April 29, 2023
Hypocrisy At the Highest Levels
“The crowd answered, ‘You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?’ Jesus answered them, ‘I did one deed, and you all marvel. For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” John 7:20-24 (NASB)
In my previous pastorate a couple came into our fellowship seeking membership. The two began causing trouble shortly after their arrival. The wife came to me a few weeks after joining the fellowship. She wanted me to allow her husband to start teaching Wednesday evening services. She said he had been to a prestigious Christian university and studied the Bible eight hours every day. Later, she began telling others in the church her husband was better suited for the pastorate. This occurred behind my back. I immediately addressed the issue. I called the two together. The wife spoke the entire time. The husband was silent. I asked the husband some questions. He said if I wouldn’t step down, he would start his own church, in his home. He would take members too. As patiently as I could, I explained the difference between a call and his personal desire. I knew where God wanted us. The couple later left the church. Months later, I learned they alienated their entire family. There was no family connection. About six months later, the couple moved. Their vehicle engine failed. The wife still asked our members to fix it before they left. There could have been Bible knowledge in the man, I’ll never know, but there was no real understanding of how to integrate it. Trouble like this today, still leaves dents in small churches today. I have to say I was relieved they decided to leave, I just wish it could have been under better circumstances. I could not allow it to go on.
In these passages, we see Jesus speaking truth, and the crowd responding viciously. A people who had learned of God, His truths, had no real understanding of God. There was no integration. They were looking for someone to come and lead them out of oppression. Their response came from the healing in John 5:7-8, “The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” This happened a year and a half ago. His healing occurred on a Sabbath. Consider this, “Though servile work was forbidden on the sabbath, the circumcision of males on that day (which certainly was a servile work) was counted no infringement of the Law.”[1] The law they embraced was broken for circumcision many times, but Jesus’ one healing violated it? An uncleanness of a man, now made whole was a violation? Circumcisions occurred often, and yet one event by Jesus was now a violation? Jesus responded, “If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath?”
In today’s society, there are many who claim to know so much about the Bible, but yet fail to integrate it into their daily lives. I suspect each of us is guilty each day. We might fail but get up and try (by the Holy Spirit’s power) again. Be one who tries each day to please your Master. Don’t be a hearer of the Word, but a Doer of the Word (James 1:22)!
[1] Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 141.