We're back in Matthew's Gospel this Sunday and we're tackling the sobering words of Jesus in chapter 23. Here Jesus doesn't pull his punches as he attacks religious hypocrisy, that is, those who say one thing and do another. Those who have the external appearance of religious devotion but on the inside, their hearts are far from God.
A passage about hypocrisy is a challenging word to hear and has been a difficult one to prepare. (He who is without sin cast the first stone!)
But as I've dug around, Jesus puts his finger on the heart of the issue at the end of the chapter. There he reveals how people end up religious hypocrites.
It's when they no longer listen God's word. And this is clear in how they have treated the prophets, the apostles and even Jesus himself - the incarnate word.
‘You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.' (Matthew 23:33-34)
What's particularly confronting is who he is speaking about here - the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. They would have spent more time in and around the Word of God (reading it, teaching it, writing it out, enforcing it) in a week than most of us would spend in a year. Jesus is speaking about religious people not those who never darken the door of a church.
So the issue isn't proximity or exposure to the Word of God (heck, it was so close they even had it in a little box tied about their heads!) but whether they're actually listening to it. Letting it penetrate their hearts.
Each week, before we read the Bible, we pray asking for God's help and God's Spirit to work in our hearts so that we hear his word and are changed by it.
As you come to church this week or as you open the Bible on your own, don't forget to pray, asking God to speak to you and asking God to give you a receptive heart to his word. If you're wondering what to pray, here is a suggestion:
Lord make your word our rule, your Spirit our teacher, and your glory our supreme concern, for the sake of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Grace & peace,
Andrew