In-between

Matthew 23,1-12
Jesus warns against the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees
30 October 2011
Glengowrie UCSA 

1.

Owe, owe — this is a difficult piece of bible text! It has all the elements of argument, protest, and rebellion … No wonder, the rabbis and Pharisees and priests were all after Jesus.

When I first read this text, however, it made me wonder: Here I am, a German preaching in law-abiding Australia to a peaceful and pious fellowship of Uniting Church Christians, about a text that turns upside down traditional structures of church and society: “Do not do what your teachers do” — and “The first will be the last!”

Thus I was puzzled how to approach this sermon, but thought that as an introduction into our sermon this morning I could tell you a couple of episodes from my life. All are dealing with — well, of course, teachers and their students.

 

I came to Australia a bit over five years ago. Having grown up in a suburb in the city of Frankfurt, West Germany, I still have a very good memory of my primary school. For me as six-year old, it was, and actually still is, an imposingly big building from the 19^th century: a grand schoolyard, a wide staircase, high ceilings, and large windows, with some 30 kids in our classroom.

Whenever I driving past my old school in recent years, I had this same eerie recollection of my teacher: He was a tall and big man, as impressive to me, the six or seven year old kid, as the school itself. I cannot recall how I lived through my primary school years, where I was “hiding” from the teacher’s authority, and how I passed my exams. But this tall man, whose name I have forgotten, his face and his size always stuck in my memory.

 

My other real-life story is also dealing with school. But this time the roles are reversed.

Since my teenage years I have always been involved in some way or other with the Christian churches in Germany and in other parts of the world, initially as a Boy Scout and youth group leader. After studying what the Uniting Church calls the Ministry of Deacon, I worked with my church in Christian Education programs, in particular amongst young and adult people in local congregations, and quite often people from other countries and languages. In my last assignment before coming to Australia five years ago, one of my tasks also included Religious Education at schools.

It was not my first experience to find myself in the shoes of the teachers of my childhood. With a second and a seventh grader class to teach, I thought the six- or seven-year old kids were easier to handle than the teenagers, but soon learned otherwise. Amongst the second-graders were Marco and his two friends, another boy and a girl of the same age and size. After a short while, Marco began to stage a revolt against me as their teacher, supported by his two little friends. Given all the disciplinary problems they were causing, teaching their class has been one of my saddest experiences in education, and I am afraid I have failed these kids. I know that they came from a difficult family background, but how do you maintain some order in class?

The seventh-grade teenagers, on the other hand, were trouble right from the start. I was their fourth RI teacher within two years, and it was hard to gain their trust and cooperation. In the end, however, I believe I succeeded. No, I did not “win a battle”, but apparently a relationship of trust grew between us that eventually made them ask me to continue as their teacher. Unfortunately, it was not to be — I left for Australia.

 

2.

All these thoughts went through my mind in the past few weeks while thinking about our bible text. It brings forward some of these elements of my school experience, and many more regarding the relationship between authorities and the people they are to care for.

Consider the setting of our story. We know from earlier chapters that Jesus was visiting the Temple in Jerusalem. In a number of discussions and controversies previously he had challenged the teachers and Pharisees. Now our passage introduces Jesus addressing — first — the crowd around him, then his disciples. The Pharisees, rabbis and scribes are not part of this scene — Jesus only talks about them.

So, let’s first look at the “Crowd”. In today’s preaching, theology and in public life they are mostly ignored. This is a weird phenomenon. By virtue of definition of the word, they are the multitude of people that form the backdrop of many biblical, and real-life, stories.

Some of you may have seen images about, or heard stories by, missionaries in countries like Papua New Guinea or somewhere in Africa. Wherever you show up as white skin, many kids will follow you, and locals would hang around to see what’s going on. Or, to talk politics, you may have heard about the many people campaigning to occupy Wall Street in the past few weeks, in New York City, the financial centre of the United States, in many capital cities in Europe and even here in Adelaide.

What the English bibles translate as “Crowd”, is called “ho oxlos” in the Greek language of the New Testament.

The word “Ochlos” labels those people who are mainly overlooked. In ancient Israel, they were ‘the people of the land’. Often they are fed up with being alienated, not listened to, and exploited. In many biblical stories they are like the collective spirit of the poor, those who are neglected, overlooked, the least and last in society.

On the other end of the social scale, there are those at “the top”, the teachers, religious or political leaders, and the rich. In the Bible, as in political reality, you can identify them; you know their names and their actions.

The author of the Gospel of Matthew has Jesus placed in the midst of this crowd, even emphasised their relevance through the grammatical Plural, the “multitude of crowds”, the ochloi. These are the people, with whom Jesus is talking. Therefore let’s look at our story through the eyes and ears of Jesus’ audience.

He addresses the people around him directly by describing in terms, that can not be clearer, the situation they face every day: Their leaders, the rich, the teachers — they all preach, to put it in a short line, “Water” but themselves drink “Wine”. Not only this, they even expect it as their right. And worse, they want the others, the local people, to pay for their excesses.

Moreover, at the end of our bible text today Jesus condemns their ways in no uncertain terms as leaders who are blind: They exclude the faithful from entering God’s kingdom of heaven, which they neither intend to enter; they steal the houses of widows, while they pretend to pray; new converts from all over the world, they lead in the ways of the hell, even worse than they themselves;   … and so on and on and on. Seven successive condemnations accuse the leaders of the people of their wrongdoings, each culminating in the cry “you are hypocrites”.

This is as if we were decrying the Leadership Development Council of the Uniting Church in South Australia or the Council of Bishops in my previous church in Germany as liars, fools, pretenders …, in short as leaders whom you cannot trust!

 

3.

Traditionally, this passage is read as Jesus putting a rift between himself and his followers, and the religious establishment of his time, in particular the Pharisees. It easily plays into the hands of anti-Judaism, that is to say Jesus was at odds with the Jewish establishment of his time. But it is not that simple. Jesus remains clear in his own traditions of the Prophets of the people of Israel-of-old.

As we have heard in our first reading this morning, from the Prophet Micah, these “woes” are nothing new to the people of Israel (Micah 3,5-6):

(5) “As for the prophets who lead my people astray,
if one feeds them, they proclaim ‘peace’;
if he does not, they prepare to wage war against him.

(6) Therefore
night will come over you, without visions,
and darkness, without divination.

The sun will set for the prophets,
and the day will go dark for them.

The words of Jesus would have been well understood, as they find their echo time and again throughout the Bible. Criticism, warning, yes — split, well, at least our passage does not suggest it.

Even the repeated cry, ‘You — the Pharisees, rabbis and teachers — you are “hypocrites”!’ is not just plainly condemning.

Way back then, most likely, it may have had the same meaning as we understand it today: Hypocrites are liars, cowards and pretenders — in short, people who say one thing and expect others to follow, but they don’t do it themselves.

But, in actual fact, the word “hypocrisis” has an interesting history.[1] In Classical Greek, a “hypocrite” referred to an actor, i.e. somebody who had to publicly perform a role after assessing the essence of its character for himself critically. The artist then, of course, “played” the figure of someone else, often hidden behind a mask or disguised in a particular dress. Anyone watching the theatre show would have been aware of this “role play”.

Therefore, “hypocrisis” also carries the notion of “discerning”, to watch, to analyse. It thus clearly corresponds with our earlier observation: Jesus warns the people around him, the ochloi and his disciples, to follow the teachings of their leaders, “but don’t do as they do!”

 

4.

This is a truly demanding challenge. We tend to take people by their word, until we learn the hard way that they have let us down. It has happened to me more than once, and surely to many of us … but the other approach would mean, I could not trust anybody. Life would become quite sad, as everyone, then and today, has roles to play: As preacher I act and speak differently than, let’s say, as a language student; a mother reprimands her child, but loves it dearly; a politician is expected to tell the truth but feels inclined, for whatever reasons, to put it into some soothing words.

Clearly, the word ‘hypocrite’ contains the element of discerning the truth, i.e. the reality behind a person, or a phenomenon, pretending to be one thing but may be, in reality, something quite different. Throughout its history, it seems, this cry comes along with the attempt to pull away the mask from the face of the pretenders, to discover the reality behind it — an experience only too familiar to many of these ochloi, the people of the land, around Jesus.

And Jesus even goes one step further. He warns his audience and, through them, their leaders that neither teachers nor authorities nor leaders would have any rights over their people: “You are all brothers” — and sisters, as we would like to add today … Even if held in high esteem, their authority only rests in the Lord God, through him — Jesus His Son.

Furthermore, Jesus reminds them all, and so us, that (verses 11-12)

who is greatest among you shall be your servant.
And
whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased,
and he who shall humble himself shall be exalted.

 

Marco, the second-grader in my Religious Instructions class, and his friends challenged me, their teacher. I can’t blame him. As I have said earlier, I am afraid that I failed him. We did not have much of a chance given the circumstances in which I had to teach these kids. I would wish that he may have at least some good memory of his time with me, but I doubt it. I can ask only for forgiveness. In the same time I am glad for the blessing of the experience that the seventh-graders asked me to come back. It may have been of help that, while working with them, I first of all tried to establish a relationship of trust — and did not play the role of a teacher only.

 

Our Bible text this morning relieves us from this responsibility of playing roles. While it happing to us every day, we are given the promise that there is only One to be our teacher, father and leader — God through his Son Jesus Christ.

Amen.

 

Footnote

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocrisy, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hypocrisy; http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hypocrisy, http://topicalbible.org/h/hyprocrite.htm