“Hypocrite!”
10th Sun. of Luke Nov. 28, 2021; Luke:13: 10-17; Eph. 2:4-10
“There are six days on which men ought to work: Therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” That should be noted as one of the most ridiculous statements contained in the bible. It bends one’s mind just hearing it out loud doesn’t it? Even Christ seems a little stunned, “Hypocrite” is His immediate reply to the ruler of the Synagogue. It is just wrong on so many levels. Anything we do in the name of God must be completely encased, surrounded, and undergirded in love. God is love and we should never portray Him otherwise.
In Matthew 23 we again hear Christ give His last talk to the crowds before His crucifixion. He spends much of what is reported calling the leaders – the scribes and the Pharisees – “Hypocrites.” They (Matt. 23:4) “bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” Christ tells us not to call those in leadership, who act so capriciously and cruelly, “teachers” or “fathers,” for (Matt. 23: 12) “whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Matthew Chapter 23 then reports Christ describing all manner of unloving evil actions done by the leaders. Seven times He repeats, (Matt. 23: 13,14,15,23,25,27,29) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” Then just for good measure he calls them “blind guides and/or fools” another 6 times (Matt. 23:16,17,19,24,26.) Christ finally wraps up His Chapter 23 description of those who practice such cruel hypocrisy by saying (Matt.23:33) “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” But Christ ends with pouring out His ever-available offer of love and protection (Matt.23:37) “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” There are no hopeless cases. We have the most famous Pharisee of all time as our proof of this. St. Paul, who furiously went about as described by Christ in Matthew 23 Matt.23:34) “I send you wise men and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city.”
Matthew 23 is quite famous amongst our dear Protestant Evangelical brothers and sisters. Whenever I attend a local ministerial meeting with my fellow labourers in Christ, they are very careful to apply the main lesson they understand from this chapter which is – to “call no man Father.” I have no desire to be addressed as “Fr. Andrew” by anyone who struggles with this, but I must confess that whenever I see the great struggle they have to be obedient to this one isolated verse in the middle of chapter 23, applied completely out of context to the passage, I always hear in the back of my mind, Fr. Thomas Hopko of blessed memory saying, “read the whole chapter – it really helps to read the entire chapter.” Verses out of context have been used to justify all manner of bad theology and undergird every cult. We have another example of this in today’s epistle reading in Ephesians 2:8,9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works lest anyone should boast.” This wonderful verse has been used to create a whole theology that God’s grace is the full gospel message, and we have no need to do anything. “Sloppy Grace” it is known as in more serious Protestant circles. It has also been used to support the heresy of Ultra Calvinistic Pre-destination. But somehow the very next verse (2:10) isn’t part of the standard memory verse quote, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” This clearly indicates our synergistic participation in our salvation and keeps things in balance. When we want to understand what a verse or chapter in the scriptures is saying, we should do some research and determine what the Church has taught consistently through the centuries. If our understanding doesn’t square with what the Church teaches, then we need to let the Church judge us rather than allowing ourselves to judge the Church.
Hypocrisy is a false reality, a delusion built upon lies. It comes from the father of lies, and has no part in God, who is the Way the Truth and the Life. A spirit of hypocritical religiosity develops in us when we think we know the rules and are doing a pretty good job of keeping them. At least certainly better than many around us. We can then take great satisfaction that we are “not like them,” in the process isolating ourselves from suffering humanity and also therefore from Christ. The stiff-necked Pharisee’s would interpret verses and mosaic laws, and twist them into weapons to use in beating others into submission and under their authority. Fr. Thomas Hopko often used the term “Patristic Fundamentalism” to describe a modern version of this self-righteous unloving behaviour. He felt it to be the biggest threat to the Orthodox Church in our time. Being “right” without being “loving,” is a sure formula to develop a hard heart. (Psalm 50) “Create in me a clean heart O Lord and renew a right spirit within me. A broken and humble heart O Lord You will not despise.” Any lie or delusion we adopt pleases the evil one, but all the better if we ferociously defend it and develop a hard heart towards those who differ. Indeed, in the right hands, like Hitler or Stalin or the architects of the Residential school system, these lies can be used to promote great human suffering. But of course the main lie the enemy is always trying to tell us is the first one (Gen.3:4) “Forget God, go your own way and be gods. You know best!”
Like today’s religious ruler, we can think we have it all figured out. If someone doesn’t agree with us they are dismissed as being (take your pick) deluded/stupid/ ignorant/ heartless/ uneducated/ and just plain wrong! As our society becomes increasingly polarized, we are in great danger of seeing others, who don’t see things as we do, as our enemies, rather than as struggling fellow humans. Agreeing to disagree on political and social issues, while valuing the otherness of those we don’t agree with is becoming increasingly rare. In the United States we see entire neighborhoods of Republican’s where a Democrat would not dare to purchase a home and vice-vera. In the name of social tolerance we find the most intolerant views towards anyone who might dare to disagree with any of the new “enlightened” social values. One can literally lose their job and be completely demonized as a “hater” if they don’t agree with the latest politically correct social mandates. But our reactions are what we must be most concerned with. Do we in turn then give ourselves license to dismiss and ridicule those whom we disagree with, to see them as our enemies? The Christian response is always to pray for our enemies that they will come to salvation. We need to examine the judgements and resentments in our own hearts. To (Phil 2:12) “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.”
Throughout the scriptures we are given the antidote for the sin of hypocrisy. In Matthew 6, Christ instructs us we are to pray, give alms, and fast in secret, and above all forgive everything and everyone always, without exception. St. Paul tells us what to focus our minds on, (Phil,4:8) “Finally brethren, whatever things are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy – meditate on these things.” And (Rom.12:15,16) “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep…Do not set your mind on high things but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.”
But of course, we are sinners and we blow it. The problem isn’t just that we are sinners; we have the entire human race for company in this, the problem is primarily that we don’t recognize our condition, and therefore we don’t flee to Christ for forgiveness and healing. The Christian journey is a life of repentance. Once we recognize the depth of our sin, we can go to Him and be healed. Sin is simply missing the mark by stubbornly going our own way, refusing to turn to God. We see the problems in the other guy, but only by seeing them in ourselves can we grow in Christ. The problems that we see in the other guy, are likely to also be the same ones we ourselves suffer from, but are not yet able to face. Yet even as we reap the sad consequences of our sinful deluded behaviour, God will use these dark moments in our lives to teach us at the deepest level, that we are completely loved by Him. For He is a good God who loves us and all of mankind, and Christ is ever with us, unto the end of the ages. Glory to Jesus Christ!