This week: an extended study of Matthew 23.

Who are you teaching for?

The right answer, of course, would be “the students” or “society” or “God”. Painful but honest answers could be “my parents” or “the money”.

Jesus gives another answer for the Pharisees: “Everything they do is done for men to see.”

How can we tell  how who we are doing what we are doing for?

How to ruin a life

Imagine packing for a trip. A long trip. An international trip. You walk forever. You catch a boat. You sail forever. You are at the edge of everything. You meet someone. You invite him to be like you, to be part of your group. He agrees. You teach him the opposite of everything you know.

When he takes the entrance exam, he fails completely.

That’s what Jesus says the Pharisees are doing.

Fingers crossed

2. Don’t make promises you know you will break. This is the apparent content of this  lesson. To make a promise with an escape clause is not to make a promise at all. Make it or don’t. Agree to the deadline or don’t. Agree to the deal or not.

But if you do, don’t blame the object for not following through.  It is your (and my) fault.

Mint in the plate

Neglect is what you do to a garden. It’s a lack of attention suitable for small things. When something as massive as justice is neglected, treated as more trivial than a mint leaf, something is wrong.

Polishing the surface

We all are hypocrites. We all have gaps between what we say we believe and what we live we believe. The text of our words, when compared with the text of our actions, always differs. The question is not, whether. The question is, now what?

I reuse coffee mugs.

I know. Everyone does. But most people wash them out between uses. I don’t. Not always anyway. I will reuse a mug several times over several days, rinsing occasionally, before I give in and put it in the dishwasher.

Often, I will wipe the drips off the outside of the mug so other people aren’t distracted by the mess. Or I’ll just use a dark mug.

Some of you are cringing. Some of you are saying, “Of course. Coffee kills germs.” All of you are understanding what Jesus was saying when he said the Pharisees washed the outside of the cup but left the inside grungy.

We all are hypocrites. We all have gaps between what we say we believe and what we live we believe. The text of our words, when compared with the text of our actions, always differs. The question is not, whether. The question is, now what?

Now that I acknowledge there is a gap, what am I doing about it?

Some of us shrug. Some of us say, “we will never be perfect this side of glory” as if that is a valid excuse for anything. Some of us keep polishing the outside of the mug, painting the outside of the tomb white, as if that will distract from the smell that begins to leak out, from the oily scum that begins to form.

What do we do?

We admit that the mug is dirty. We start washing the mug daily (instead of making lazy excuses). We stop worrying about how it looks to admit that you struggle. We stop trying to impress anyone–God or your wife.

The more willing we are to admit to weakness and work on learning how to be stronger, the better the surface will look.

We have mint in our garden. Chocolate mint. We tear the leaves and put them in the basket when we make coffee sometimes. I put it with a tea bag and some sugar in a mug other times.

I love the aroma, love the flavor.

It grows wild, spreading everywhere. We have to pull it sometimes just to contain it.

For all that enjoyment, all that spreading, there is one place I have never taken mint.

The offering plate.

I’ve thrown it away, I’ve put it in the freezer. I even took a plant to church once, but it was to give to a friend. I’ve never put a leaf in the offering. Never sorted through the seeds from the dill plant and put 1 in 10 in a little baggie and dropped them in the plate as the usher went by.

I haven’t tithed them, but the Pharisees did.

Jesus says that they put a tenth of the herbs in the offering, which was more than the law required. They were making a point of doing more than the minimum that the law required.

However, when it came to justice, faithfulness, and mercy, they were giving nothing. Neglecting is how Jesus describes it.

Neglect is what you do to a garden. It’s a lack of attention suitable for small things. When something as massive as justice is neglected, treated as more trivial than a mint leaf, something is wrong.

The Pharisee spent their energy on the tiny, unrequired details, the gnats. They ignored the massive lumpy camels, the unmanageable, uncontrollable dynamics of relationships with God and each other.

We do the same, I think. Because it is easy to worry about external details, about colors and patterns and textures, we do so. And miss the people.

Jesus’ answer? Care about both.

Imagine a great restaurant. Wonderful food, fabulous service. Imagine walking up to the restaurant. Someone is in the entryway, the space between the sets of doors. “Wonderful,” you think, “There are greeters even here, just like Applebee’s.”

You get to the door. They aren’t opening it. You reach for the handle and start to pull. They grab the inside handle and pull it shut.

They spend all their time not going into the best restaurant, just keeping people out.

That’s what Jesus says the Pharisees are doing.

Imagine packing for a trip. A long trip. An international trip. You walk forever. You catch a boat. You sail forever. You are at the edge of everything. You meet someone. You invite him to be like you, to be part of your group. He agrees. You teach him the opposite of everything you know.

When he takes the entrance exam, he fails completely.

That’s what Jesus says the Pharisees are doing.

Imagine going on a camping trip. The people running the trip say, “everyone going hiking in the mountains, hiking to the Golden Hills. needs to take one of these.” Then they say it again. Then they say it again. Your pack is getting as heavy as the one in a Meijer’s back-to-school ad. The people running the trip say, “here, let me help you put one of these bungee cords over the pile. Here, a little duct tape to hold that together. Oops, sorry about that sticking to you.”

Then they start hiking, arms swinging, no pack. “Be careful not to drop anything,” they warn. “The keeper of the forest has clear rules about that,” they say.

That’s what Jesus says the Pharisees are doing.

Instead, lead people the right way.  Be one with them Be clear who you are following.