Jesus is on a roll, a ‘woe to you’ roll. It’s always hard to meet the crabby or angry Jesus – the Jesus upsetting the tables or asking his followers how they can be so stupid. These are uncomfortable passages to read, and at least for me, my thoughts immediately construct ways that make these bits less convicting.
One of my go-to justifications is to remember that Jesus was both fully divine and fully human. These angry bits are just Jesus being fully human, occasionally showing our human shortcomings. And while I think there are instances where Jesus portrayed fully human attributes, I’m not sure it’s fair to dismiss his anger and finger wagging as somehow less convicting, because they came from his fully human-ness.
The other thing that’s easy to do when we read these bits is to rail right along with Jesus. Yeah, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup but the inside is full of filth. Yeah, you’ve neglected justice and mercy and faith! How dare you! There are certainly times when this feels right. There is often so much broken in the world, so little justice, mercy and faith.
The risk with joining the rally cry is that we’re so busy agreeing with Jesus’ condemnation of others, we deflect the idea that he’s talking to us. And yes, while there are other hypocrites, others who lack love, justice and mercy, I do too. That’s why these bits are uncomfortable for me to read. I don’t like to think about my culpability in what he’s saying. None of us do.
Right now in our country, there is a lot of righteous indignation, for absolutely right reasons. And unfortunately, I’ve seen too many instances where those who are most incensed are the ones who are the most hypocritical. Today, Jesus is talking to the scribes and Pharisees who often railed against others. They were deeply religious and felt they had God on their side. And yet, their actions showed a lack of mercy and justice. This sounds to me like some of the modern-day protesters. They are right to be angry and upset with a lack of justice and mercy. But in their zeal, the demonstrate a willingness to dispense with justice and mercy against those who they’re protesting.
To be clear, I am not condoning the actions of racists or supremacists; I condemn the actions of racists or supremacists. And as a person of faith, I have to hear Jesus talking to me, challenging me to not be a hypocrite. To love, show mercy, have faith, and be just. Even to the people intentionally or unintentionally perpetuating horrible injustices.
This is hard stuff, this righteous indignation. Jesus can do it, because at the end of the day, he loved all. Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. When we fallible humans are swept up in that same fervor, we risk becoming like the Pharisees, hypocritical in our meting out justice and mercy and love.
This morning, I’m thinking about sitting with these hard sayings from Jesus, and what they mean to me and about me, before I join the angry voices, crying out with Jesus.
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