Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. [Matthew 23:25-26 (ESV)]
When it was launched in 1936, the Queen Mary was the largest transatlantic ocean liner. Retired from active service in 1967, the ship relocated to Long Beach, California, and was converted into a floating hotel, museum, event venue, and historic attraction. During its conversion, the ship’s three smokestacks were removed to allow access to the engine room. Made of steel over an inch thick, the funnels had 30-foot diameters and ranged in height from 62 to 70 feet. As the massive smokestacks were being lowered onto the wharf, they crumbled and collapsed!
The beautifully painted exteriors of the ship’s smokestacks concealed their inner decay. Having rusted away inside, all that remained of the funnels was the 30 coats of paint applied over the years! Their external appearance hid the internal reality of their deteriorating condition. That’s what Jesus was talking about when he condemned the Pharisees for their hypocrisy by comparing them to unclean cups and “whitewashed tombs…full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”
Jesus’ problem with the Pharisees wasn’t that they were sinners. After all, the Lord dined with tax collectors and other sinners, blessed the woman of ill repute who anointed Him, and His longest recorded conversation was with a Samaritan woman “married” five times who lived with a man not her husband! Those people, however, never pretended to be something other than who and what they were—sinners.
Jesus condemned the religious elite for their hypocrisy. The word “hypocrite” comes from the Greek word hypokrites, meaning actor. Like the Greek thespians who wore masks while acting in the theater, the religious leaders often presented one face to the world while the real person was hidden behind their mask. As sinful as any other flawed human, they hid behind their enlarged prayer boxes and long tassels on their robes, overtly public prayers, and strict adherence to the rules. They put on a façade of devotion and piety to enhance their reputations while failing to do God’s will. Like the Queen Mary’s smokestacks, their immaculate façades belied the corrosion in their lives. Like a cup clean on the outside but filled with gunk on the inside or a marble mausoleum filled with decomposing bodies, they appeared pristine and unsullied while their hearts were filled with rot, decay, and corruption.
We’re all sinners and even the most devout among us misses the mark on occasion (or frequently, in my case). Being a Christian doesn’t mean we don’t struggle with sin—Jesus set a high standard and we all fall short of it. Sadly, sin is part of being a human in this fallen world. Being a sinner, however, isn’t hypocrisy; being a sinner who pretends not to be, is! While all hypocrites are sinners, not all sinners are hypocrites! Honest sinners recognize, acknowledge, and repent of their sins; they know what they are and admit it. On the other hand, hypocrites recognize their sin but neither acknowledge nor repent of it.
Today, the Queen Mary’s smokestacks are made of aluminum but, like a hypocrite, they are good for nothing but show!
It is not the being seen of men that is wrong, but doing these things for the purpose of being seen of men. The problem with the hypocrite is his motivation. He does not want to be holy; he only wants to seem to be holy. He is more concerned with his reputation for righteousness than about actually becoming righteous. The approbation of men matters more to him than the approval of God. [Augustine]
The stress from a flurry of blood tests and doctor’s appointments finally got to me in the OR while a doctor took several tissue samples from one of my organs! Despite the “happy juice” coursing through my veins meant to relax me, tears appeared. When a nurse silently took my hand in hers, I immediately calmed. Touch is the language of compassion and scientists found that even a simple hug or the holding of hands can lower one’s blood pressure and heart rate in stressful situations. I suppose that’s why our dentist’s assistant always gently touches a patient’s arm when the doctor is giving an injection. Gentle touch causes a decrease in the stress “fight or flight” hormone cortisol and an increase in the love “tend and befriend” hormone oxytocin.
This weekend, along with ghosts and pirates, we’ll probably see people dressed as super-heroes, Spider-Man, Disney princesses, or one of the characters from Toy Story, KPop Demon Hunters, Pokémon, or Star Wars. With the exception of Spidey, I probably won’t know many of the movie characters but, with their deathly white skin, blood red lips, high collared black capes, and fangs, Dracula and his vampire pals will be easy to recognize.
Pastor Sandi always closes the service with Numbers 6:24-26. With this blessing, she’s continuing a tradition that is more than 3,000 years old. Intended as a blessing for the people, the Lord gave those words to Moses for Aaron to pass on to his sons and successive Temple priests. In 1979, that ancient blessing was found on two tiny silver scrolls in a burial cave near Jerusalem. Known as the Ketef Hinnom scrolls, they contain verses from Deuteronomy 7 and Numbers 6 and date to around 600 BC (making them the oldest known text of the Bible)!
The orange butterfly lay perfectly still in the middle of the trail. When we knelt down by it, the Viceroy fluttered its wings but only managed to skim a few inches across the gravel. As intact as it looked, one wing was entirely useless. A closer look led me to believe it had been hit by a speeding cyclist. To protect the creature from any more bikes or feet, we managed to get it off the trail into the grass. Unfortunately, without some sort of butterfly super-glue to reattach the loose wing, while we could help for the time being, we couldn’t save it.
How can Jesus, who told us to love our enemies and do good to them, tell us to hate our families? Do we have to despise our relatives if we want to be His disciples? Jesus, however, used “hate” idiomatically. Demanding unrivaled loyalty, He used hyperbole to contrast ultimate devotion to Him with all other attachments. In comparison to our love for Jesus, we are to love our family less than we love Him. Christ is to be first and foremost in our hearts and minds and we are to love Him more than anything else in our lives.
