SERVING GREATNESS (47 OF 52)
Scripture: Matthew 23:1-12
This content is part of a series.
Serving Greatness (47 of 52)
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
Matthew 23:1-12
We work with the concept that those we consider great or powerful are to be served. It is a notion deeply embedded in our social consciousness. It is in our literature, our mythologies, our fairy tales, and the very fabric of our familial, business, political, academic, economic, and social interactions. It is not something we stop to think about. We expect selfless service from certain classes of people whose occupation is to pick up after us, fill our food orders, collect our trash, and make our stay more pleasant at one or another venue. All too often, their very existence is something we overlook due to so many unspoken social rules. Those who serve us are often expected to exist after the manner of furniture. When Jesus comes along and turns those notions upside down, do we even pay attention?
The Scribes and Pharisees were power brokers in Jesus' day. They held themselves up as models and authorities on God's law. They were much more taken with themselves that Jesus deemed appropriate. Then again, Jesus did not seem to view any of their take on power-brokering and greatness as an appropriate response to Yahweh and Yahweh's design for Jewish society. They were supposed to be a nation set apart from the rest of the nations. They were supposed to live according to a completely other set of principles, guidelines, and values. The priorities of their interactions and social order were to follow a very different set of standards than what was common all around them. Unfortunately, Israel had never really grasped the nature of that distinctiveness they were supposed to exemplify before the rest of the world. They may have known the words of Yahweh's instruction, but they did not live up to what those instructions required.
From Jesus' perspective, they had it right even as they had it all wrong. They could quote all the words. They preserved the text faithfull ...
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
Matthew 23:1-12
We work with the concept that those we consider great or powerful are to be served. It is a notion deeply embedded in our social consciousness. It is in our literature, our mythologies, our fairy tales, and the very fabric of our familial, business, political, academic, economic, and social interactions. It is not something we stop to think about. We expect selfless service from certain classes of people whose occupation is to pick up after us, fill our food orders, collect our trash, and make our stay more pleasant at one or another venue. All too often, their very existence is something we overlook due to so many unspoken social rules. Those who serve us are often expected to exist after the manner of furniture. When Jesus comes along and turns those notions upside down, do we even pay attention?
The Scribes and Pharisees were power brokers in Jesus' day. They held themselves up as models and authorities on God's law. They were much more taken with themselves that Jesus deemed appropriate. Then again, Jesus did not seem to view any of their take on power-brokering and greatness as an appropriate response to Yahweh and Yahweh's design for Jewish society. They were supposed to be a nation set apart from the rest of the nations. They were supposed to live according to a completely other set of principles, guidelines, and values. The priorities of their interactions and social order were to follow a very different set of standards than what was common all around them. Unfortunately, Israel had never really grasped the nature of that distinctiveness they were supposed to exemplify before the rest of the world. They may have known the words of Yahweh's instruction, but they did not live up to what those instructions required.
From Jesus' perspective, they had it right even as they had it all wrong. They could quote all the words. They preserved the text faithfull ...
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