In today’s passage, Jesus is invited to have dinner at a Pharisees house, along with other Pharisees and experts in the law.
Before the meal even begins, Jesus rebukes his host and fellow guests. The core of his rebuke largely centers on one theme – hypocrisy. The religious leaders claimed to be men of God, but their behavior proves otherwise. Specifically, Jesus rebuked them for:
Teaching Tradition as a Priority (see also Matthew 15)
Our traditions can have a powerful emotional influence on us, especially in church. It’s very possible to miss the commands of God because we’re too focused on tradition.
A Lack of Justice and the Love of God
The leaders of the day were going through the religious motions, but had lost a concern for doing and speaking up for what was right.
Love of Status and Pride
This has been a problem throughout human history. Today, it appears as pastors and religious leaders who resemble celebrities more than they resemble servants. In some circles, pastors are praised more than Jesus himself.
Spiritual Power/Spiritually Burdening Others
Some today use their authority to hold people down. Whereas the lawyers didn’t lift a finger to help people with their burdens, Jesus lifted an entire cross to cancel our debt and set us free.
The question we have to ask ourselves is this – is the gospel of Jesus central, or structural? Jesus warns that it’s hypocrisy to use religion as a scaffolding to build something else. Is our worship and daily Christian life really for Christ, or is it a tool to achieve something else?
If you want to do things the way you’ve always done them, church can be a great place for that. If you want praise and status from people, religion can do that. If you want power and authority over people, religion can do that. But these are abuses of faith, and hypocrisy for those who claim to follow Christ.
In 2 Timothy 3, Paul warns Timothy that wickedness would grow in society, going from bad to worse. He also explains in verse 5 that these people will have a form of godliness, just like the Pharisees and lawyers Jesus rebuked.
Ultimately, this all leads to the same tragic consequence in verse 52…not only do their practices keep them from the knowledge of God, their practices hinder others from coming to God, too.
