Hypocrites

Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites.

Jesus repeats this exact phrase in verse 13, 14, 15, 23, 25, 27 and 29 of chapter 23 in Matthew. I believe that He is trying to tell us something. The Scribes and the Pharisees were seen to be the spiritual leaders and teachers of the day. They frequented and taught in the temples.

Jesus openly challenged them about their poor teachings, and the unneccessary burdens that they placed upon the people attending the temple or church,  which they failed to observe themselves. Matthew 23:4 says, "For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."

Jesus continued to say that they do all the things that they could be seen by men and be praised and exalted by men. They loved the best places at feasts and and the best seats in the synagogues. Maybe our modern churches are still very similar to the Synagogues and Temples of the day.

My question is this, "If Jesus despised these men and their teachings so badly, why did Jesus continue to go to the temples to teach and to pray?" Jesus knew that these very same people were those that were in the end going to have Him crucified. Jesus was clearly not impressed with the way that they handled the matters of the church of those days. Why did Jesus continue to go back. Many times Jesus had to escape from these very same places, to avoid being stoned. Why did He continue to go back to pray?

The answer is fairly simple. Even though the house was full of  hypocrites, it was the house of the Father. Jesus was showing us the way. Even though the churches of today may be filled with hypocrites, we are still to go to the churches, not to meet with the hypocrites, but to seek the face of the Father. We go to His house to meet with and honour Him.

Jesus has shown us the way, and has given us the example to follow. He instructed us to love our neighbour, which could very well be a hypocrite. Just love the hypocrite, and allow Jesus to change them. It is only through your meeting with the Father at His house, that your humbleness can shine through, and that a shadow can be thrown upon the hypocrite, that he himself, will come to the realisation that his ways are wrong.

Jesus loves the humble and says that you are always to seat yourself at the bottom of the table, and that He will come and move you to a better position, casting the hypocrite into the lower position. Do not worry about hypocrites, for they are not the one's that you are coming to meet with. Worry about the meeting with the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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