Hypocrisy and Spiritual Pride

One Campaign SG2021 – Reading the Gospels, Reflection from Mark 7 (day 19).

In this encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees, we can see that religious dedication per se, does not bring God’s approval. In the New Testament, there is no more-religiously dedicated group of people than the Pharisees. They were PHDs who would have spent hours upon hours memorizing God’s laws. Then meticulously making sure everyone followed them daily. However, as Jesus shows mere zeal and dedication does not also automatically guarantee pleasing God in the spiritual realm. 

In fact, mere dedication and zeal to religious practice leads to spiritual pride. The Pharisees were the spiritual elite and they considered Jesus, an upstart rabbi, who challenged. But so far, they have been batting zero in nailing him down. They try again, this time about Jesus’ disciples who ate with unwashed hands. It had nothing to do with hygiene 101 but religious tradition and purity, over and above what scripture commanded. Here Mark provides a commentary for non-Jewish readers to understand the situation, “the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders (no scriptural basis cited). When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles (Mark 7:3-4).

Unclean was big under Moses’ Law. He taught “If a person is unclean and does not purify himself, he must be cut off from his community, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord” (Num 19:20). However, the good intent of Moses’ teaching on ritual cleansing was to remind the Israelites of their unholy state before a holy God. But the Pharisees failed to grasp that what really made them unholy before God was not mere external form but internal substance. It was a matter of the heart, not the hands. The thing is, only God and no one else can read the heart. So, the religious authorities drew up a list of regulations for everyone to perform. Much of these regulations were drawn in the 400-year period between the Old and New Testament. No surprise, when God is silent, man put themselves in the place of God. So, they put dedication and zeal into performing the rules and regulations, believing that gave them an ‘A’ for devotion, a proper ‘holy joe’.

But did that make them a spiritual success in Jesus’ eyes? He called them hypocrites (Mark 7:6). A hypocrite was an actor. It means, “one who plays a part on a stage”. To entertain a crowd, the actor pretends to be somebody he is not. Jesus tells us why he called the Pharisees hypocrites. Their devotion was all words and show, a mask to gain points of spiritual superiority. The result was vain, empty devotion – something that God rejects and dismisses. “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men” (Mark 7:8). Jesus saw the motivation behind these actions. They studied Jewish law to show their spiritual superiority. They pointed out other people’s sins so that they would look better spiritually. They wore nice masks to cover their undevoted faces.

Many such people still occupy the church today, not just in the pews. Been there, seen that. Where are we in our walk with God today? If our actions of devotion stem from a heart that is not surrendered to Jesus, we may fool our neighbor, pastor, spouse, etc., but not Jesus. We may tithe but do it grudgingly or for the sake of acclaim. We may serve in ministry but only for the attention we get. We may tell people we read the Bible daily but it may be for reputation. We may pray long prayers using all the right biblical phrases but for the sake of praise. We may quote scripture and condemn sin but do it to look spiritually mature. We may even discipline our children to conduct themselves in God-honouring ways for our own face. If so, then we are simply another actor. We put zeal and dedication into these acts to make our external form look good. After all, that is what most people see. They cannot see our hearts anyway, only our external mask. So, even though we do not mouth our pride, mere zeal and dedication in church matters can only lead to spiritual pride. The heart determines why we do what we do. Therefore, it must be a heart that is surrendered to Jesus in humility. The heart is what matters and Jesus can read our hearts. So why pretend? We may now use our posturing to jostle for the seat at the head of the table. But, when we stand before Jesus, he may tell us to even move far away from the table of feasting. That’s sad. I do  not want that for my worst enemy. We must live for eternity not for what we can get in this life.