When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal. Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you. Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.” One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.” Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.”
–Luke 11:37-48 (TNIV)
So much for Jesus, meek and mild. Nothing seems to have aroused our Lord’s anger more than hypocrisy and here we see a blistering example of it. Jesus is not railing at the Pharisees and teachers of the law because of what they did, but because of what they didn’t do. They didn’t practice what they preached.
You see, the Law was given to instruct people in how to be creatures and how to relate in a proper way to their Creator. In the case of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, they had gotten their ends and means confused. They did things for the sake of doing them rather than remembering why they were instructed to do so. For example, God commanded tithing but not at the expense of looking out for the poor, the needy, and the most helpless in society.
When we look out for the neediest and most helpless in society, not only is this doing justice, it is also loving mercy as Micah reminds us (6:8). There is a huge difference in the verbs here and we would do well to pay attention to it. We are to do justice, but to love mercy (which will result in us doing justice as well–the justice of God as manifested in the cross of Jesus Christ). The Law was given to God’s people to remind them to do just that, which is necessary, in part, if we are to have a proper relationship with our Creator. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law had forgotten that and they got an earful from Christ.
The lesson for us is equally clear. Jesus calls us to examine our behaviors and practices to see if they meet our professed beliefs. If the Church would start practicing consistently what it preached instead of play-acting, what a difference we would make in doing our part so that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
How’s your consistency these days?