Dear Theophilus,
I appreciate your honesty. I am sure that there are times where my
indecision frustrates you. I cannot
offer any deep explanation other than to say that I am seeking the truth with
all of my heart. If it leads to faith in
Jesus, then I will gladly embrace you as a fellow Christian. If it does not, I know that such an outcome
will bring you disappointment. I am sure
I will have my reasons, even if you do not understand them. But until that time the story of Jesus will
continue to unfold in our letters, and I believe the full truth about him,
whether he is a fraud or more than just a man, will be revealed by his
actions. While perhaps someone less well
known could conceal the truth about who he is, we have so much information
about Jesus that I do not believe the truth can stay hidden.
Jesus talks a bit about this in his
next teaching—he talks about the concept of lighting a lamp and setting it on
the lampstand so that the light may be a benefit to all in the house. You wouldn’t invite guests over and leave the
lampstand in the cellar. It wouldn’t
serve a purpose there. In the same way,
Jesus lifts up the eye as the lamp of the body—if the eye is healthy, it will
cast a light over the whole body, but if it is unhealthy, darkness will
surround us. I believe that Jesus is
teaching us to be careful what comes in through our eyes, to choose what we
learn wisely, because what we take in can color our entire lives. If we choose well, our entire lives will be
filled with light, just as your house is filled with light by a good lamp.
During this teaching, which I will
admit to finding a bit confounding, a Pharisee invited him to dinner. It’s amazing to think that he did so
considering all of the bad blood between Jesus and the Pharisee, and I could
speculate on any number of motives for such an invitation, but perhaps it
teaches us that despite all of the opposition between the Jesus and the
Pharisees, there was a genuine intrigue on behalf of the Pharisees toward
Jesus, and that Jesus had love for them.
Of course, the meal didn’t end like any meal between friends that I’ve
ever had. For the Pharisee, it started
strangely when Jesus did not wash before dinner. This should have been a hint to the Pharisee
that all might not go well, but he probably should have known that from some of
the previous interactions between Jesus and Pharisees!
Jesus then said directly to the
Pharisee: Fools--You wash the outside of the dishes, but your insides are dirty
with greed and wickedness. To cleanse
everything, give for alms what is inside as well as outside, for God has made
everything.
Theophilus, you and I can both
imagine the room now—jaws dropped, breaths held, eyes locked on Jesus as he
continues his diatribe against his host.
Woe
to the Pharisees. Mint, rue and herbs
are tithed, but just tice and God’s love are not shared. These are just as important as the tithe and
should not be neglected. Woe, Pharisees,
upon you for your desire of honor and respect wherever you go. Woe, Pharisees, upon you for being dead inside,
even though no one sees it but me.
These words must have burned in the
hearts of all who heard them, and I can only imagine what the Pharisee thought
about all of this. He probably bounced
between shame and anger and fear and a hundred other emotions, but could not
settle on one out of shock. If I
received a letter from you with such language inside directed at me, I would be
furious and immediately begin to compose an angry reply. The Pharisee manages to say nothing, but a
lawyer speaks up on his own behalf.
Jesus,
these things insult us, too.
In case you were wondering, this
was not the right thing to say. Jesus
swings his assault from the Pharisees directly onto the lawyers, and the man
probably tries to shrink back into whatever darkness is available in the
corners of the room.
Woe
to the lawyers, too. You spend your time
heaping burdens upon people, and yet you do nothing to help. You spend your time building tombs for the
prophets killed by your ancestors, and in so doing, you approve of their
deeds. God’s Wisdom says that prophets
and apostles will be sent to the people, even though they will kill &
persecute some of them, so they will be charged with the blood of all the
prophets from the beginning of time, from Abel to Zechariah, the one who was
killed between altar and sanctuary. This
generation will bear the brunt of the charge.
Woe, lawyers, because you have not only taken away the entrance into
knowledge for others but you have failed to enter yourselves, thus interfering
with others who seek.
Jesus makes it very clear how he
feels about the Pharisees and the lawyers, doesn’t he, Theophilus? Makes me glad not to be in either of those
groups! I had to read the report of this
incident over and over again before I could believe such words were spoken, but
it’s not unlike Jesus to confront someone whom he believes is in the wrong, and
he is particularly passionate in this instance because the Pharisees and
lawyers are neglecting the needy in society, choosing to glorify themselves rather
than seek justice and love. Both groups
think they are following Jesus, but the reality is that they are only
worshiping themselves, and Jesus desperately wants them to see this.
It would be hard to read this
without taking a look around my own life and see how I am serving the poor and
the needy that surround me. We have
discussed, time and time again, instances in which Jesus reaches out to
society’s least. He doesn’t seem
particularly interested in accumulating a band of followers that are not passionately
involved in serving those whom society labels as undesirable. All of the holy practices in the world will
not make up for a heart that neglects the poor.
While you and I can read these
words in the safety and comfort of our homes, the Pharisees and lawyers had to
hear these words confront them with direct power. It’s easier for you and I to deflect them
since Jesus isn’t standing before us.
The Pharisees and scribes, having to hear these words directly while
Jesus was in the Pharisee’s house, grew very angry and hostile toward
Jesus. They began to question him about
many things, hoping that he would trip up at some point and they could catch
him in blasphemy or some other error that would lead to his public disgrace and
downfall. They let this confrontation
drive them to anger and defensiveness, believing that they could eliminate the
demands upon them by eliminating Jesus.
I will admit the temptation to shut
Jesus out of my life and thus be able to carry on in my comfort. It’s never easy to have your way of life
confronted, especially in your own home by a guest. But I suppose, as you have pointed out so
many times, when you invite Jesus in, you have to be willing to give him
everything. As this particular Pharisee
discovered, that’s a dangerous thing to do.
It just might change everything.
Sincerely,
Luke
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