You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,
but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.
Do we focus on details at the expense of the big picture? Are there finer points of the law that we honor with exacting precision while neglecting the weightier matters of judgment, mercy, and fidelity (see Matthew 23:23)? We like to tithe on every garden herb because by doing so we signal our virtue to others and even convince ourselves that we are "doing the thing" when it comes to religion. The trouble is that smaller matters by no means prove that we have the love of God and neighbor present in our lives. Nevertheless, the little things are not to be neglected. Jesus is meant to be the Lord of our whole lives, including mint and rue. The secret is for the little things to remain in the context of the weightier things.
These you should have done, without overlooking the others.
Precision in details is not the primary way we should decide whether we are walking in fidelity to God. Nor is it matter by which we should judge ourselves superior to others. When such things lose their proper proportion they become a weapon with which we bludgeon others and a drug that numbs us to the gaping holes that remain in our obedience.
You, O man, are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment.
For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself,
since you, the judge, do the very same things.
We all have semi-conscious strategies that help to persuade us that we have no need of further conversion. These strategies by and large consist in redirecting our attention from areas that need work. We think instead about all the signs that we are fine, that we are okay, that we don't still have work to do, and not the places where we have failed to love God and neighbor as we ought.
By your stubbornness and impenitent heart,
you are storing up wrath for yourself
for the day of wrath and revelation
of the just judgment of God
We are accomplished in curating blind spots. We have a frightening ability to not see faults in ourselves that are evident to us in others. Yet it is truly the case that these burdens are not only "hard to carry" on our own strength, they are impossible. We need the help of someone who will not only lift a finger, but who will shoulder the whole yoke for us. Our blind spots are inevitable to the degree that we are the center of our lives. Jesus desires that we realize how limited and lamentable is a life focused on self. He desires that we recognize the contradictions between what we say we believe and what we actually do so that we will relinquish to him that central position.
Or do you hold his priceless kindness, forbearance, and patience
in low esteem, unaware that the kindness of God
would lead you to repentance?
We are not called to look at the places where we are still unconverted just to feel condemned about them. We are meant to be motivated to turn to God for his help. Jesus himself can be the center of our lives. And even if he has been that for us we must commit to keeping him in that place of honor, and to do so more and more. When we hear our inner monologue filling with self-justification or judgments about others we can be sure that we have to some extent usurped the throne meant for Christ. Yet we take comfort that he remains kind to us, dedicated to leading us to repentance.
But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone
who does good, Jew first and then Greek.
There is no partiality with God.
Jesus wants to lead us to glory, honor, and peace. We can't get there on our own, by our own merit, or by the limited and partial good we do. We can only reach this destination united to Jesus himself, with his Spirit within us bearing the fruits of righteousness.
Only in God is my soul at rest;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment