Chapter 11d

Note: As I'll be visiting family for the next week, my access to the internet will be sporadic at best. The commentary will resume the following Tuesday evening, 4th October.

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vs 37 - 54

Jesus has had some hard words in this chapter, but they come to their culmination in the last part. A Pharisee that had invited Jesus to dinner made a snide remark about Jesus not washing correctly[1] for dinner.

It looks like this comment is some kind of last straw for Jesus.

There are a lot of things that Jesus hated, but it’s clear that the top of his list of “things I really don’t like” would have been hypocrisy. The worst thing that Jesus ever says to someone is “You hypocrite!”

Hypocrisy is saying one thing and doing another. Sadly, it’s something we’re all guilty of from time to time. I know that I am far from immune.

Hypocrisy is tied to self-righteousness, in that when you act hypocritically you are trying to appear better to others than you really are. You want others thinking “Gosh, what a good guy/girl!”

It’s worse when we try to fool God. He’s not fooled, and anyway, it’s stupid to try!

Jesus goes off here. I mean, right off.

And the theme is the same throughout this tirade. Always it is the triumph of style over substance.

For many years I, like many Christians, had assumed that the Pharisees were Jesus’ natural enemies. I know differently now. Of all the religious groups in Judea at the time, the Pharisees were closest to Jesus’ own views.

So perhaps the anger he feels here is inspired partially by hurt. Perhaps Jesus is feeling “Of all the people in this world, THESE ones should know what I’m about! Of all people THESE should look after the poor! THESE should care more about what’s inside than what’s outside! THESE should be the ones pointing the way to God – BUT THEY ARE NONE OF THESE THINGS!”

Sometimes we can catch a glimpse of how Jesus is feeling. We all know what it’s like to see a prominent Christian who has said or done something stupid, getting themselves plastered on the headlines for the wrong reasons. I know at times like that, I have felt the intense shame of realizing that another Christian has been the cause of the names of all Christians being dragged in the mud.

Worse than that, though, I have BEEN the Christian who did the dragging. We all have been at times.

How would Jesus react to us?

I think a crucial thing would be our awareness. One attitude that shines through in these passages is the snobbishness of the Pharisee who started the whole thing. There’s a general sense that he doesn’t seem to realize that he has a problem.

Perhaps we need to regard ourselves as being somehow like the people who meet at Alcoholics Anonymous – “My name is Johno, and I’m a hypocrite”. A bit of humility and self-awareness seems to be very much in order.

[1] It’s worth considering here that the Pharisee’s problem was the fact that GOD IN HUMAN FORM didn’t consider it worth going through the motions of symbolic cleanliness. Ironically, he should have been taking notes from Jesus!