You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
A desire to get the details correct can be a very different thing in different people. In someone genuinely desiring to follow God and grow in holiness the motivation would probably stem from a desire to please God in all things. But in other people, people like these scribes Pharisees, it might come from the fact that the little things are easier to manage and less demanding than bigger principles like judgment and mercy and fidelity. In fact, the more precision a task requires, the more it would seem to us to be a matter that is properly speaking under our control. It is not something against which the heart is likely to put up much resistance. Our fallen nature is happy to believe itself to be in control.
Tithing is meant to give the first and best of what is ours to God. And expanding this awareness even into the less significant parts of our lives can be valuable. But if we lose ourselves in the little things so much that we forget the big ones we have lost our way. We may choose many little ways to show God our fidelity. But do these serve to distract us from the ways in which our lives should change in order to avoid judgment, from the ways in which we are called to greater and greater fidelity, or from ways in which God desires to show mercy to us and through us?
But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
We tend to focus on what we can control. And we can't exert much control over our hearts. Hearts can only be changed by grace, which often requires waiting, patience, and surrender. When this is something we know we need we do ourselves a disservice by distracting ourselves. Better to fully inhabit the place of waiting and of need. Let us, however, continue to be faithful in the little things even while seeking a more total transformation.
You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
The outside of the cup is what others can see. For this reason we are highly incentivized to clean it and keep it clean. We desire to be presentable even if this is more performance than substance. We desire to look like a cup one would love to use even while remaining one that might make others sick. We aren't really focused on the fact of the reason of our existence, as a cup is meant to give drink, but more on maintaining a pristine appearance, so we can remain happily on the shelf. But to clean that which is within requires help, to reach the places which we ourselves cannot easily touch. Since God himself desires to use us to give the thirsty to drink of his Spirit, we can be sure, also desires to thoroughly clean us, inside and out.
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,
who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement
and good hope through his grace,
encourage your hearts and strengthen them
in every good deed and word.
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