NT – I love Beth Moore. I love how energetic she is. I love how prepared she is. I love how hard she has studied and worked. I also love how thoroughly put together she always is. Perfect clothes, hair and makeup. But she is always telling a funny story on herself. Always showing her soulful imperfections. Watch this clip and laugh along with me and then let’s talk about the Pharisees.
The word that we translate hypocrite is from the Greek word ‘hupokrites” meaning stage actor. So, a hypocrite is someone who does not ‘act’ as he truly believes or is. Look at vs. 18. ‘Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said “you hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?” Why, indeed?
What risk was Jesus to them? Let’s remember who the Pharisees were. They were the ones that did all the synagogue teaching. They were the ‘true’ interpreters of the Torah. They told the people how to act, when to act, and what to wear when they were acting. There is that word again. ACT.
I think Jesus’ main problem with the Pharisees is that they were acting. Just like Beth didn’t want the cleaning lady to know she might have ear wax, the Pharisees didn’t want anyone to know what was in their heart. It wasn’t that they didn’t love God, it was that they put more faith in the ‘act’ rather than the heart.
So, go back to the risk part. How was having Jesus in their midst a cause for concern? If they were so perfect in their ‘act’ why would they care if some bozo who doesn’t do all the handwashing, appears to drink too much and eats the wrong thing on the wrong day, and gets himself unclean by touching yucky people shows up in their midst? Why were they afraid of him? Why try to bring him down? Show him up? Trap him? Don’t tell they didn’t have other weirdos running around Jerusalem and Israel. There are ALWAYS weirdos.
But Jesus appeared to be different. The crowds liked him except at home. There was that whole cloak and palm branch thing. He had a bunch of followers and some of them, well, some of them ‘smelled’. As in not ‘the right kind of people’ smell.
So, continuing from yesterday – who in your life are you a hypocrite to? How can you fix it and how, in Beth’s words can you ‘cut the bull’.
Psalm – Theses two stanzas of Psalm 27 are in the typical Hebrew contrast style. Vs 1-3 is stanza 1 and it is all about fear. Vs. 4-6 is about serenity and calmness which appears when the writer is ‘dwelling in the house of the Lord’. Even though he professes that the Lord is his salvation, clearly he is assailed on all sides and with people bent on destroying or ‘devouring’ him. It is only in the safe place of the Lord that he feels secure. “he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle”.
Proverb – this proverb reminds me of something my dad told my brothers. He said his grandmother Florence Hackney told him this.
“A bad woman can shovel more out the back door with a teaspoon than a good man can shovel in the front door with a coal shovel”. You have been properly warned, young men.
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I watched the video. I have never herd of Beth Moore. I looked her on Google and I am amazed that I have never heard of her before. She is good. Her story about the Qtip was a perfect illustration of the crazy things that we all do to try and impress people we don't even know and won't remember us anyway. We all act like Pharisses and Saduccees sometimes. Thanks Sis for the video.
ReplyDeleteThe Hebrews and their grumbling and backsliding have already bored me and I know we have weeks of reading about it. I hope and pray that if I had walked through a parted Red Sea and watched the destruction of the entire Egyptian army that I would trust in God at least for a couple of months. But they barely make it a week.
Granny Hackneys saying also came back to me when reading the Proverb. Let's not be sexist though. You can easily reverse the man and woman. So we can also say. You have been properly warned, young women. (Sis you only have boys. I have a boy and a girl)