Today's Gospel is from Matthew (23:23-26). I know it's always been there, but it struck me as "new to me" today. I think I'd remember a reference to mint, dill and cumin! Not to mention dishwashing.
Jesus said:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,
so that the outside also may be clean."
The commentary in my New American Bible said something about how the law of the time was to tithe your produce, but that what Jesus was criticizing here was not that practice. Rather, he was pointing out the hypocrisy of paying attention to the tiniest details of some things (tithing even your herbs) and yet at the same time choosing to ignore the big things in life.
Judgement, mercy and fidelity (NAB)
Justice, mercy and faith (NRSV)
Justice, mercy and honesty (Good News)
What if for just one day, we focused on spicing our lives (and the lives of others) with these things instead of the petty things we tend to focus on? Like keeping the outside of our dishes neat and clean, while the insides are messy indeed.
Food for thought (no pun intended)
6 comments:
Used the same quote today in my post but yours was WAY more upbeat than mine! Very interesting to see your thoughts on it...adds even more dimension for me! Thanks!
And all I focused on was the strained gnat and swallowed camel!
The strained gnat and swallowed camel do add to the cooking metaphor. I imagined a giant collander that would allow a camel through, but would catch a gnat. Kind of shows how much we focus on the little things sometimes, and yet don't bat at eye at the giant desert animals that make it through.
Definitely an interesting reading.
Wow! Something to think about besides 'Martha, Martha...' when doing the dishes!
By the way, thank you for your most touching comment on my blog. I wasn't referring to you, as you probably figured, but I thank you for your empathy and prayers. Might this be the edge of a breakthrough...?
pax
I must say I chuckled at the image of straining the gnat and swallowing the camel!
It doesn't get much better than that!
I spent a long time reading this whole "series of seven woes" last night -- along with all my Bible's meticulous footnotes -- and it was largely new to me, too, which is a shame, since it feels like such a thorough indictment of so much of what the institutional Church does in Christ's name. I think we don't hear this passage very often because it makes all of us, in particular our own religious leaders, uncomfortable; it's so specific and so hard to ignore. How much easier it is to just remember, vaguely, that Jesus had harsh words for the scribes and pharisees now and then -- as if that had nothing to do with us.
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