Mountains or Molehills?

“Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.”  Matthew 23:24

Jesus certainly had a way with words.  I am trying to picture this is my mind’s eye.  Here stands some fellows who are gagging over a tiny gnat, not that I would want to swallow one of those pesky little critters either, and then they swallow entire camels.  Ugh.  I don’t have any experience with camels.  I have always heard that they are rather nasty, nothing like cute little ponies.  Guess who Jesus was addressing in His statement?  It’s not hard to figure out.  It’s the same ones who constantly hassled and harassed Jesus with their nosy questions and their criticisms of Him, even about the miracles He did.  How can anyone criticize Jesus for making a blind man be able to see or giving a crippled person the ability to walk?  I don’t mean to be offensive, but the actions and rhetoric of some of our politicians remind me of some of the folks who were notorious at finding fault with Jesus and all the good that He did and all the eloquent and truthful statements that He made.

Jesus had some choice, albeit fitting, names for these arrogant and envious men:  blind guides, fools, and hypocrites.  Yes, these were the Pharisees, scribes, and other religious leaders.  This particular rebuke by Jesus was initiated by the meticulous observance of the least important rules by these self-righteous folks and by their ignoring of what was really important, hence the gnat and camel analogy.  For example, they tithed, that is, gave ten per cent of the herbs in their gardens without fail, yet, because of their self-righteousness, they overlooked their responsibility to administer equitable judgment, mercy, and faith.  What Jesus said to them would have been really funny if the subject matter had not been so serious.  Even so, I can picture some of the common folks who were standing within earshot of Jesus as He spoke laughing under their breath because He had put their prideful leaders in their place, not that these leaders even noticed.

This is what people do.  They make a big deal about something that is not important, but the things that are important, they mostly ignore.  Some folks care more about image, that is, how their personal appearance is perceived by others than what type of person they are deep down on the inside.  We’ve all heard the old saying, “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone.”  The use of the term “ugly” is referencing a person’s personality, moodiness, temperament, and behavior, and not their looks.  Don’t get me wrong.  I think that a person should make the best of his or her looks, be clean, appropriately dressed, and sometimes a little makeup doesn’t hurt.  It is a known fact that folks are treated with more respect and honor if they are dressed and act as folks who think well of themselves, not more “highly than they should” (Romans 12:3), but carry themselves as those who know that, as the little boy said, “God don’t make no junk”.  It doesn’t matter how handsome he is or how beautiful she is on the outside, if they are full of themselves, a narcissist, and/or rude, like those who do think more highly of themselves, folks are usually turned off by them because they are not authentic, sincere, and honest.  I think about the old computer term WYSIWYG:  what you see is what you get, but not all of the time when it comes to people.

Jesus knows our true motives just as He knew exactly what those religious leaders were thinking.  They were so concerned about putting on a good show for the common folks and making so many burdensome rules and regulations for the people to follow, they completely missed the most important Person and the plan of God to bring them into a forgiving and close relationship with the God whom they said that they worshipped.  Their major problem was that they were envious of Jesus.  He was drawing quite a crowd, and that was not acceptable to these leaders.  You see, they, like so many of our leaders today, were mainly concerned about control.  Whoever has control over the people has all the power.  These leaders were not willing to give up their power and their prestigious positions to a Man whom they saw as an imposter.  Satan had so blinded them to the truth, and they were willing to believe his lies to keep themselves in power.  They turned the only way to God the Father into a mountain of the law which was impossible to reach God and ignored the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6), God’s holy and sinless Son, Jesus Christ.  They were blind to judgment, mercy, and faith, which was the strength of the law because they were more interested in rituals than in the One who perfectly exemplified the law.  It is sad to think about all the folks who only think about the here and now which is only temporary and never even consider eternity which is forever.