Bulletin Articles
“Holier Than Thou”
Categories: Iron sharpens iron“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”
(Matthew 23.23)
Jesus did not take the Pharisees to task for being careful or meticulous. He didn’t want them to neglect their responsibility to tithe from their herb gardens. After all, the commandment was “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year” (De 14.22). The very next verse refers to “the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock,” which puts the focus on what are effectively cash crops, rather than small-scale yields intended for personal use; but it is good to pay attention to little things, and refuse to cheat God out of his share.
However, many of the Pharisees’ traditions and interpretations, like this one, served as excuses to ignore the big things! Their righteous deeds were far too often aimed at the goal of being “praised by others” (Mt 6.2), and so an elaborate game of one-upping each other ensued. God gave Israel a law that emphasized ritual purity; from that principle the Pharisees built a tradition of washing their hands before eating. Hygiene is good; but they invested it with the weight of God’s Law, and they imposed it, not as a wise recommendation, but as a mandate.
From there, we should not be surprised that the game progressed to “the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches” (Mk 7.4). This was not, of course, a couch like the modern living room furniture piece, but that amusing mental image can serve to emphasize the ridiculous lengths to which the Pharisees were going, in an effort to prove their extraordinary holiness. These traditions, which over time came to have the force of law among the Jews, also included the “Sabbath day’s journey” mentioned in Acts 1.12, which was an oddly specific 2,000 cubits, perhaps found written in invisible ink between the lines of Exodus 16.29, in which Moses commanded the Israelites, “let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”
Yet another example is seen throughout the New Testament as well as the Old, in which the name of God is generally rendered “the Lord.” The actual text behind this is יהוה-YHWH, which we don’t know how to pronounce but is probably something like “Yahweh.” We don’t know, because the Jews decided this name was too holy for human lips to utter; so they replicated the name in writing, but instead spoke the word, אֲדֹנָי-’adonai-“master” and, when vowel markings made their way into written Hebrew, put the vowels for ’adonai with the consonants of the unutterable name. Was this what God was demanding, when he said, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Ex 20.7)? No; but from that commandment, a superstitious tradition grew, which still has effects today.
Nor does it end there. Around the middle of the 20th century, a few major Bible translations were published, which all capitalized pronouns (He, Him, and His) that referred to God. This quickly became the norm for individual Christians, leading to occasional disputes, albeit usually minor, when someone bucks the tradition. You may even see the word, God, instead rendered, “G-d,” in a cringeworthy imitation of the Jewish practice just discussed. Just as with the Pharisees of old, you can clearly see the desire to one-up each other’s holiness. The Jews refused to say G-d’s name? Well, I won’t even fully write out the generic substitute term for G-d’s actual name! Who’s holy, now?
The same impulse drove Peter to disagree with the Lord himself, during the Last Supper. Jesus circled the room, washing the feet of each disciple in turn.
Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean.”
(John 13.8-10)
Despite already observing the interaction between Jesus and several of Peter’s peers, he was intent on distinguishing himself from the rest. There’s no doubt his objection came from a sincere conscience; but what good is a sincere conscience that disagrees with Jesus? Then, when Jesus soundly rebuked him, he ran to the other extreme—in all sincerity—only to be corrected by Jesus once more.
It’s so easy to slip into this holier-than-thou attitude, without realizing it. On this topic, Solomon wrote, “Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise.” (Ec 7.16). He was not recommending that you deliberately sin once in a while; rather, he was talking about your own self-assessment. When you start to believe that you’ve got righteousness under control and deserve an eternal reward from God, that’s exactly when Satan has you where he wants you. Instead, we should imitate Paul, who wrote, “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me” (1Co 4.4). Whether you keep to man’s traditions in an effort to serve God, is your business. But do not think that your meticulousness in the little things—especially the things God has not commanded—has earned you a place in God’s house.
For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
(Romans 10.3)
Jeremy Nettles
