Be neither white-washed nor unmarked |
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When I was 10 years old my father decided to dig a full basement out from under our house. In one corner he pointed out to me a change in the pattern of the packed earth that formed the wall. “Notice how this part is all layered,” he said, “while the earth right next to it is not? This may be an old Indian grave.” I was filled with amazement. Our house might have been built on top of a dead man’s bones! Two warnings Jesus made about the Pharisees seem contradictory at first. He says they are like white-washed tombs (Matt. 23:27-28). The beauty of their external lives are only a facade for the ugly corruption within. He says they are also “like unmarked graves which men walk over without knowing it”(Luke 11:44). How could the same person be like an unmarked grave and In comparing them to white-washed tombs, Jesus describes their hypocrisy. Their hidden intentions do not match the beautiful things they do. If one could, like Jesus, see the inside as well as the outside, he or she would be repelled by the horrible inconsistency. Comparing them with unmarked graves describes their unnoticed influence. Dedicated Jews were scrupulous about avoiding graves for fear that they might touch a human bone and defile themselves (see Num. 19:11-13). Jesus was saying that people defiled themselves whenever they got around the hypocritical Pharisees. And the worst part of it was that they didn’t even realize they were being defiled. They thought the Pharisees would bring them closer to God. We must watch our own lives, constantly comparing our actions with our attitudes. Would we be willing for our intentions to be as obvious as the good things we do? Do we draw people closer to God by their association with us, or do we defile them? The new owners of that house do not know about the possible Native American grave in the basement. It’s probably just as well. It might give them the chilly willies. |
| —Steve Singleton DeeperStudy.com |
Want to go deeper?The Greek noun hupokritēs ("hypocrite, pretender") or the related noun hupokrisis ("hypocrisy, pretense") occur 23 times in the New Testament. Growing up in Nazareth, only five miles from Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee, Jesus may have been familiar with the Greek and Latin drams performed there. The actors wore masks and often performed more than one role in the same play. Jesus saw the self-centered actions and attitudes of the Pharisees and teachers of the law as a similar kind of play-acting. In His Sermon on the Mount He exposes the religious leaders' tendency to desire center stage when giving alms, praying, and fasting (Matt. 6:2, 5, 16). He denounces them for ignoring their own problems with sin while focusing on the faults of others (Matt. 7:5; Luke 6:42) and for honoring God with their lips while their hearts remained distant (Mark 7:6; Matt. 15:7). He warns His disciples that their hypocrisy is like leaven (Luke 12:1; compare Mark 8:15; Matt. 16:6, 12). At the end of his ministry, Jesus delivered a seven-fold denunciation of this hypocrisy (Matt. 23:13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29). Using very strong metaphors ("blind guides," "snakes"), He tries to expose their sins as a warning both to them and to those who follow them uncritically. Both Peter and Paul had to deal bluntly with hypocrisy. Peter recognizes it as one of the characteristics new Christians must eliminate if they would grow in Christ (1 Peter 2:1). Paul had to expose the hypocrisy Peter himself, Barnabas, and others engaged in when peer pressure diverted them from having open fellowship with Gentile Christians, in contradiction to the truth of the gospel (Gal. 2:13). Paul warns Timothy and the believers with him in Ephesus that an apostasy was coming, led by "hypocritical liars" (1 Tim. 4:2). Hypocrisy is deadly to spiritual life. Watch out for it in yourself and in your brothers and sisters!
Bill Perkins. 6 Rules Every Man Must Break: Cut the Leash, Liberate Your Faith (2007). What if by breaking six specific rules, you could throw off the shackles of other people's expectations and pursue a more authentic and liberating faith? Author and speaker Bill Perkins has a message for men with the courage to break these rules---the same ones Jesus broke. 6 Rules Every Man Must Break challenges you to follow Jesus' example: Refuse to be handcuffed by rules that aren't God-given. Drawing on personal stories and scriptural examples, Bill shows how defying these rules will help you to:
You can strengthen your connection with Christ by depending on him---not man-made rules---to transform you into the man he created you to be. So go ahead, break the rules---and join the revolution of grace! Recommended for online reading: Donald Fraser. "Whitewashed Tombs," chapter 20 (191-201) of his Metaphors in the Gospels (1885). |
like one so well marked that no one could miss it?