Recently, I have had the privilege of leading the church I serve through the core of the Gospel of Luke (9:51-19:44). Without boring you with the details of this experience, I do want to share something that has been on my mind as we have journeyed through Luke.
As many know all too well, Jesus had no problem mincing words when it comes to his opponents, the Pharisees (Luke 11:37-54). A quick perusal of his “woes” towards them would easily make the deep empaths among us feel bad for them. “How can he be so harsh?” We might wonder. A lawyer even speaks up to say as much, “when you say these things, you insult us too.” The common assumption is that the reason for Jesus’ “woes” is the self-righteousness of these very men. And while in some ways this may be true, this caricature of sorts is rather lacking when we consider the larger narrative of Luke’s Gospel and the historical context.
One often overlooked key to understanding the contentious relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees isn’t that they are self-righteous, per se, but that they are hypocrites. Their image is fiction and does not align with who they are beneath it. The Greek word hypokrites simply means “actor.” One of Jesus’ “beef” with these men is that they were actors, their actions were performative and not for the sake of faithfulness to the Law they claimed to uphold. Such is why, right after these woes, Jesus warns his disciples, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy.” Better still, it is also why Jesus strongly emphasizes to his disciples to be on guard against hypocrisy, to not cause any of these little ones to stumble. Thus, you are not to be actors, but instead, people of integrity who do what is right simply because it is so, not because you will gain something out of doing so, like the praise of others or the best positions. It is paramount that your words and actions line up! Discipleship isn’t a performance, it is a way of life.
Such is an incredibly radical idea to consider in a time when we can so easily craft and manipulate our image in order to make people believe certain things about us. That is, through the likes of various forms of mass media we can promote an image of ourselves that may not actually be reflective of who we actually are in the concrete world. Through a specific and controlled performance, we can promote an image of ourselves to the world. The effect this has had on us has been immense because what we end up doing is placing a premium not on who we actually are but on who others think we are through things like social media. Such is a dangerous place because it it can promote a false reality. In a sense, it bears false witness against who we actually are.
Some years ago I had the strange blessing (though it didn’t seem that way at the time) of experiencing one such personality. What I found fascinating was that he did not care about his actual actions or how he actually treated people; he was simply obsessed with what others thought about him. In other words, his obsession was found in his desire to control the story, not in how he was simply living and being in world. The latter was beside the point so long as he felt in control and that people believed about him what he wanted them to believe. He had an image that he wanted to be upheld no matter the cost. It was hypocrisy, his life was and is a performance. The eerie part is that many ate it up and still do. This is what Jesus condemns in the Pharisees.
It would be easy to stop right here, but the “woes” also stand as a reminder to us to always be on guard, examining ourselves, and shedding light on the darkness within. Because if we don’t, we will be overtaken. We all operate with a myriad of motivations, stories that we tell ourselves, and subconscious wounds from childhood that all coalesce into why we do what we do. None of us are pure, and we are all steeped in a deeply unhealthy narcissistic culture. However, the Pharisees do provide a helpful mirror for examination. Are we simply performing or are we actually living from the Christ within us? Are we being our true selves? These are all challenging questions, particularly in an age such as ours.
A Foolish Way 