Gnats to you!

{This is a repost of a blog I wrote for another church @ www.tllcf.blogspot.com}


Let me just start by saying that this blog is aimed--that's right, "aimed" (and I include myself here)--at people who are Christians.  Normally I try to write with encouraging words that could lead us all deeper into God's presence, whether we acknowledge a relationship with Jesus or not. Today though, I have some words for Christians, though if you are not please read along and perhaps cheer at the appropriate spots.

This morning I was reading my bible and I came upon the passage in Matthew where Jesus berates the Pharisees because they "strain out a gnat but swallow a camel." (Matthew 23:24) So what is the big deal with swallowing camels?  Maybe they taste good!  I think that Jesus here has some great words for Christians in today's world, words which are much needed and (I believe) will help us in today's increasingly anti-Christian culture.  They echo a sermon that I heard Andy Stanley preach last week, the link to which is found at the end of this post (you can watch it for extra credit!).

Gnats vs. Camels
Before you start envisioning some kind of titanic battle where a horde of gnats is taking down a poor, bedraggled, lone camel, lets read the passage:

 ²³ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. ²⁴ You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. (Matthew 23:23-24, NIV)

 So what's this about gnats and camels?  Jesus is speaking here in the middle of a long tirade against the people who were supposedly the holiest of the holy in his day.  These are people who have proclaimed that they have followed God for years (probably since birth).  I think that the key to understanding this verse is "Everything they do is done for men to see..." (Matthew 23:5a).  They have set up a kind of religion where there are little things that you do to prove your faithfulness to God become the test of your faith.


What Jesus is talking about here is a kind of attitude that it is so easy to fall into as a follower of God, and I know that the church has been guilty of it over many points of history--and far too often in huge and embarrassing ways. I could list here all the ways we have violated it, and all denominations and expressions of the faith could be mentioned.  As Andy Stanley says in his sermon (see below), "We (the church) tell people that if they change to look like us, then they can join us."  We are guilty of telling people that their hard lives, their sins, their differences, exclude them from joining in with the People of God.  We are guilty.


Jesus' Way
Yet the way the Jesus preached, healed, taught, and related to people is drastically different than the way that the Pharisees in his day worked.  Can you imagine being so hyper-"spiritual" that you would go to your cupboard and divide out a tenth of your spices and bring them to church one Sunday as part of your tithe?  Yet what was the issue that Jesus pointed out?  They were nit-picking (gnat-straining) but in doing so were too busy to attend to real issues!  They neglected justice!  They left out mercy!  And they thought they were being faithful to the commandments of God but in fact were not practicing faithfulness.

When we look at the Bible, how then do we see Jesus acting?  I believe that Jesus never neglected to tithe (giving a tenth of your income), I believe he never lied, and I believe that he was faithful to every letter of the law that the Pharisees held dear.  We read that he was a righteous man, a perfect man, and without sin.  Better than Mary Poppins he wasn't just "practically perfect," he was perfect!  Yet here he points that there are larger issues than just personally following the letter of the law.

What Jesus did, and what he calls (albeit harshly) the Pharisees to do, is to speak out for those who have no voice.  He calls them to love those they deem "sinners."  I say "deem" because here Jesus is pointing out the sin of those who think themselves "righteous."  Jesus did not worry about whether he would be thought proper for going and partying with the sinners, he just went and did so!  And the result of that is that many of those he ate with and talked to became followers of him and had their lives transformed.

Today's Church
So I said at the beginning that I am speaking to the Christians I know in today's world.  Can you think of ways that the church has become like Jesus' Pharisees?  I have long felt what Andy preaches in his sermon "The Separation of Church and Hate."   Think about the last 50 years of the church in America.  We have stood up for the laws of God and done our best to tell people what they cannot do.  In many cases the only real ground (and I believe that it is real ground, more real than what the world counts on) that we stand on is the Bible.  We have been right to stand up for the issues we have battered the rest of our culture with, but I think that we have failed in doing so in the wrong way.

I believe that the Bible teaches real and eternal truth.  I believe that when God says that he hates sin, he hates sin.  I believe that when the Bible says that we should not do "x" or "y" or "z" then we should not do those things.  However I also believe that using the laws of the land to enforce the mandates of the Bible creates people who hate the Church and God, as well as turns the church into "sons of hell" (Matthew 23:15).  This is a hard thing to think about.  Should we stand up for morality?  YES! Definitely!  But please lets go about it in a different way.

The Bible only applies to the people of God.  I can't turn to my Buddhist neighbors and point to the Bible and say "This is why you are going to go to hell."  They would laugh at me!  Would I be wrong?  No.  Will they convert to Christianity?  No.  What would the result be?  They would hate me and the God I supposedly stood for!  So then what do we do?  How do we protect the sanctity of marriage?  How do we protect the sacredness of life?  How do we uphold the laws of God?  By loving God with all of our hearts, minds, souls and strength, followed by loving our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39).