Sunday, November 5, 2017

One Teacher, One Father, One Master.

Matthew 23:1-12
November 5, 2017

I.

Jesus offers here a critique of the leaders of his own community, the scribes and Pharisees.  He affirms that they know what they are talking about and teach the truth.  He advises his disciples to “do whatever they teach… and follow it.”

This is important.  Jesus has already said that he does not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.  He does not have a problem with the Scriptures; his issue is with the official keepers and interpreters of the Scriptures.

I know for a fact that people can know the Bible inside and out, and teach very effectively what it says… but not follow it at all themselves.  I have known high-powered, brilliant, world-class theologians… whose personal and family lives were trainwrecks.  I am aware of ethicists, people who teach others how best to live in light of the gospel… yet who participated in and actually did some awful things to other people.

Jesus is saying that if someone knows their stuff and shows insight into the Scriptures and the Christian life, listen to them.  Follow them, even.  Do what they say.  Pay attention to what God has given them to share.

But.  If they are acting in a way contrary to the love at the heart of the Scriptures, do not imitate them.  Do not necessarily do what they do.  Jesus comes to show us the deeper meaning of the Bible.  It is actually more demanding than merely going along with the literal interpretation.  He says that his followers have to demonstrate a righteousness and justice that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.  His is not a more lax approach, but one that requires more of us.      

One of the routine criticisms about Christians is that we are all such hypocrites.  We talk a good game, but when it comes to living out the values we preach?  Not so much.  That’s how many people experience Christians.  And some of that we’re just going to have to accept.  Because we are striving to live according to the life and teachings of Jesus.  We’re going to fall short.  All the time.  There will always be a rather large gap between what we say and what we do, because we say we want to be like Jesus, and we do!  But we never in this existence actually act like Jesus would have us act to the degree that he requires of us.  We are always infected with self-interest.

So we look like hypocrites.  That’s just the way it is.  The only thing we can do to counteract that is admit it, confess it, apologize for it, and seek to make amends when our inevitable falling short does harm to someone.  We carefully walk through life with humility and gentleness, forgiveness and acceptance.  We forego judgment precisely for the reason Jesus tells us to: so we are not ourselves judged.  The primary act of obedience to Jesus is in this attitude of forbearance and not-condemning, not-judging, not-rejecting, and not-punishing.  It is realizing we are all, we humans, in the same boat.  And those of us who follow Jesus have no claim to superiority because we are slightly more awake.

II.

Jesus says to do what the leaders tell you.  But for God’s sake “do not do as they do.  For they do not [actually] practice what they teach.”  Then he goes on to describe what he considers to be gross abuses of power on the part of the leaders, the Pharisees and the scribes.  To sum up, it is all about them: their superiority, their piety, their privilege, their status.  They have twisted the Law into a scheme to maintain their own wealth and power.

Hypocrisy is one thing if you’re setting a high standard for yourself and realize you are failing to meet it.  Hypocrisy is something else when you are self-righteous about it and even oppressive of others.  Do you hold others’ behavior to a standard you refuse to keep yourself?  Do you despise and punish someone because of the speck in their eye while ignoring the log in your own?  Do you think that your faith makes you better than others, when real faith always reveals just the opposite, how far we fall short?  

A person who has truly awakened to the good news of God’s love will not be proud, self-righteous, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, or boastful about it.   Jesus calls no one to a position of power, or to the acquisition of wealth, or to fame and gratification of all their desires.  Ambition and a sense of personal — or even ethnic, religious, or moral superiority — are the surest signs that you don’t get it, that you haven’t really awakened to anything, but remain in the darkness, caving in to the temptations of your own ego.

The worst thing you can do is use your religious knowledge to oppress and harm others.  Jesus says about these leaders: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.”  In other words, they are hammering people over the head with the Bible, demanding literal compliance with superficial, nit-picky rules, and disregarding the love, forgiveness, and blessing at its heart.  They’re all about judging, condemning, excluding, shunning, separating, and diminishing other people.   

At the same time, they are about getting the attention and the benefits on themselves.  Jesus says: “They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.  They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them rabbi.”  

For bad leaders everything is about them.  Unfortunately, we have developed and maintain systems which encourage and generate exactly this kind of self-serving, dominating, divisive understanding of leadership, which is really tyranny.    

III.

Against and in vivid contrast to this system, Jesus offers a radical egalitarianism — some would even call it anarchism — in which no one is superior and no one is subordinate.  Everyone is equal because God is one and over all.  So he says, “You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.”  He realizes that faith in one God automatically and necessarily creates equality among people.     

He says, “And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven.”  Fathers were infamous for their abusive despotism; fathers are the one familial relationship that does not get extended into the Kingdom of God.  God is the only Father.  This does not somehow bless or authorize the power of earthly fathers; just the opposite.  It makes earthly fathers irrelevant because they are just as subordinate to God as anyone else.  In Jesus’ new gospel community there is no place for anyone to be over anyone else, because we are all disciples of the one God who is over all.

The whole point of monotheism is not the self-serving mis-interpretation that having one God means having one King acting as lord over the nation and one father who is lord of each household.  Worshiping one God is actually the basis for the flat social system of the Torah, where there is no king, no central government, and no ruling class.  Even the priestly class has no political or economic power.  Decisions are made in groups of equals, led by elders who monitor things to keep the integrity of the vision alive.  

(This is the basis for Presbyterianism, by the way.)

Jesus goes on to tell his disciples that neither are they to call themselves instructors or masters, for they are only to have one master, the Messiah, that is, Jesus himself.  And Jesus exercises his lordship not in terms of domination but by self-emptying service, even giving his life for his friends.

That’s why Jesus goes on to tell them that, “The greatest among you will be your servant.”  Jesus comes to turn society upside down and it begins with himself, who comes as a servant.  And it extends into his own gospel community, where service, as well as humility, poverty of spirit, purity of heart, grieving, gentleness, and the other characteristics he lifts up in the Beatitudes, are valued above all.

Once again we see that Jesus is about reversal.  “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”  It is counterintuitive.  But it means that the most anonymous, inconspicuous, ordinary, and transparent people are the ones whom God lifts up into wakefulness and presence.  And the ones who are the most famous, wealthy, and powerful will be brought down and forgotten.

IV.

We have one Teacher, one Father, and one Master… who negates and overcomes all others who put themselves forward as teachers, fathers, and masters.  Our entire job in this life is to discern, reflect, express, and follow the will of our Creator, as we see it embodied in Jesus Christ.  As John the Baptizer says about him, “He must increase, I must decrease,” so it is with us.  The Christian life is a race to the bottom, in the sense of our seeking to give, empty, and lose ourselves, so that God’s glory and goodness may shine through and in us more perfectly.

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