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Matthew 23 – Oh No, Woe To Me
I do not like reading the Bible. That doesn’t sound right coming from a preacher, does it? So let me rephrase that – I do not like reading the Bible as I should read it – up close and personal. It is much easier focusing on others instead of myself.
For example, reading Matthew 23. In Jesus’ most scathing and scolding sermon against the Pharisees, eight times the Son of God verbally brings down heaven’s wrath by slaying them with “Woe to you.” I don’t even want to count how many times Jesus calls them “hypocrites” – I might need a calculator! OK, I counted – it is only seven times; it just seems like more with Jesus pounding and pounding them vociferously with “woe to you,” “hypocrites,” “blind guides” and more. Hearing, “How will you escape the sentence of hell?” is ironically chilling.
Why does reading that make me uncomfortable? It is not because I feel compassion for the Pharisees and scribes. Maybe I am callous, but didn’t they deserve their condemnation? My discomfort is not because I prefer a God who gives grace instead of grief…although I do. “I do not condemn you (John 8:11)” – is far more palatable than “Behold your house is being left to you desolate (Matthew 23:38). But grace cannot exist without justice. Neither does my unease come from fearing condemnation for committing these same spiritual atrocities. I have never been a partner in shedding the blood of the prophets (Matthew 23:30).
So why does reading this text make me uncomfortable? Because I must ask myself, “What would Jesus find in me worth condemning?” “How would this chapter read if about me?” Reading the Bible and seeing it pointed towards others is easy and even hypocritically comforting. Reading the Bible and seeing it pointed towards me causes me to say, “Oh no, woe to me.”
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