Sunday Meditation: Hypocrisy Versus Humility

This Sunday begins the final discourse of the five discourses in Matthew’s Gospel.  Jesus begins with another excoriation against the scribes and Pharisees, this time calling them hypocrites.

 

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,

"The scribes and the Pharisees

have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.

Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,

but do not follow their example.

For they preach but they do not practice.

They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry

and lay them on people's shoulders,

but they will not lift a finger to move them.

All their works are performed to be seen.

They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.

They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,

greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'

As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.'

You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.

Call no one on earth your father;

you have but one Father in heaven.

Do not be called 'Master';

you have but one master, the Christ.

The greatest among you must be your servant.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;

but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

~Mt 23:1-12

Humility is at the heart of this message, and hypocrisy in many ways is the opposite of humility.  After all, a hypocrite feels himself above the very thing he preaches.  Jeff Cavins has a wonderful sermon on this.

 

That was excellent.  Now if you have ever wondered why we call priests “Father” while in this very passage Jesus says to call no one father, Dr. Brant Pitre explains.

 

That makes sense.  

Meditation: "Whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

Sunday Meditation: Caesar’s Coin

Finally in this Sunday’s reading, we don’t get a parable, but we do get a deep insight from Jesus.  In the parables in recent Sundays, Jesus has boldly confronted the Pharisees by placing them in the villain’s role of the little stories.  The bad son who agrees to tend the vineyard but doesn’t, the tenant farmers who kill the landlord’s son, the guests who refuse to go to the royal wedding are all stand-ins for the Pharisees.  And the Pharisees know it, and so they plot against Jesus.

 

The Pharisees went off

and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.

They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,

"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man

and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,

for you do not regard a person's status.

Tell us, then, what is your opinion:

Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"

Knowing their malice, Jesus said,

"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?

Show me the coin that pays the census tax."

Then they handed him the Roman coin.

He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"

They replied, "Caesar's."

At that he said to them,

"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar

and to God what belongs to God."

~Mt 22:15-21

Is Jesus more confrontational in Matthew’s Gospel than the others?  It’s hard to say without putting the four gospels side by side but it does feel it given the recent Sunday readings.  The Pharisees are certainly trying to be confrontational with Him here, but He doesn’t back down one iota. 

Father Geoffrey Plant does a superb job in providing the entire context.  Only he of the various explanations I looked up explains why the Herodians are in the mix.  See if you can catch it.  The video is a bit long, but well worth it.

 

So the Herodians are spying to see if Jesus says no to paying the tax.  They are Caesar’s representative here.  And the puritanical Pharisees (they are the “separated ones”) are there to catch Him saying yes to paying the tax.  Notice also, for all of their purity, they actually have a Roman coin with the graven image and heretical saying on it. 

Now Fr. Geoffrey’s explanation was a great historical and even theological lesson.  But I found an excellent pastoral exegesis on this passage from Jeff Cavins from Ascension ministries.  So I include two for the price of one.  This is worth it too.

 

Meditation: "Then repay…to God what belongs to God."

Sunday Meditation: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

This is a great parable told by Jesus and one that resonates deeply with me.

 

Jesus addressed this parable

to those who were convinced of their own righteousness

and despised everyone else.

"Two people went up to the temple area to pray;

one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.

The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,

'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity --

greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.'

But the tax collector stood off at a distance

and would not even raise his eyes to heaven

but beat his breast and prayed,

'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'

I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;

for whoever exalts himself will be humbled,

and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

~Lk 18:9-14

 

This is just six verses long, and yet one of the most profound little parables.  Dr. Brant Pitre does a superb job of explaining every little nuance. 

The tax collector Jesus has in mind is obviously Matthew, who will become one of the twelve.  This little dramatization from a movie called Son of God conflates the calling of Matthew with this parable.  It’s not exactly how the Gospels relate the separate passages, but it is a worthy interpretation.

 

'O God, be merciful to me a sinner,’ is a verse every Christian should be in the habit of frequently saying.  I do.