toward, in Micah 6:8? “He has told you, O man, what is good:
and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” (ESV)
For Jesus, focusing on minutia at the expense of the
weightier matters is as though we strain out a tiny little gnat (unclean for
sure, Lev. 11:41) while gulping down a camel, also unclean (Lev. 11:4) and the
largest of the beasts common to Palestine.
It doesn’t take an advanced degree in theology to figure out
that Jesus wants us to pay attention to all that God has asked of us, even in
areas where we might think “no big deal, it’s such a small matter.” So this
isn’t an invitation to become a libertine about such matters.
But neither doesn’t it take that advanced degree to realize
that when my focus on such relatively minor issues convinces me that justice,
kindness, and walking humbly with our God don’t matter, I’m little more than a
blind guide who fastidiously strains out a tiny gnat from my soup but ends up
choking to death on camel stew.
Pick up a daily newspaper or spend thirty minutes watching
your favorite media news source and you will see issues related to justice,
mercy, and faithfulness all over the place. Walk or drive around the town or
city you live in – and it won’t be hard to find issues related to justice,
mercy, and faithfulness.
Unfortunately – it isn’t unusual to hear self-proclaimed
Christian leaders straining gnats while choking on camel stew when it comes to
how we address these important issues.
The Pharisees seem to be more focused on maintaining a
preferred way of life than on taking the good news of the kingdom of God
seriously. Perhaps it was some political theory that they adopted over and
above the gospel.
May we not follow their steps and one day hear Jesus say,
“Woe betide you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!”
