Woe
Read Matthew 23:13-39.
I noted on Sunday that Jesus really needs a good campaign manager, maybe a PR person. Does he not realize these folks he is talking about or to in Matthew 23 are the "good people," the religious people, the holy people, the ones who have power and influence? Teachers of the law, Pharisees...these are the folks who know the Scriptures backwards and forwards. If you had a really important question, you would go ask one of them. They are the ones whom the local newspapers would quote whenever they needed an expert witness.
What does Jesus say to these folks? Woe! He calls them hypocrites (multiple times), blind guides, a brood of vipers, children of hell, snakes, murderers of prophets...well, you get the idea. Jesus doesn't have much good to say about them. Jesus needs a good campaign manager. Can you imagine what the press and social media would do with such a speech today? How badly would Jesus be maligned for saying such things about respectable people? Does that say more about Jesus...or about us?
The word he begins with in every case, "woe," is more than just wishing sadness or even a bad day on the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. Jesus is pronouncing doom, or more literally, calamity, on these folks. "Woe!" was not just a casual word to toss around. Jesus wouldn't have said this if he didn't mean it, especially in a world, like the first century, where words were understood to have incredible power. Once spoken, they could not be taken back. All the press releases in the world could not undo a spoken word.
So why does Jesus have such harsh words for these folks? As I've said multiple times elsewhere, theologically these folks were fairly conservative. Jesus probably agreed with them on more things than he disagreed with them. But (and this is the crux of the matter) they were not doing what they said. They were not living out what they believed. They knew all the right things...but they did not live what they said they believed.
So, I wonder...to whom would Jesus pronounce "woe" today? Remember...these are not the sinners he is speaking to or talking about. These are the "good, religious" folks. The ones everyone else thought had it all together. And maybe they had it all...just not together. They thought they had everyone fooled, and maybe they did...everyone except for Jesus. So again, I ask...to whom would Jesus pronounce "woe" today? In what areas of my life (and yours) would Jesus pronounce "woe"?
It's a question that is worth some significant time in prayer, but consider that we live in a world where the vast majority of self-professed followers of Jesus never tell anyone else about him in their entire lives (despite his directive to do so). We live in a world where most of "the church" is content to sit on the sidelines while a very few serve others. We live in a world where there are still hungry, where there are still homeless, where injustice still runs rampant, where prisons are overcrowded and many are still lonely (see Matthew 25...which we'll read tomorrow).
So...again I wonder...to whom would Jesus pronounce "woe" today? Where in my life is he saying "woe"?
I noted on Sunday that Jesus really needs a good campaign manager, maybe a PR person. Does he not realize these folks he is talking about or to in Matthew 23 are the "good people," the religious people, the holy people, the ones who have power and influence? Teachers of the law, Pharisees...these are the folks who know the Scriptures backwards and forwards. If you had a really important question, you would go ask one of them. They are the ones whom the local newspapers would quote whenever they needed an expert witness.
What does Jesus say to these folks? Woe! He calls them hypocrites (multiple times), blind guides, a brood of vipers, children of hell, snakes, murderers of prophets...well, you get the idea. Jesus doesn't have much good to say about them. Jesus needs a good campaign manager. Can you imagine what the press and social media would do with such a speech today? How badly would Jesus be maligned for saying such things about respectable people? Does that say more about Jesus...or about us?
The word he begins with in every case, "woe," is more than just wishing sadness or even a bad day on the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. Jesus is pronouncing doom, or more literally, calamity, on these folks. "Woe!" was not just a casual word to toss around. Jesus wouldn't have said this if he didn't mean it, especially in a world, like the first century, where words were understood to have incredible power. Once spoken, they could not be taken back. All the press releases in the world could not undo a spoken word.
So why does Jesus have such harsh words for these folks? As I've said multiple times elsewhere, theologically these folks were fairly conservative. Jesus probably agreed with them on more things than he disagreed with them. But (and this is the crux of the matter) they were not doing what they said. They were not living out what they believed. They knew all the right things...but they did not live what they said they believed.
So, I wonder...to whom would Jesus pronounce "woe" today? Remember...these are not the sinners he is speaking to or talking about. These are the "good, religious" folks. The ones everyone else thought had it all together. And maybe they had it all...just not together. They thought they had everyone fooled, and maybe they did...everyone except for Jesus. So again, I ask...to whom would Jesus pronounce "woe" today? In what areas of my life (and yours) would Jesus pronounce "woe"?
It's a question that is worth some significant time in prayer, but consider that we live in a world where the vast majority of self-professed followers of Jesus never tell anyone else about him in their entire lives (despite his directive to do so). We live in a world where most of "the church" is content to sit on the sidelines while a very few serve others. We live in a world where there are still hungry, where there are still homeless, where injustice still runs rampant, where prisons are overcrowded and many are still lonely (see Matthew 25...which we'll read tomorrow).
So...again I wonder...to whom would Jesus pronounce "woe" today? Where in my life is he saying "woe"?
Amen!
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