Those who attend sales school are taught that the first step in making a sale is to establish rapport with the potential customer. Once we had a salesperson look at our furnace, and he made a big thing about our cats—how he loved cats and how cute ours was. By showing interest in cats, he quickly won us over to him. At a certain moment he suggested we buy a new furnace from his company. When he realized we weren’t interested, he suddenly lost interest in both our cats and us and hurried out of the house.
Salespersons can give the impression that they are authentically concerned about the customer—and some are. Oftentimes, though, their real concern is selling us their product.
Our outsides do not always line up with our insides.
Jesus dealt frequently with the scribes and Pharisees who were the religious experts of their day. They had religious etiquette down to a tee and were quick to point out when someone broke their rules. On the outside, their passion for keeping religious traditions gave the impression that they loved God; on the inside, however, it seems they were more into loving themselves and preserving their positions in the community.
We see this today (Mark 7:1-11).
“The Pharisees…observed that some of his (Jesus’) disciples ate their means with unclean, that is unwashed, hands…So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, ‘Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?’”
It seems it was “some” disciples who failed to observe religious etiquette, which leads us to think that Jesus and the others did. Why wasn’t Jesus a better “disciplinarian” with his followers? Did he not regard the “washing” rules to be that important?
Jesus responded:
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
Ouch! Imagine how silence came over the room and everyone cringed when they heard Jesus say, “you hypocrites.” Who did he think he was correcting the Pharisees and scribes about failing to observe God’s commandments and focusing on their own traditions instead? Was he putting himself on a level with God? These leaders who claimed to respect Scripture, were fulfilling the words of Isaiah who talk about people who gave lip-service but not heart-service. Because of this their worship services, were merely going through the motions, because there was not real love for the One whom they pretended to worship.
Jesus went on to give an example of their sin. God’s commandment was to honor one’s father and mother. Some of them exempted themselves from this duty, and used an excuse, the need to pay dues to the temple treasury. They put their own rules ahead of God’s.
We give a cheer when Jesus puts down the religious “uppities.” What, however, when he looks at us and tells us what he sees in our hearts? Are we loving God first and above all, or do put some of our own pet interests ahead of him? How much of our worship is just showing up and going through the motions? When government leaders shut down our churches and we were deprived of the Eucharist, how many of us were enraged? Where were our hearts? How passionate are we in our love for Jesus?
“Incline my heart, O God, to your decrees” (Ps 119:36).
