incongruency
– The core of gravity shifts from the antagonists to the
protagonist—Jesus now speaks his true assessment of some of the religious class. He
acknowledges their authority as official interpreters of Scripture, but also points out
the incongruence between faith and life. Vs. 1-4 describe both the teachers’
authority with the command to obey their teaching and also the incongruency.
- who are the religious? – Scribes were a professional class with
formal training not unlike lawyers in our day. They were schooled in the tradition and
would apply the teaching to current situations. Pharisees, on the other hand, were a
formal group defined by strictly religious rules and consisted mostly of laity without
formal theological training (pre-Methodist lay preachers!). Scribes might be Pharisees,
but few Pharisees would be scribes.
- more than a cheap shot? – This appears to be a speech against
petty sins by persons long ago and far away. But as the NIB suggests,
A closer reading may reveal that something near the center of our own life and
being is here addressed, something that seems so right and human . . . Matthew proposes an
alternative world, a world seen from the perspective of the kingdom of God, an alternative
family where the approval of God removes the heavy yoke of self-justification. There is
more here than cheap shots at religious phonies in their long robes.
Can you recall caricatures of
ostentation—recall characters you’ve met in novels (like Lady Catherine in Jane
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) or movies.
Why would it be important for the disciples not to be called "rabbi?" What
distinction/s was Jesus trying to make between his followers and the Pharisees?
How is it with our soul? When have we been post-modern Pharisees in suit and tie or
dress? How does Jesus free people from the need for affirmation and notice?
This would be a great passage to use
as a sparring partner with 1 Thessalonians 2 for All Saint’s Sunday. It could be a
contrast and compare as we seek to define "saint" in broad human strokes.
Perhaps what a saint is not and what a saint is!
