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JESUS VERSUS HYPOCRITES (I)
LORD’S DAY, JULY 20
Luke 11:37-44

Proverbs 21:2-3

 

“Woe unto you, Pharisees!…”

 

JESUS VERSUS HYPOCRITES (I)
 
Jesus graciously accepted the invitation of a certain Pharisee to dine in his home with his colleagues. No sooner had Jesus sat down than the Pharisees started criticising Him. They accused Jesus of not washing Himself before eating. This had nothing to do with personal hygiene. It had everything to do with ceremonial cleansing. The Pharisees had to wash their hands before they partook of food to prevent themselves from being ceremonially defiled. It was a way of showing how religious they were. So they looked askance at Jesus for not taking care of His ceremonial cleanliness.
 
Jesus rebuked them for their hypocrisy. As God, He is able to see the heart. These Pharisees might be outwardly clean, but inwardly they were full of dirt. They were so careful to keep their bylaws, tithing their mint and rue (small aromatic herbs) which the law of Moses did not even require (only grain, wine, and oil were required), yet the much weightier matters of the law, like justice and love of God they conveniently bypassed. The Lord pronounced a series of woes against them. They were cursed for their vainglory, their legalism, their hatred for the prophets, their heretical teachings, their two-facedness! Beware the leaven of hypocrisy. One may hide such a sin from man but not God who searches every heart. Jesus warned, “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”
 
THOUGHT: “Hypocrites shroud themselves under zeal.” (Calvin)

PRAYER: Father, I do not want to be a hypocrite.

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