Looking For Real

Good day to all of you Beloved peeps!

This week has already had a freighter full (Go Canadian Truckers!) of Kingdom excitement, and we are only just getting started… The Best is Yet to Come!

Leaders are repeaters. And, I know that this type of messaging and language is communicated quite a bit in our culture, but it also keeps coming up to my heart and when I am going through the scriptures. (All of you, “read the Bible in a year” participants… how many cool things have YOU been seeing?!) Specifically this week, I have been meditating on Matthew chapter 23, which is commonly known as the, “Woe Chapter,” because Jesus gives eight, cautionary, “woe,” declarations to the people who desire to learn and press into the Kingdom. The word, “woe,” actually means, “deep distress or misery, as from grief; wretchedness…misfortune; calamity.” It is not a word that Jesus just flippantly threw around all the time, these were extremely admonitory statements, and nearly every single one of them had to do with genuine verses fake… authentic verse synthetic… sincere verses hypocrisy.

A very interesting, additional thought is that most of His, “woes,” were specifically directed at the religious hierarchy, leaders and “Kool Kids.” First, I will just list the statements for you to see and meditate on:

Matthew 23
13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in [yourselves], neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 

14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

16 Woe unto you, [ye] blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 

27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead [men’s] bones, and of all uncleanness.

29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

I could obviously (you know me so well…) extrapolate for an hour or two on each one and bring out diverse and applicable truths for us all to incorporate into our personal walk with the Lord. We both know I do not have the time or open opportunity to do that in this platform… I know, I hear all the sad and disappointed expressions being openly vocalized right now! But, we can look at some similarities among the statements and make sure we whole hearted reject any of the spiritual ugliness that our passionate Savior warns against. Let us look at some commonalities in these cautionary declarations which will illuminate simple truths that we can all embrace together.

Firstly, note that all of these statements were directed at, “scribes,” and, “Pharisees,” except for verse 16 that has, “blind guides,” in the crosshairs. Some of y’all are thinking, “That’s right! Get them preachers, Jesus! Bunch’a jerk hypocrites!” Well, hold onto your condemnation fire-arrows and, maybe, slowly back down the ladder of the self-righteous glass tower that someone may feel justified to chill in.

Scribes:
A scribe is a person who writes and/or copies writings. The profession was born in ancient Egypt, when people started to mark down signs to represent various objects. The practice became necessary in commerce and construction, and extended to day-to-day life. Initially reserved for nobles and kings, it eventually became a profession that was taught within a select family and was passed down from father to son. They were specially educated for this task.

A scribe did not have to perform the heavy manual labor that common people were forced to do. They became very important figures in high demand, since information had to be put down regarding shipments, use of materials, trade, and so on. Literacy rates were much, much lower in those times, and so there was a certain power wielded by a fluently literate person. Scribes also recorded stories about the everyday lives of the people in ancient Egypt and the lives of kings. They are the reason we have documents illustrating the lives of people in the past.

The Jewish people had no official ruling class after their return from exile, so they turned to religion and turned its commandments into laws and regulations. This means that the work of the scribes also had judicial or legislative value. They were obviously quite influential, powerful, and leaning toward an elite class. Thus, you can understand the potential for arrogance and pride.

Pharisee:
Pharisees were a powerful religious AND political group of people who interpreted the Jewish law, which affected every aspect of a Jew’s life. Their name stands for, “the separate ones.” From the synagogue, they studied, focused on the schooling of children, and did missionary work to spread the word of God. Only people from old Pharisee families could become part of this priestly elite. Old Pharisee families could be traced back to the people who fought to free Palestine from Greek occupation.

Their main concern was that of getting the Jewish people to follow the word of God and the tradition of the elders (the “Oral Law”) in all the diverse ways that a “regular” citizen would live out their normal existence. They imposed all laws, whether regarding spiritual life or normal, mundane things. This class of people would have been the upper and upper-middle class of wealth and connectedness. They were highly regarded because of their place in society and they lived for and from the honor and exultation of men’s words and glory.

Blind Leaders:
I think this was very subtle, but intentionally added to the, “woe,” list. This statement could literally be applied to any person listening because all of us have a place of leadership, whether it is as small as our self, our families, our friend and acquaintances… all the way up to business leaders, social leaders, or influencers of any size or type. The added adjective, “blind,” references the inability to see with revelatory clarity from the HEART of God, that is, contrary to the HEAD of man’s wisdom.

In conclusion, you will hopefully see that the target audience for these eight no-no’s was everyone… especially the ones who did not think they were the targets because they had everything all figured out. This is where we do not ever want to find ourselves, Beloved. These were the folks who had their doctrines locked down because they REALLY KNEW the scriptures and the law… then, this long-haired, uneducated, non-elite class, system agitating, social rebel and his low-class disciples come along and muck up their established and comfortable system. It would be equivalent to those folks at church who have most of their life sorted into the neat little self-created cage where the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is locked up in… only to be released at a time and in a way of our prideful choosing. Note to self… Jesus does not fit in and will not stay in any prison, no matter how much one begs, weeps, or arrogantly tries to exercise their intelligence or perceived authority. These leaders were self-imprisoned, and Jesus was the Son who was truly free… let the tension begin.

So, we have scribes (economic and social leaders), Pharisees (religious and political leaders), and the “blind leaders,” which is any and every other societal influencer, all being lumped together in one of the greatest warning discourses from Jesus in scripture. And, it nearly all revolves around authenticity, genuineness of heart and action, and transparency that comes from humility of character. Seven of the eight, “woes,” included a rebuke for being a hypocrite. This word in Greek, “an actor under an assumed character (stage-player), literally refers to ‘someone acting under a mask.’” The main impetus of Jesus in this entire rebuke was for people, especially His people, to be real and un-masked in their character and actions. This is one of the things I love the most about our culture here at Beloved, most of us are really real… and it has a uniqueness that others struggle to understand.

Let us go into the world and shock them with a life that has actions filled with Christ just like our hearts are filled. The whole world is looking for real, and you are carrying the answer!

I love y’all greatly!
Steve