Cruel to Be Kind
BY DAVID FEDDES
Matthew 23:13-35 You couldn't ask for a more impressive group of churchgoers. They were careful about how they dressed and careful about how they lived. They read the Bible and said prayers at every meal. They could recite large parts of Scripture from memory. They worked tirelessly to persuade other people to join their group. They were the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.
On this particular day, when they had filed into church as usual, the unexpected happened. They were looking forward to hearing another nice sermon telling nice people how to be even nicer. But a young man named Jesus stood up to speak, and before long, He was roaring like a lion on the attack. And His attack was aimed directly at them!
His tirade had seven points, each of which began with the same furious roar: "Woe to you!" And as He shouted these woes, He bombarded them with almost every name in the book. It was a withering blast. It was the harshest sermon in history. And it is recorded in Matthew 23.
The seven charges He made against the religious leaders of His day are equally applicable to many church leaders today:
Indictment #1
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to (v. 13).Jesus was incensed that the religious leaders were slamming the door to the kingdom of heaven right in people's faces. You see, they promoted a religion based on the assumption that God would accept only good people into His kingdom.Any religion designed only for good people turns the church into an exclusive club for the successful, not a place for sinful and wounded people to discover God's forgiveness and healing. The church becomes the place of the pious, the home of the holy, the gathering of the good. Sinners need not apply.
This brand of religion produces hypocrisy in some people and despair in others. People who think they're basically good become too busy congratulating themselves to ever deal with the deadly reality of their own sin. Meanwhile, those who know they're not so good think they're beyond hope.
Indictment #2
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are (v. 15).Jesus recognized that the religious leaders had tremendous zeal for evangelism. They were eager to convert other people to their religion. The only problem was that their converts were becoming children of hell.One of our deadliest temptations is to define success by numbers and by how many people we can attract. Whoever draws the biggest crowd wins. So if people don't like the gospel of Jesus, give them something they will like. Do whatever it takes to win another convert.
Now, that approach may get more people to join your religion, but it won't get them any closer to the kingdom of heaven. In fact, because it misleads them into thinking that they have become saved, it discourages them from seeking God God's way.
Indictment #3
Woe to you, blind guides! You say, "If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath." You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, "If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath." You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it (vv. 16-22).Jesus charged the religious leaders with using silly technicalities to excuse lies and broken promises. The Pharisees were saying something like this: "If you make a promise and swear on the temple, God doesn't
mind if you break your promise. But if you swear by the gold in the temple, then God insists that you keep your oath.""Rubbish," said Jesus. A promise is a promise. A lie is a lie. Your silly little loopholes won't reduce your accountability to the God of truth.
Indictment #4
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spicesmint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel (vv. 23-24).The religious elitists believed in tithing, giving 10% of one's income to God. They were so scrupulous about this that they even gave a tenth of any spices that were given to them. But they didn't know the first thing about justice for the oppressed, mercy for the down and out, or faithfulness to those who were counting on them.Religious people sometimes become so obsessed with getting the fine points exactly right that they neglect the really important things.
Right now, even though Judgment Day may not be far away, millions still don't know Christ. And what are we and the churches doing? Instead of bringing the gospel of Christ to the lost with urgency, we're concerned with making sure that we've got our rituals exactly right and that our church building is properly furnished.
Majoring in minors and minoring in majors is a deadly danger for individuals as well as for churches. Some people consider it a monstrous sin for their neighbor to mow the lawn on Sunday, but these very same people can hold a grudge for decades without any qualm. Some people are admired as generous financial supporters of churches and charities, but they make the money through shady business practices and pay their employees barely enough to live on.
One of our deadliest temptations is to define success by numbers and by how many God isn't just interested in whether you give cheerfully to Him. He's also interested in how you make that money. He wants His people to be strong in justice and mercy and faithfulness.
Indictment #5
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean (vv. 25-26).Jesus attacks those who go through all the right rituals but who are nothing but scum on the inside. In particular, Jesus condemns greed and self-indulgence.When Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation in 1517, he was protesting against a church that had beautiful-looking cathedrals but a church hierarchy that was full of greed and self-indulgence. Safe passage to heaven had become a commodity for sale. One of the church's best-known fund-raisers was a man named Tetzel. His slogan was, "When the money in the coffer clinks, a soul from purgatory springs."
Today there are Tetzels still with us. Often they are well groomed and wholesome looking, their mouths are full of God-talk, and they guarantee you God's blessings if only you will write a generous check for their particular ministry. Meanwhile, they pay themselves lavish salaries from the money they raise. Woe to such religious hucksters!
Indictment #6
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness (vv. 27-28).Have you ever noticed that a neighborhood bustling with life is never as immaculate as the local cemetery? Children mess up the lawns and leave things lying around; dead people don't. With a little whitewash and a good landscaping crew, the cemetery looks perfect. But, hey, no matter how great it looks, the place is just as dead!A living, vibrant church is going to have its share of messy situations and embarrassing moments. That's because it's helping people with their problems rather than pretending that no problems exist. When a church ignores the burdens of fellow members of the congregation, it is dead. Everybody may come to church dressed prim and proper, but it is a spiritual cemetery.
Indictment #7
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, "If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets." So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!It's easy to say we would have repented if we had listened to Jeremiah, John the Baptist or Jesus. But when we're confronted by the voice of God in our own time and challenged to repent of the sins we enjoy and make excuses for, it's another story.You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth (vv. 29-35).
In many of our churches, if a preacher stood up and preached a sermon like the one Jesus preached, he'd be out looking for a new job. Oh, we admire the great prophets and reformers of the past, but in our own pulpit we want a person who is nice and easy to get along with. We won't come out and say it, but what many of us really want is a wimp.
A prophet of God is not a nice person telling other nice people how to be even nicer. Zechariah wasn't stoned to death for saying, "I'm OK, and you're OK." John the Baptist didn't get his head cut off for saying, "Smile, God loves you." Jesus wasn't crucified for saying, "What you folks really need is more self-esteem."
God's spokesmen in the past weren't people who had only pleasant things to say. The words Jesus used were often harsh, bordering on cruel. But He was cruel to be kind. He loved people too much to fool them into thinking that they were good enough without Him.
Behind the Tirade: Tender love
When Jesus had finished thundering out those seven woes, His eyes began to fill with tears, and His voice cracked: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing (v. 37).Behind the fierceness of Jesus' anger lay the tenderness of His love. He saw these people marching toward destruction, so He sounded the alarm and urged them to come to Him. But they refused.
Today I urge you not to make the same mistake. The gospel tells you that you are wicked, that your heart is full of corruption and selfish motives, that you need to be forgiven and transformed. If you don't like to hear these harsh truths, woe to you! You're still outside the kingdom of heaven, and you're probably also shutting the kingdom in the faces of others.
John the Baptist didn't get his head cut off for saying, The only way you will ever enter the kingdom of heaven is to repent of your sin and plead for God's mercy and forgiveness. You must put your faith in Jesus and in the blood He shed to pay for your sins.
Jesus came to save sinners. The church of Jesus is the place to be confronted with our sin and comforted by God's grace, not a place to congratulate ourselves on how good we are. Any church that forgets this truth needs to be reformed. And any individual who forgets it needs to be reborn. o
Rev. David Feddes is radio minister on The Back To God Hour. For broadcast information, write to 6555 W. College Drive, Palos Heights, IL 60463.