28th Week OT (W)
“Licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness...” Paul says that these are works of the flesh. Works that indulge our appetites in a disordered fashion. These works keep us from entering the gates of eternal life. Not only do they prevent us from finding eternal unity with God, they also poison our witness here on earth and give scandal to those we are sent to serve. If we devote ourselves to the works of the flesh privately while bearing witness to Christ publicly, we become “unseen graves.” We become hypocrites. Jesus charges the Pharisees and scribes with weighing down God's people with burdens they themselves refuse to carry. But why should it matter that the Pharisees and scribes fail to follow the rules they impose? If following their rules makes me holy, why should I care if anyone else follows them? Jesus' point is that the rules don't make anyone holy. They are superfluous burdens. And the evidence for this is that the rule-makers don't follow their own rules! What makes us holy is the love of God and our love for Him. So, love God and do what comes supernaturally.
Now, it's this kind of wishy-washy “just love God” talk that makes us cringe. Maybe we don't want to admit it out loud, but we like the rules. We want the boundaries of good/evil. Clear, crisp lines that mark off right and wrong. If we're being totally honest, we love these black and white rules – most especially when they are applied to those sinners over there. Can you see the hypocrisy starting to creep in? If we talk about holiness purely in terms of loving God, then how do we know that everyone else is loving God in the same way I am? One way is to say “doing X and not doing Y” means you love God. That's what the Pharisees do. Pay your tithe of mint and rue and that means you love God. Don't work on the Sabbath and that means you love God. What happens over time? Doing X and not doing Y is taken to be “loving God.” Nothing more, nothing less. Jesus says no. It is not only possible but quite easy to do X and not do Y and still fail to love. Love of God and neighbor must come first and then everything you do and say and think follows. What you do, say, and think is evidence of your love. Or your failure to love. And the truest test of love is mercy. How quickly do you forgive? How sincerely do you will the best for others? How deeply do you desire that Christ be fully known by all? How much at peace are you in the world?
The Pharisees and scribes are hypocrites b/c they invent and then impose useless measures of what it means to love God. They don't follow these rules b/c they know the rules are useless. Christ has freed us from the works of the flesh, including the impulse and temptation to play at being holy for the sake of appearances. He has freed us from the need to sniff around others, searching for sin. He has freed us to love. So, love and do what comes supernaturally!
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