It’s hard to fool Bob the bloodhound. That’s because his nose always knows. Bob can spot a fake a mile away. He only goes for the real deal. With Spring in full bloom, Bob is on the trail having the time of his life. He’s all excited about what he’s discovered in the contents of the Bible.
Some things are patently unrealistic. But for a lot of things in life, you often cannot tell a fake by the external appearance. When it comes to living from a place of biblical integrity a person might give a good outward performance, but not be the real deal because he or she is full of bitterness and death on the inside with a heart far from God.
What is sobering for devoted observers of the Bible is the reality that there may be Christians who are religious on the outside but not really be a Christ follower on the inside.
Having all the outward signs of faith without the inward reality to match it is like putting perfume in a vase – it might smell like flowers, but the flowers aren’t there. Bob just tells me that if it smells fake, it probably is. After all, he is the expert on all things olfactory.
At the heart of Jesus Christ’s teaching is to be humble and avoid pride by not comparing ourselves to others and wondering if we are getting our due attention; rather we are to compare ourselves only to Christ and the Bible and, so, become truly meek and humbly serve others out of a genuine heart that loves God. What we proclaim and profess cannot be separated from who we are.
Jesus condemned the religiously committed Pharisees because they put heavy burdens on people and were unwilling to help them carry those burdens.
Throughout Jesus’ ministry he approached the crowds with the understanding that they were following him for a variety of reasons, some noble and some not so noble. Some of those people heard of Jesus and genuinely wanted to be healed. Some followed him because their hearts burned within them when he spoke, and they wanted to know God better. Some desired a true way of living and saw in Jesus fresh hope for their lives. Yet others followed Jesus around wanting to see the next cool miracle, to maybe get a free handout, or just to hear him so that they could tell all their friends that they heard him speak and saw him heal. Jesus was always trying to press and challenge the vast crowds of people into a genuine, real righteousness from the heart that would submit to God’s kingdom. But the Pharisees and teachers of the law kept undermining Jesus, talking behind his back, and tried to stir up resentment against him.
The Pharisees’ motives were not to help people know God better through service, but to just talk a good line. Interestingly, Jesus did not chastise them for what they taught (Matthew 23:1-12). Instead, he leveled condemnation on them for not helping people live-out their obligations. The Pharisees knew their Bible and had a high view of Scripture. The problem was not so much their doctrine but that they did not practice what they preached.
It isn’t so much what the Pharisees taught as how they taught it – it was neither gentle, nor had any grace.
People need one another to truly live for God. But if there is a double-standard that exists among Bible-believers then there is only heavy loads that aren’t getting carried because some individuals think they are above helping others or think too little of themselves and believe God could not use them. In both cases the person declares “someone should do something!” Someone should give, someone should pray, someone should visit, someone should tell that person about Christ, someone should help. To which Jesus would say that someone is you!
Jesus also condemned the Pharisees because they loved to do things for a show, for the attention. Everything the Pharisees and the teachers of the law did was for others to see. They thought they deserved the accolades of others. We can be hard on the Pharisees, yet whenever we plaster on fake smiles, only obey and serve when others are looking, and/or pretend like everything is just peachy keen when we are dying inside then we have fallen under the same condemnation and need to put aside caring so much about how we look to others and grieve, mourn and wail asking the God of grace to have mercy on us.
We can be so obsessed about the right thing to say that we never say what is really on the inside because we think it isn’t spiritual enough and we fear looking bad.
The Pharisees also were men who sought status and prestige. Respect and honor was everything to many Pharisees which is why they wanted the positions of prominence and insisted on being recognized for whatever they did in the synagogue. In public they insisted that the people respect them in their greeting and acknowledgements. They did not want to look bad, ever.
But facades will not do for Jesus. Pharisees are very predictable because they always act with the spectator in mind and seek to elicit praise and respect everywhere they go. To Pharisees, it does not matter what is on the inside if the outside looks good. In his autobiography, Be Myself, Warren Wiersbe writes about his first church building project as a young pastor in Indiana. He and the church’s building committee were working with a church architect. At one of the committee meetings, Wiersbe asked the architect, “Why do we need such an expensive, high ceiling in the auditorium? We’re not building a cathedral. Why not just build an auditorium with a flat room and then put a church façade in the front of the building?” Wiersbe writes that in a very quiet voice, the architect replied, “Pastor, the building you construct reflects what a church is and what a church does. You don’t use façades on churches to fool people. That’s for carnival sideshows. The outside and the inside must agree.”
So, what do we do when we realize that the outside of our lives and the inside don’t match? We become humble and meek just like Jesus.
We are to revere and honor God, not people. Putting people on a pedestal is not good because they are just people. Instead of the mentality “look how great I am!” we are to treat everyone as an equal because at the heart of thinking people owe me something is the idea that I am better than the other person. The answer to that attitude is to adopt Christ’s meekness and humility. The zeal to feel important and respected is to be transformed into the desire to serve others.
The way up is down. We are to descend, not ascend, into greatness. So, what does humble meekness look like? Taylor University is a Christian college in Indiana. Years ago, an African student, Sam, was going to be enrolling in their school. This was before it was commonplace for international students to come to the U.S. to study. He was a bright young man with great promise, and the school felt honored to have him. When he arrived on campus, the President of the University took him on a tour, showing him all the dorms. When the tour was over, the President asked Sam where he would like to live. The young man replied, “If there is a room that no one wants, give that room to me.” Over the years the president had welcomed thousands of Christian men and women to the campus, and none had ever made such a request. “If there is a room that no one wants, give that room to me.” That’s the kind of meekness Jesus talks about in the Beatitudes.
If there is a job that no one wants to do, I’ll do that job.
If there’s a kid that no one wants to eat lunch with, I’ll eat with that kid.
If there’s a piece of toast that’s burnt, I’ll take that piece.
If there’s a parking space that’s far away from the church, I’ll park in that space.
If there’s a need is someone’s life, I’ll meet that need.
If there’s a hardship someone has to endure, I’ll take that hardship.
If there’s a sacrifice someone needs to make, I’ll make that sacrifice.
The greatest among you will be your servant. Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. This applies not only to individuals but to groups of people and churches as well. If we never get out of our comfortable little band of people, then we need to ask ourselves why not? If we never look beyond the four walls of the church building to serve someone, we need to ask ourselves why not? If we have a chronic critical spirit toward someone then we need to ask ourselves if the genuine article is within us?
The kingdom of God is not a matter of outward eating and drinking and displays of spirituality but is a matter of inner righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. May we all serve one another deeply from a heart of love and grace.