Religion

Read Matthew 23.

It's the last week, as I've said before, and Jesus is getting serious. Or maybe I should say he's getting focused. No more mincing words. No more treading lightly. He knows he has very little time left, and like a politician who knows the election is near, he stops debating with the religious leaders and just says what he knows to be true. (The difference is, of course, that what Jesus says really is true. With the politicians, you never know.)

In this chapter, Jesus has seven woes for the religious leaders, and there are any number of ways to summarize these, but for me, the one that seems to bring everything together is actually Jesus' fifth woe (23:25-26). He compares the religious leaders to a cup that looks clean on the outside but on the inside is full of whatever was last in the cup. Perhaps even some mold, a result of the cup having sat around for a while. I have a friend who is an avid coffee drinker. He uses one cup, and he says he washes it once a year whether it needs it or not. Since only he drinks from it, and he only drinks coffee from it, that seems to work for him. He's good with its level of cleanliness. But if you picked up the cup and looked inside, it might not look all that appetizing.

Jesus says the teachers of the law and the Pharisees are like that. People look up to them. They admire them. They set them up as standards of holiness, "but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence" (23:25). Now, as a modern-day religious leader, I recognize that the danger in "religion" is always just that. Religion can make us look good. Follow the rules, obey the principles, say the right things and we can look squeaky clean. Put on the suit and tie, wear a clerical robe, and all of a sudden you seem to have authority. It's easy, and many are good at playing the game, just as the Pharisees seem to have been.

But here's the rub: none of us are righteous—no, not one (Romans 3:10). None of us are perfect, no matter how hard we try to appear to be. Jesus is right: inside, we are full of greed and self-indulgence and other sins that challenge us. Religion makes us want to appear to be holy, righteous, above the rest. But Jesus didn't come to bring religion as an institution. Jesus came to offer us a relationship—a relationship in which there is grace for mess ups, mistakes and missteps. Religion says, "You must be perfect." Jesus says, "You can be forgiven." I'll take the latter offer any day of the week.

The problem with churches today is the same as it was with the synagogue in Jesus' day. Somehow we've gotten the idea that you have to have it all together to come to Jesus. The reality is this: if we can get it all together on our own, we don't need Jesus. The church ought to be a hospital for the broken rather than a rest home for the saints. Jesus says, "I love you so much I'll take you as you are, but I also love you too much to leave you as you are." We come to him, broken, and he brings healing. That's what I want. That's what I need. I don't need Pharisees telling me where I've messed up; I'm all too aware when and how I mess up. I don't need the judgment that comes through the religion of the teachers of the law; I need the grace that flows down from the cross. I don't need more rule-focused religion. I need more grace-based relationship. I need to be closer to Jesus—closer today than I was yesterday. 

What about you?

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