Wow. This is a Jesus you don't expect as you read the Gospels. Talking to outcasts and sinners, going about doing good, teaching about His Father, demonstrating life in the Kingdom of God: These are the iconic moments that define Jesus for us.
But this Jesus, the One who faces the Pharisees, is like an Old West sheriff standing on a dusty road, facing the outlaws and pulling His gun the fastest, and down they go.
Jesus excoriated the religious leaders of His day for one simple reason: They knew better. They had the Scriptures, they knew the Law and they participated in the holy goings-on in the Temple. They were in God's house in a way that the unwashed masses could never be.
Hypocrisy seems to be the one sin that Jesus could not and would not tolerate. He was well aware of Greek theater and the masks the actors wore to portray a certain character to an audience. The city of Sepphoris is only 3.7 miles from Galilee. If Joseph travelled through the region, taking on jobs, and Jesus went with him, he probably went there and saw its theater.
To make a point, He recounts what actors did when they came into town: "So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward..." (Matt. 6:1)The word for actor is hypocrites, and even if Jesus is speaking metaphorically, the people would have still thought about the actors who announced their arrival in town with a flourish. The word also means, "stage-player." The Pharisees had a huge stage they walked across every day. They were the keepers of the Law and its attendant morality. They dressed the part and everyone knew when they were "on."
So did Jesus, and He took them to task. Woe #1: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to." (Matt. 23:13-14)
People follow those who command respect because of their personality or position. The Pharisees had position, and no matter who they were personally or how they acted, they still expected respect from everyone.
Therein lies the problem. The position provided a perfect smokescreen for their behavior--they could do what they wanted in private and no one would question them, because their position was so lofty that no one dared.
"Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:3-11)
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:3-11)
The Pharisees were the complete opposite of Jesus. The Kingdom of God reversed the world's values by having the last be first, the humble exalted and those who lose their lives finding them. So, to have people who know what God expects and then parade around with an attitude of moral superiority while living in shadows of sin, was disgusting to Jesus. And because they were the role models showing what living a holy life looked like, did the people think that somehow their lifestyle was acceptable to God?
The Pharisees were not only steeped in sin, but they advocated, because of their position, that the people emulate them, and sadly, join them in the pit. They had made heaven so unattainable with rule after rule, that those sought God through the Pharisees' religious system, were unable to do so. The Pharisees worked hard to make that person as blind to the truth of who God is and what He expects as they were.
How does this tie into spiritual warfare? If the people find out their leaders in the church have been living a double life, advocating a faith that even they fail to follow, then those people may walk away from Christianity altogether:
I am not going back to church. My pastor hid his drinking problem and when it came out on social media, I was blown away. I looked up to him. I don't know what living a Christian life looks like, so I watched him. He encouraged me and I thought he really loved Jesus. But, now, I ask myself: Was he ever genuine? Was it an act all along? Or did he start out fine, then starting sinning and was so afraid to show weakness that he tried to cover it up? Why didn't he just confess it and try to get help?
Christians are all hypocrites. They go on and on about being a good Christian and then do the very same things they condemn us for. They say that divorce is wrong, but do it themselves. They say gay marriage is wrong, but they don't honor their own marriages by having affairs and viewing porn. They say we should have love and compassion for others, until those "others" happen to be in another political party and then boy do the gloves come off. They say money is the root of all evil, but they own jets, mansions and live way better than their followers do.
We follow Christ, not men, but the way we conduct ourselves can have far reaching consequences to those who are watching and listening to us.
Jesus was a servant, the Suffering Servant, who became a leader. Too much of modern church is preoccupied with leaders who we want to act like servants. But as soon as you invest too much power, influence and personal benefit in a person with a sin nature, (as we all have) the potential for abuse is ever-present and the consequences of that person's failures can drive people away from Jesus, leaving them more and more vulnerable to Satan's attacks and influence.
We shouldn't allow our pastors and church leaders to have too much influence or power over us. We shouldn't let them think for us.
I have been there. I was in a church when a new pastor showed up. He knew the Bible extremely well, and had an excitement about him. He encouraged me, for I was already the worship leader, and I grew much better in my capacity under his praise.
But over time, I realized he had to be the most spiritual person in the room, and woe to anyone who questioned him. He liked being the center of attention, and didn't like the heavy lifting of pastoral visits or running the church. He just wanted to show up and preach or lead a Bible study. He didn't visit the sick and manipulated those who were by insisting their healing would happen if they had enough faith. He insinuated the reason they were still sick was their failure. He boasted that he never got sick.
He had been abused as a child, but claimed that God had healed him of all the damage. Yet, he manipulated us as a group. He claimed our church hadn't grown because we weren't speaking in tongues. He never accepted any responsibility for anything that went wrong but he reveled in the authority he had.
We found out he had lied about his financial dealings and owed people money. He started selling off our music equipment when the church finally closed its doors, but that equipment was not his to sell. All of the money the church had saved up over the years disappeared. The final blow was when he "borrowed" money from a single mom who was living in a trailer. He left the state and has never paid her back. I don't know if he ever intended to.
My point? I followed him rather than Jesus for several years. The damage he did still lingers; it took me personally a long time to recover from the damage he inflicted on my trust. I sadly went to a church with another dysfunctional pastor, because I was so needy after this one, and was deeply hurt again.
Jesus is making it clear that leaders are deeply responsible to the people they serve. Leaders are not to make finding Him so difficult with lots of rules and regulations or by hypocritical behavior. Why? They make God unrecognizable to those who would seek Him. They can drive them away with a portrait of God that misrepresents Him.
Jesus came to reclaim and proclaim the true nature of who God is and what He expects.
Jesus came to set the captives free, even those standing in a church. Even those standing in the pulpit.
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