A Sermon Preached at University Baptist Church, Columbus, Ohio
30 October 2011
I. Introduction
- The title of the sermon is a twist on the parents’ old standby saying – when children point out to their parents an inconsistency between word and action, saying, “Dad, I thought we weren’t supposed to yell at the other drivers on the road – I thought we were supposed to be patient” – “Well, kids,” parents say, “don’t do as I do, do as I say”
- Parents all know, of course, that this does not work – they might even say it laughingly or with a smile because we all know that children see right through this sort of low-level hypocrisy – children know when their parents are out of line, at least as often and as easily as parents know their children are out of line – what children lack in experience, they make up for in observation – this should be in bold print in the parents’ handbook, if there actually were a handbook
- We are like these inconsistent parents – we all talk a good game, often a much better game than we play, or can play – we are good at telling others, and even ourselves, how we should all act, but as often as not we cannot follow through on all our talk
- One of the things that makes Jesus such a wonderful exemplar for us is his consistency, his ability to talk the talk and walk the walk, as the cliché puts it – in today’s gospel reading, Jesus warns his followers and the crowds around all of them against anyone who says one thing and does another – in effect, he is telling everyone something similar to what I began by saying parents sometimes say to their children – the difference is, when Jesus says it of the hypocrites who have been challenging him, it is not a humorous thing – he is quite serious
II. Introduction to the Woes
- I want to say at the outset here that there is a danger in the 23rd chapter of Matthew – historically many Christians have read it and seen in it a justification for anti-Semitism, for thinking themselves superior to the Jews – but that is a serious and sorrowful misreading of the chapter and I would not have any of us leave today thinking that way – in the preceding chapters of the gospel, the Evangelist has been relating a series of scenes in Jerusalem in Jesus’ last days before his crucifixion – the players in these scenes mainly have been Jesus, Jesus’ followers, various temple leaders (chief priests, elders, scribes, lawyers, Pharisees, Sadducees), and the crowds gathering in and around the temple in the days leading up to the celebration of Passover – the scenes have focused on questions, answer, stories, challenges, politics, and the central issue of authority – Jesus is not denouncing his own people generally but some bad, maybe even dangerous, leaders in particular – and in fact, we can and should generalize his words about the scribes and Pharisees to any leaders, religious, political, philosophical, any leaders who act in similar ways
- So pay attention when Jesus tells his audience that they should do everything the scribes and Pharisees teach them – these teachers know the Instruction of God inside and out – they know the commandments – they know the requirements of living in covenant with God and with one another – they know whereof they speak, so listen to them – they sit on Moses’ seat – in matters of the law, they represent the tradition, so give them due deference – give them appropriate honor and respect because of their knowledge and experience – but do not do as they do – oh no, do not do that
- The problem with the scribes and Pharisees is not in their knowledge or in their teaching – their problem is in their doing, in their actions – they speak of praising and glorifying God, but they put themselves in the spotlight – they speak of the burdens of leadership, the weight of responsibility they bear, the onus of authority, but they are “unwilling to lift a finger” to make the burdens of the people easier to bear – quite the opposite, they add their own weight to the burdens of the people – they make a show of their piety by making their phylacteries big and showy and the fringes of their prayer shawls extra long – it is all a show for them – with these particular scribes and Pharisees, everything is all about them all the time – they want the seats of honor at the banquets – they want courtside seats at the ballgames – they want to sit behind home plate so that they are on television every time the audience sees the batter – they want the paparazzi following them – they want everyone to know who they are and to use the correct terms of respect when addressing them – and do you know what? – they get all of that and more most of the time – and, if we remember Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, they have received their reward already – they get the fame and the recognition and the attention and that is all they get
- The situation in which Jesus depicts the scribes and Pharisees is not due to their being Jewish leaders – they have simply made the same mistake that many human beings make – they think too highly of themselves – they think themselves better than the ones of whom they should really be the servants
- Instead of calling them rabbi, Jesus says, call them students – go further, call everyone students because all have one teacher – go even further, call no one father, or mother, because all have one eternally loving parent in heaven – and call no one instructor, for there is only one true instructor: Messiah
- Then come the paradoxes, of course – the greatest will be the servant – the ones who exalt themselves, as the unwise scribes and Pharisees have done, will be humbled, and the ones who humble themselves will be exalted – the logic of the Vision of God is never what the world understands as logic – the way of the Vision is one hundred eighty degrees from the way of the world – the scribes and Pharisees forgot that – Jesus’ words and deeds are reminders to them and to us about the true way of the Vision
- Whereas Jesus says to the crowds and to his followers do as the leaders say, but not as they do, the internal consistency of his life says to us do as he says and as he does – Jesus’ words and actions both point to the truth of the Vision he has come to initiate
III. Do as I Say and as I Do
- Anyone who is a leader in our world, in any sort of situation in which power and authority come into play, they would do well to remember these sayings of Jesus’ – they are a caution to those who would abuse their positions of authority for their own purposes – our newspapers and blogs are full of stories of politicians on the take, public officials who receive bribes and improper benefits – our entertainments frequently refer to the criminal who has a power judge or legislator in his, or her, pocket – we do not have to look far to find contemporary illustrations of the same type of disparities between word and deed as Jesus pointed out
- The more important application of these sayings, however, is in our own lives – our human pride, our self-satisfaction about our accomplishments, our belief in our superiority over others because of our education or our status or our wealth or our possessions, these are the same sort of thing against which Jesus warned the crowds around him in Jerusalem – we are all of us humans – we are all subject to the same struggles – and if we think we are not, we add self-delusion to the list – while to a certain extent I want to be critical of us all, myself included, and while there are abundant cautions in scripture against our thinking more highly of ourselves than is meet, I do not want us to feel too bad – this is a part of our human condition – it is a part of human nature to want attention, to want others to notice us and respect us – it is who we are to want others to listen to us, to heed us – at times any and all of us are susceptible to hypocrisy
- The corrective, then, to our human hypocrisy is the example of Jesus – he shows us how to live lives of consistent service, love, and discipleship – he shows us that we can follow both his words and his actions – he also shows us that when we live in authentic relationships with him and with one another, then we can move beyond our hypocrisies, small and large
IV. Conclusion
- Jesus says to us do as I say and as I do – and in hearing those words there is hope and there is life for us all
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Tags: Matthew 23.1-12
