Anyone familiar with Matthew 23 knows that when you read
that chapter, you are entering Jesus’ most intense and direct criticism of the
religious world into which He was sent as redeemer. It all seems to revolve
around the primary concern on the part of Jesus that the religious teachers
were teaching one thing and doing something else. “Do whatever they teach you
and follow it,” Jesus says, “but do not do as they do, for they do not practice
what they teach.” (23:3)
Jesus then proceeds to announce a series of seven woes, each
of them denouncing the emptiness of religious ritual that isn’t acted out in
the daily living of those who lead. In six of the seven statements of woe,
Jesus uses the word hypocrite as the indictment of their approach to serving
God. In one of the statements (beginning in vs. 16) the indicting phrase is
“blind fools.”
For me, the most telling of this series of indicting
comments on how faith sometimes gets practiced is the one found in verses 23
and 24. There Jesus acknowledges their attention to detail – they “tithe mint,
dill, and cumin.” That’s pretty intense. They are determined, apparently, to
tithe everything – even the tiny little value produced by the herb garden in
their backyards.
But in doing that, they have ignored “the weightier matters
of the law: justice and mercy and faith.” In my mind, I can see them walking by
a man like Lazarus in Luke’s story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19ff)
while rushing to get to the Temple with a teaspoon of dill as the tithe from
this year’s crop. Jesus doesn’t suggest that they should not have tithed – but
that it is so easy for religious people to let trivial things trump the gospel.
This little statement ends with the absurdity of straining
out the gnats, while choking on a camel. Both gnats and camels were “unclean”
according to the Law, but how odd that they would make sure the tiny little
gnats were strained out as they attempted to swallow a camel whole.
My guess is that these ancient Jewish teachers aren’t the
last people to choke to death on camel stew! The truth is that we often allow
trivial things to get in the way of what is essential to being just, merciful,
and faithful. William Willimon talks about this reality in his book Calling and Character. In a chapter
talking about the sacrifices that those called to ministry must face, he says,
“The cross teaches us to have no qualms about suffering in service to the
gospel. What is immoral is not one’s suffering in service to the gospel, but
rather one’s suffering in service to triviality.” (page 113)
Leave it to Jesus to not give us the simple answer we so
desperately want. We live in an age where we are drawn to “simple and easy” and
yet Jesus seems so unimpressed by “simple and easy.” So He doesn’t tell me in
this text to just ignore what, in comparison to justice, and mercy, and faith
seem so trivial. Rather He tells me don’t let the fact that I do those trivial
things convince me that I can ignore the more weighty things. Allowing
the weightier things to have a place in my life is what gives the trivial
things real meaning.
Jesus doesn’t seem to be “anti-ritual” here as much as He
seems to want ritual to have meaning. That happens only to the extent that we
allow gospel to trump trivialities. Even if I end up suffering for the gospel –
I should not be reluctant – have no qualms about it.
Sometime around mid-November we believers in the US start
thinking about thanksgiving. Despite more and more commercial encroachment
every year, it still seems to me to be the most untarnished of our holidays.
Perhaps this year’s season of thanksgiving can be a time to look carefully at
our own lives in the context of gospel versus triviality. We can thank God for
those times when gospel trumped trivialities and ask for His help in getting
better at justice, mercy, and faith as opposed to tithing the herb garden!
Choking to death on camel stew seems a painful way to go!
