Give It Up! Say No to Pharisaical Following

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:23).

Jesus paints two word pictures here. The first is of a balance scale; in one bowl are justice, mercy and faithfulness; on the other side, as if they could counter-balance these significant matters, are 10% portions of mint, dill and cumin!  The second picture, also a word play, is of a strainer which filtered out a gnat, while the cup of wine still contains a camel (galma and gamla, respectively, in the original language).  This vivid imagery is meant to underscore the heart of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 23: the heart of God’s ways for humans is justice, mercy and faithfulness. But when we neglect these while thinking we are fine because we give 10% of our paycheck, we deceive ourselves. We are hypocrites.  This is the heart of the matter.

Prayer – Father, help me to focus my energies on justice, mercy and faithfulness.