Monday, 16 June 2008 00:00 | and posted in Faith
Do your folks have a spice rack? Imagine being asked to go through it and count out a tenth of each spice to give to God! How much time and effort would that take?!
The Pharisees in Jesus' day took the Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) very seriously. So when it says in Leviticus 27:30 that, ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord,' the Pharisees sought to obey this to the letter...
By weighing out 10% of their spices and giving it to God!
Pedantic is the word that comes to my mind! But so concerned were they with their own personal morality and religious piety that the Pharisees went to extraordinary lengths to obey Scripture.
Jesus, on a wee rant (there are seven "woes" in Matthew 23:1-39!), says that their focus on personal faith and purity means that they have neglected the most important things! They've missed how their faith should be a blessing to others instead of a heavy load (Matthew 23:4).
Would Jesus say something like this today to Churchworld? Would he accuse us of focussing too much on quiet times or on our church programs at the expense of going out and feeding the poor? Would he say it's all well and good being a self-proclaimed moral voice within society (abortion, homosexuality and genetics come to mind), but you've missed (or been slow in) speaking out against the more important things - racism, mistreatment of women, abuse of the environment and global poverty?
It's interesting to note that within the ignite forums the four most debated topics are evolution, swearing, homosexuality and abortion. Hardly a word has been said on poverty, social injustice, war, genocide or global warming.
Have we missed something?
Jesus does say in these verses that personal faith and morality are important things - we shouldn't neglect these - but they're not the most important. The way of Jesus (and I'm quoting him here) is more about faithfully living for justice and mercy. If we neglect the poor then we actually sin more.*
"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the Lord in Jeremiah 22:16.
No wonder he calls the Pharisees blind guides! We know God and reveal God most through faithfully seeking to outwork justice and mercy. According to Jesus these are the most important things in our lives.
What if
we
believed
this?
FOOTNOTE:
* The gnats and the camels thing... both gnats and camels were designated as unclean food by God. They weren't to be eaten. The Pharisees got a wee bitty obsessed about swallowing a fly accidentally (which would make them unclean) and so they used a complex straining system in their cups to make sure this didn't happen. Jesus is telling them that all their effort to remain pure is being wasted because by neglecting the poor they've made themselves more unclean - they've not swallowed a fly, but a camel instead! I hope you get the irony as well as the serious point Jesus is making about what makes us pure!