Okay, there's no way I'm going to try cover three chapters (Mt 23;24;25) in one sitting!
(23:1-3a) When God bestows the honor of a position, that honor remains even if the person who holds it doesn't live up to it. Elsewhere Scripture tells us that all authority is ordained by God, and we are to be subject to it even if we disagree with it (Rom 13:1), so this is not simply a matter of obeying bishops and pastors, although that is important, too. This tends to rub Americans the wrong way; we're not accustomed to the concept of sovereign authority. When a person acts inconsistently with what they propound, we tend to disdain their authority as well as their example. Jesus cautions us against this. It's a little easier for me since, early in my Christian walk, I recognized that even the worst homilist provided me a morsel of food to grow on in each homily. I came to recognize this as an example of what Jesus is talking about here.
(23:3b-39) That said, Jesus warns us against following the example of someone simply because they are in authority over us. I have learned this lesson, as well; each of my pastors has had some area in which their example would diverge from the example of Christ. Yet I have been blessed to be served by good-hearted men whose intentions are nothing like those of the brood of vipers whom Jesus chastises vehemently throughout this chapter.
A couple of specific lessons to be gleaned from this chapter:
(4) It is important to be on guard that the teaching and guidance we provide is not geared primarily toward our own ease. For instance, as a parent and now a grandparent, I see how sometimes I am tempted to direct the children's actions with my primary concern being to maintain an atmosphere in which I can do what I want to do. It is one thing to train them up in the way they are to go, and a different one entirely to train them to tiptoe lightly around me.
(5-12) It is about service, not honor. I'm not a parent and grandparent for the honor of it, but for the privilege of serving my children and grandchildren. I must do so with wisdom: some things that look like service are really enabling.
(13-39) Hypocrisy angers Jesus more than just about anything. I think maybe this is because it is the greatest obstacle to our keeping the two greatest commandments. When we think we're already loving God with all we have and are filled with a zealous indignation against our neighbor that keeps us from loving them, what can move us?
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