Devotion by Pastor Scott
April 7, 2020
As we continue our journey the cross by looking at Tuesday. What was Jesus doing Tuesday?
Matthew, Mark and Luke Jesus spent the majority of this day teaching. Matthew has the greatest amount of content here. I encourage you to take a couple minutes to read Matthew 23:1-39.
As you read it, you can sum it up with one word: Hypocrisy. Jesus was not only against it; he was angry with the teachers of the law who taught people one thing and then lived another. He issued 7 Woe's or condemnations upon them. Hypocrisy is defined as "the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform".
In our age, we too don't like those who don't walk the talk; those who do not practice what they preach. The Pharisees were more concerned about how they looked that in actually living a righteous life before God. External over internal.
We want people who practice what they preach but there in lies the problem. We want perfection in others, but when it applies to us, we ask for grace. We are so good at seeing the speck in our neighbors eye that we miss the plank in our eye. During this Holy Week, let us show grace to others while we raise the bar on our own personal and social holiness.