Turning the Tables

Mark 12:35-44

      Symbols of success abound. With the recent release of the new iPhone, people stood in line to be the first to have the newest. You can use this new phone to make phone calls, play games, watch videos, surf the net, take pics and videos, and a hundred other things. Oh, wait, so did the last iPhone. And the one before that. Often what we get when we get the newest is poorer sooner.

      What we call “The American Dream” is a set of symbols. The house in the suburbs, the two cars, the new this and that. What is funny is that the size of houses has grown over the last 50 years, but the size of the family has shrunk. We now demand a larger space for fewer people. And since we have this larger space, we must fill it with stuff, lots of stuff, storage spaces of stuff!

      We get degrees, careers, portfolios, and gated communities to establish who we are, or at least who we want people to think we are. We spend so much time painting the exterior of our lives we don’t have time or energy to maintain our relationships and spirit. We run ourselves ragged to obtain a line on our resume’ because someday, way out there in the future we might need a line.

      You can tell from out passage today that Jesus doesn’t worry about His status with the establishment of His day. If He did, He could have changed His tune and danced right along with them. He could have gotten into line with their hypocrisy and become one of them. He would have lived a long life, received worldly accolades, and been thought of as someone successful. He could have become what liberal theologians today think He was!

      But instead of conforming, Jesus continues to speak the truth to the powers that exist. He shot holes in their neatly formed theology, theology that ignored inconvenient passages, passages that contradicted their strongly held beliefs. He pointed out that even King David, one of their heroes, recognized the supremacy of the Messiah. No son could be Lord over a man like David.

      Then Jesus points out some of their symbols of success. They loved to be seen as people of importance. The wanted to sit at the head table. They wanted the boxed seat at the stadium. They wanted the plaque naming the building after them. They wanted to be able to buy their way into controlling the political direction of the country. They were into leveraging their positions for personal gain. Does this like some of the richest people of our day and age?

      A bit of meddling of my own now, right in line with Jesus’ meddling. I hate it when people with money, especially politicians and people who want to influence our culture, speak about helping the poor, but then don’t reflect that concern with their personal finances. They amass millions for some future generation, filling their Biblical barns, but only give a small percentage of their money to actually make a difference. Millionaires who only give thousands to actually help the poor. Despicable.

Day 162

Hypocrisy denounced by "woes"

Matthew 23

Key Verses: 3, 5, 12, 17, 24, 28, 33, 37

It is easy to have a double standard in life, one standard we expect from other people, and one standard we apply to ourselves. We expect other drivers to use their turn signals and provide adequate braking space when they pull in front of us, but do we do the same? Do we expect our kids to pick up their things, but our things are in disarray? Do we discipline our children when they use bad language, but they we let a few choice words fly when we are mad? We need to practice what we preach. Our actions need to match our words.

And we also need to be careful that we don’t do the right thing just so people will see us doing the right thing. Our character and our conduct need to be consistent with each other. We need to discard the rules we apply to others, but not to ourselves. The Pharisees had so many rules for living that they often lived in contraction. Through these rules they attempted to keep themselves and others from breaking the Commandments, but the rules often became a means of breaking the Commandments.

This is the problem with a rules based religious system. We can never keep all the rules and our focus becomes rule keeping rather than intimacy with God. And when we focus on the rules we get lost in the forest. We lose our direction and purpose. We become less and less compassionate, less and less like God.

But it is for freedom that we have been set free, freedom to serve God fully, in righteousness and holiness. We are free to obey, free to live a life pleasing to God. And that life will bring the most benefit in the long run.

Jesus hits the Pharisees right where they live. He calls them on the carpet for their hypocrisy. He does not pacify them with politically correct words. He speaks the Truth. He also speaks prophetically, knowing what will happen after His death and resurrection. Jerusalem is destroyed by the Romans. They are scattered and removed from power. Everything they longed for would be forcefully removed.

God longs to gather us and protect us. But are we willing to be gathered on His terms, or do we insist on ours?