Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses. Proverbs 27:6

We want to hear nice things about us. We want to know that people find us wise. We love to be loved.

Sometimes nice words aren’t nice. Sometimes nice words are the fresh cheese in a mousetrap, the sweet fruit laced with poison, the flattery before the knife in the ribs, the empty kisses.

Jesus understood this proverb very well.

I know. We think of Judas giving Jesus a kiss as a way of marking him on their last night alive. But earlier that week, in Matthew 22, Jesus is listening to complimentary words, fully aware of the knife behind them.

“Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are.”

The speakers were, we read a couple sentences before, trying to trap Jesus. Their words are the setup before the slam.

Jesus knew. So he answered wisely.

But how can we know that someone is flattering for the kill, (since we are supposed to be learning from him how to live like him)?

Because their understanding of his actions betrayed their misunderstanding. They say that Jesus pays no attention to who people are. That is incorrect. He merely wouldn’t acknowledge who they thought they were. He paid complete attention to the underdogs, the unloved, the outcasts, the children, the widows, the women, the shepherds, the possessed, the inquiring. In short, Jesus paid attention to the people who these men didn’t.

Their flattery betrayed their falsehood.

When you hear words of praise from someone who has been an enemy, Jesus offers a model. Pray for them, but don’t believe them.