Hypocrisy is so very Human

Scripture: Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs." Luke 12:1-3

Observation: Jesus is now in the phase of ministry where he is regularly teaching large crowds and using analogies and parables to instruct. He is also in regular conflict with the Pharisees, especially the most 'legalistic' of them who are continually looking to trip Jesus up on matters of legal compliance (using policies and procedures they made up). Jesus directly calls out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees here. They declare themselves as pious and righteous in public due to their compliance, but then violate the actual spirit of the law when in private. And it is this form of hypocrisy that Jesus compares to yeast

And what is yeast really? It is an unseeable yet living thing. It consumes that which is nutritious, and expels gaseous air. While doing this, it spreads rapidly, even aggressively, so that it permeates the entirety of the thing it entered. The result is clear and obvious change, however what actually happened is completely invisible. Finally, in the end, it doesn't die, but just goes dormant and waits for the chance to be put into a new situation where it can awaken and do it all again.

That is what the Pharisees do. They are hypocrites, and thus they should really know that sin is a part of life and that we all need grace and help. By invading all parts of society with their declarations of rules and procedures, they have spread the feeling of unease, conflict, guilt, and judgment throughout everyone. Yes, now everyone can look at each other and judge their actions, look down upon their behavior, and otherwise demonstrate distain, because the Pharisees have taught them the parameters for doing so. Even if you do that in private ... you still do it.

Application: One way - the most common way - of interpreting the lesson of the Pharisees is to apply it to Christians and know that, indeed, we do this today. We declare ourselves forgiven and blessed and loved, and tell others that salvation through faith is Jesus is the good news ... and then we sit around our homes and gossip about what others are doing, or judge the behavior of secular sinners. And sometimes we do these same things aggressively in public and social media. Yes, many Christians are modern Pharisees.

However, so too modern people in general are Pharisees. In our society today, we have seen a new set of "rules" take hold. These are rules whereby we judge people who seem unaccepting of sinful lifestyles. We get into conflict with people who don't defer to new types of grammar that have become popular. We create training programs to condition individuals on new ways to interact, and hold each other accountable to these newly created standards.

Forget whether or not the root topics of these new rules and standards are biblically aligned ... while they absolutely are not, they are also not aligned to any rational history of human behavior and standards. They are new, invited by a new type of Pharisee, one that has taken it upon themselves to create these standards then spread them through society.

And they have spread like yeast. They have consumed the rich lives of our young. They have expelled a type of poison. There are many, many people who would say they have no idea what I'm talking about - that they "don't see anything at work" like this - and yet they would agree that our society looks nothing like what it did just 25 years ago.

I tell you, those people who have spread this yeast in our society, love nothing more than judging people whom they think are judging them. The hypocrisy is thick.

Hypocrisy seems to be core to the flawed human condition, side by side with judgment and independence.

Prayer: Lord, yes, I know I am a hypocrite. I hate what is happening in society, and I sit in my home condemning those who are leading these issues in our world. You didn't command us to agree with them, just to love them, and to not judge them ourselves. Please forgive my hypocrisy, and may your will simply guide our society more and more. Amen.