Oliver James
Member
- Nov 23, 2022
- 10
- 1
Again, this is for Lent and yet Lent and Advent are so closely tied.
I have tried for concision here and here it is.
I can link 2 together. This:
Matthew 23: 23-26 – Week 21 Ordinary Time, Tuesday (Audio Bible, Spoken Word)
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Jesus’ rebuke of the scribes and the Pharisees continues in today’s Gospel verses. Woe unto you – hypocrites. Jesus’ hard condemnation of the scribes and the Pharisees centres upon hypocrisy as upon clerical abuse. These two evils erode life together within the practice of the scribes and the Pharisees.
It is through their hypocrisy that the scribes and Pharisees have corrupted what could have been their true ministry, as they have turned to exploitation of what should have been their flock for financial and prideful ends; and as their concern for their own financial gain and social recognition, as socially important people, has drawn the scribes and the Pharisees away from true exercise of ministry. ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!’ This is strong and necessary talk on the part of Jesus. We may hear these words as being entirely relevant in our day.
The charge in today’s Bible verses is twofold, relating to two aspects of the abuses of the scribes and Pharisees. Firstly, Jesus speaks of their pettiness, in terms of paying concern to utterly trivial matters, while the most weighty matters concerning our relationship to God, in the most fundamental ways, have been ignored, undermined or rejected entirely.
Secondly, Jesus speaks of the hollowness of the rituals of purity observed, whereby there is so much attention paid to cleansing the pots and the pans, the outside of the cup, while inside all is extortion and rapacity. There is a shiny, squeaky clean outside, and the heart is evil. These are no small claims.
Jesus’ charge against the Pharisees concerning the swallowing of a gnat is almost comical, as the Pharisees would strain their drinks through a linen cloth so as to avoid inadvertently swallowing that which would render them unclean. Perhaps our sense of the comedy here is a sign of how far we have come with love of Jesus, no matter all our failings.
The core charge Jesus levies, though, is far from comical. It is to do with hypocrisy. It is to do with an outward appearance of purity while inside there is corruption. For the Christian, there is grace to be discovered here. We know to look into ourselves and to confess our sins and to know that God sees through to the heart of us, and there God is ready with open arms, full of mercy, always waiting for each one of us to hear the call to come home – for the lost sheep.
Jesus strips away the outward pretence. Jesus speaks to the scribes and the Pharisees and he speaks to all people for all time, including very much ourselves. What is in our hearts? Where are we, in our hearts, in relation to God’s law? Do we accept God’s forgiveness and God’s love? Are we ready to be as little children and to enter God’s Kingdom?
Concluding Prayer
Look with favour on our prayer, Lord,
and in your saving love
let your light penetrate the hidden places of our hearts.
May no sordid desires darken our minds,
renewed and enlightened as we are by your heavenly grace.
We make our prayer through our Lord.
And this:
Matthew 23: 27-32 – Week 21 Ordinary Time, Wednesday (Audio Bible, Spoken Word)
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
Jesus’ critique of the scribes and the Pharisees continues in today’s Gospel verses. The accusation is constant: they are hypocrites. The imagery in part remains constant: these hypocrites put on outward shows of purity, and yet their hearts are corrupt and their behaviour is corrupt. This imagery now develops. Woe unto you! For you are as painted tombs, all white and purportedly pure and true on the outside, while within the dead flesh rots. In their souls, the scribes and the Pharisees are unclean. Ironically, they are in themselves a violation of the laws of purity. In their hearts, the scribes and the Pharisees carry spiritual death.
The hypocrisy and spiritual death of the scribes and the Pharisees are as one. There is a legacy of death, as of hypocrisy – as of false reading of God’s true communications to mankind. Even as the scribes and the Pharisees say that had it been theirs to do in the days of their fathers, then the blood of the prophets would not have been shed, so they condemn themselves by their own rule, now multiply ironic given their attack against Jesus. Jesus reflects upon the Law’s insistence of the son and the father being legally bound as he hurls the challenge at these hypocrites, who now want to kill Jesus: well then, be as you fathers, even as you say you would not have been to the prophets as they were; fill ye up the measure of your fathers.
There is so much anger and so much hatred in these verses. This does not flow from Jesus, but Jesus brings it to light. Jesus drives a sword into this well of denial and hatred – there is a purging action, a great release, which will require Jesus’ death to complete the letting forth. Here are people locked in hatred. There is hatred of the occupying powers, but more than this: hatred within people’s selves.
Jesus is the sacrificial lamb. In one aspect, Jesus goes meekly to the sacrifice. But we do not see meekness here. There are many aspects to Jesus which sit alongside one another. Here is righteous anger and active challenge. Here is God the Son saying to those who have perverted the way: look on the evil you inflict on my people, and in my name, in my Father’s name, in the name of God.
Jesus tells his accusers, the scribes and the Pharisees, that they witness against themselves. They represent hatred – Their little ways of reasoning begin from hatred, run through hatred and only end in hatred. Over and above this, there is Jesus’ love.
All that is in these Bible verses speaks to us about the here and now. Where there is hateful reasoning, hateful logic, hateful thinking, we are enabled by Jesus to know that his saving gift of himself on the cross is always available to us – that love is greater than hatred, infinitely so.
Concluding Prayer
Lord, holy Father, faithful to your promise
you sent your Spirit
to bring together a people divided by sin.
Give us grace to foster unity and peace among men.
Through Christ our Lord.
Here is a link for the audio: Audio KJV Bible Lent Advent Oliver Peers Prayer
I have tried for concision here and here it is.
I can link 2 together. This:
Matthew 23: 23-26 – Week 21 Ordinary Time, Tuesday (Audio Bible, Spoken Word)
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Jesus’ rebuke of the scribes and the Pharisees continues in today’s Gospel verses. Woe unto you – hypocrites. Jesus’ hard condemnation of the scribes and the Pharisees centres upon hypocrisy as upon clerical abuse. These two evils erode life together within the practice of the scribes and the Pharisees.
It is through their hypocrisy that the scribes and Pharisees have corrupted what could have been their true ministry, as they have turned to exploitation of what should have been their flock for financial and prideful ends; and as their concern for their own financial gain and social recognition, as socially important people, has drawn the scribes and the Pharisees away from true exercise of ministry. ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!’ This is strong and necessary talk on the part of Jesus. We may hear these words as being entirely relevant in our day.
The charge in today’s Bible verses is twofold, relating to two aspects of the abuses of the scribes and Pharisees. Firstly, Jesus speaks of their pettiness, in terms of paying concern to utterly trivial matters, while the most weighty matters concerning our relationship to God, in the most fundamental ways, have been ignored, undermined or rejected entirely.
Secondly, Jesus speaks of the hollowness of the rituals of purity observed, whereby there is so much attention paid to cleansing the pots and the pans, the outside of the cup, while inside all is extortion and rapacity. There is a shiny, squeaky clean outside, and the heart is evil. These are no small claims.
Jesus’ charge against the Pharisees concerning the swallowing of a gnat is almost comical, as the Pharisees would strain their drinks through a linen cloth so as to avoid inadvertently swallowing that which would render them unclean. Perhaps our sense of the comedy here is a sign of how far we have come with love of Jesus, no matter all our failings.
The core charge Jesus levies, though, is far from comical. It is to do with hypocrisy. It is to do with an outward appearance of purity while inside there is corruption. For the Christian, there is grace to be discovered here. We know to look into ourselves and to confess our sins and to know that God sees through to the heart of us, and there God is ready with open arms, full of mercy, always waiting for each one of us to hear the call to come home – for the lost sheep.
Jesus strips away the outward pretence. Jesus speaks to the scribes and the Pharisees and he speaks to all people for all time, including very much ourselves. What is in our hearts? Where are we, in our hearts, in relation to God’s law? Do we accept God’s forgiveness and God’s love? Are we ready to be as little children and to enter God’s Kingdom?
Concluding Prayer
Look with favour on our prayer, Lord,
and in your saving love
let your light penetrate the hidden places of our hearts.
May no sordid desires darken our minds,
renewed and enlightened as we are by your heavenly grace.
We make our prayer through our Lord.
And this:
Matthew 23: 27-32 – Week 21 Ordinary Time, Wednesday (Audio Bible, Spoken Word)
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
Jesus’ critique of the scribes and the Pharisees continues in today’s Gospel verses. The accusation is constant: they are hypocrites. The imagery in part remains constant: these hypocrites put on outward shows of purity, and yet their hearts are corrupt and their behaviour is corrupt. This imagery now develops. Woe unto you! For you are as painted tombs, all white and purportedly pure and true on the outside, while within the dead flesh rots. In their souls, the scribes and the Pharisees are unclean. Ironically, they are in themselves a violation of the laws of purity. In their hearts, the scribes and the Pharisees carry spiritual death.
The hypocrisy and spiritual death of the scribes and the Pharisees are as one. There is a legacy of death, as of hypocrisy – as of false reading of God’s true communications to mankind. Even as the scribes and the Pharisees say that had it been theirs to do in the days of their fathers, then the blood of the prophets would not have been shed, so they condemn themselves by their own rule, now multiply ironic given their attack against Jesus. Jesus reflects upon the Law’s insistence of the son and the father being legally bound as he hurls the challenge at these hypocrites, who now want to kill Jesus: well then, be as you fathers, even as you say you would not have been to the prophets as they were; fill ye up the measure of your fathers.
There is so much anger and so much hatred in these verses. This does not flow from Jesus, but Jesus brings it to light. Jesus drives a sword into this well of denial and hatred – there is a purging action, a great release, which will require Jesus’ death to complete the letting forth. Here are people locked in hatred. There is hatred of the occupying powers, but more than this: hatred within people’s selves.
Jesus is the sacrificial lamb. In one aspect, Jesus goes meekly to the sacrifice. But we do not see meekness here. There are many aspects to Jesus which sit alongside one another. Here is righteous anger and active challenge. Here is God the Son saying to those who have perverted the way: look on the evil you inflict on my people, and in my name, in my Father’s name, in the name of God.
Jesus tells his accusers, the scribes and the Pharisees, that they witness against themselves. They represent hatred – Their little ways of reasoning begin from hatred, run through hatred and only end in hatred. Over and above this, there is Jesus’ love.
All that is in these Bible verses speaks to us about the here and now. Where there is hateful reasoning, hateful logic, hateful thinking, we are enabled by Jesus to know that his saving gift of himself on the cross is always available to us – that love is greater than hatred, infinitely so.
Concluding Prayer
Lord, holy Father, faithful to your promise
you sent your Spirit
to bring together a people divided by sin.
Give us grace to foster unity and peace among men.
Through Christ our Lord.
Here is a link for the audio: Audio KJV Bible Lent Advent Oliver Peers Prayer
