Matt 23 : 1 – 12
There are many stories from someone named Aesop. No one knows if he/she actually lived but is said to have been a story teller who told stories and solved problems. The stories are still, to this day, used as lessons in morality. Some said that he/she was a slave who loved to tell stories and through such wisdom and story-telling, gained his/her freedom and became an adviser to rulers. Whoever he/she was, the stories are collected and today are referred to as Aesop Fables. One of such stories is the story about the Wolf and the Lion. The story goes like this. One evening, as the sun was setting, the wolf walking on a hill saw his shadow down in the plain. The image it observed was large and exaggerated as evening shadows always do. This impressed the wolf and he stopped and took a look at his exaggerated image. Impressed with such a large image of himself, he wondered why he always thought about himself poorly and so decided that he will no longer be afraid of the lion who was not as big. While he was harboring this great image of himself, he failed to run away from the approaching lion and so was caught by the lion. The story goes that as he struggled for his life in the fangs of the lion, he realized that it was his exaggerated sense of self that caused his demise. By then, it was too late.
Our passage today is about a lesson in humility and St Mathew recorded our Lord speaking against the exaggerated sense of self and about humility. Turn with me to the Gospel of St Mathew 23 : 1 – 12.
The use of the Scribes and Pharisees as an illustration was necessary here. The listeners were familiar with these two groups who made themselves the new law givers. They “have seated themselves in the chair of Moses: (v.2). The Pharisees hated anything new and foreign and insisted in the purity of religion and culture. Anyone who embraced change and new ideas was not authentic enough and so the Pharisees hated the Hellenistic culture that was spreading in the ancient Near East. They made up rules such that their personal preferences became divine laws. The law was interpreted literally such that they instructed people to give even a tenth of their enema to the temple. The Scribes were not an organized group as the Pharisees were, but they were in the time of Christ, learned men in Judaism. They were those who copied the scripture in the days before the printing press and so were very familiar with the laws. They were called upon to help in the interpretation of the law and so they had great authority in the temple and official bureaucracy. They enjoyed tremendous support and magnanimity of the chief priest and the rulers and also the admiration of the people as “learned individuals”. Some were Rabbi and some were ordinary folks and so they demanded to be respected because of who they were. Mathew, Mark and Luke portray them as enemies of what they saw as the dilution of the authentic religion. They hated Christ because they saw in him the destruction of their religion and livelihood. They had reason to worry because often, those who enjoy and benefit from dysfunction always hate reformers. Those who benefit from oppression and the status quo hate reformers and messages of freedom and so both the Pharisees who saw themselves as the custodians of purity, and the Scribes who benefited from the status quo, saw the messages of Christ as a danger that will affect their means of livelihood. They wanted purity; they presented themselves as the mouthpiece of God, yet they themselves did not obey the oppressive laws that they claimed was from God. And so our Lord warns in v. 3, “Therefore all they tell you, do not observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say things, and do not do them.” Our Lord compared their interpretation of the law as being akin to tying a load on the backs of others while they themselves are not willing “to move them with as much as their fingers” (v.4).
The whole idea of their religiosity was to be noticed so that they could be accorded the respect of their membership in the group. Clothing styles and prayer parchments (phylaecteries) worn in the forehead and the arms were made to be prominent so you could not mistake their identity at gatherings, at prayer times and in the temple (v.5). They loved to be honored at banquets and religious gatherings. Special places were reserved for them as those representing the religious community. They loved to be addressed with titles and salutatory names that show their learning.
What follows are instructions and ways of humility (v. 8 – 12). Jesus taught those who listened to be different from the outward religiosity of the Scribes and Pharisees by instructing on the following:
1. Do not ask to be called a Rabbi for you are all are brothers and one teacher exists . v. 8).
2. Do not call anyone Father, for you only have one father in Heaven (v. 9).
3. Do not take the title of Leader, for only Christ is the Leader (v. 10)
4. The greatest among you is the servant (v. 11)
5. Our passage concludes with an important aphorism that has often been quoted: “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted”.
I was once in an unnamed African country where I attended a worship service at Thanksgiving Sunday. The event was removed from regular worship and organized instead as a fundraising. The pastor explained that the church needed an electric generator and so the women of the church decided to do it after the church service. As individuals were called to the table to formally begin the function, I noticed that everyone was called with a title that showed the profession they were engaged in or the amount of learning they had. And so there was Engineer so and so, Architect W E Thing, Dr. Mrs. So and so and Accountant Akpan. I wondered why there were so many titles. As a visitor, the usher told me that I have been chosen to join what he called “the high table” and so he wanted to know the proper title to introduce me. “Just called me the Rev Ette”. I instructed. “No Prof” he protested, aren’t you a professor? “You need to be properly introduced” he admonished. Titles and impressing others at gatherings have led to corruption where people claim qualifications they do not have and where others do whatever they can to cheat at examinations so that they can be properly addressed. I once asked a colleague in London why he was always dressing up in suit and tie even when he knows he had to run sometime to catch the bus. He told me “You need to dress the way you want to be addressed”. To my friend, it is the dress that makes the man or the woman.
In our postmodern world, we have so much that we strive to show class difference. It may be the type of car you drive. Some people want to drive the most expensive car to announce to the world that they have succeeded. Others want to join the club, though they may not afford the expensive car and so they spend a large amount of their salary to pay an expensive car note. Others want to live in an exclusive neighborhood and so they want a community that announces to the world that they are different. The house has long been a public display of wealth and class status and so the house is becoming bigger and bigger though we just need just one room to sleep. In our time, we no longer wear the phylacteries but we have changed that to names of designers and everyone wants to know whose gown we are wearing and whose suits we have on. Designer names have overtaken the signs others wore in the past and so no matter how ridiculously expensive the cloths are, we pay so that we can let our friends know that we have designer cloth or jewelry. Like the proverbial wolf, we allow our sense of importance to becloud our judgement and who we are outside become more important to what we are inside.
It is hard to be humble when your own sense of importance is uppermost in your mind. It is hard to be humble and be thankful when you think that all you have achieved is only through your effort alone. The interesting part is that we make excuses why we should display this behavior. We often tell ourselves “I deserve it, I have worked so hard it is time to pamper myself” Yes that may be true but when we concentrate in the here and now and see our success as our ability, we fail to be thankful. When we work solely to project to the world our own sense of self-importance we forget who the leader is. We forget who the teacher is, we forget to give glory to the great teacher and we forget to be thankful. When we see ourselves as being on top, we have a tendency to expect that others serve us. It is hard to serve when you see others as being beneath you. Those who are called to lead are called to serve. This is what is meant by servant leadership.
A story is told about the origins of the academic gown. A great teacher was invited to teach the prince about leadership and impart to the young man wisdom that would allow him to rule well when his time comes. The wise teacher taught the young man well for several years and on being satisfied that the young learner had acquired great wisdom, he told the king that his work is done. The king invited the great men of the kingdom to see the young man at the end of his learning, but on the day of the presentation, the wise teacher dressed his student in a beggar’s robe and a funny hat with a board on top. The king was furious at being embarrassed in front of so many dignitaries and ordered this teacher executed. Before being led away the teacher asked that he be allowed to explain why he dressed the student that way. He told the gathering that the gown worn by beggars was a symbol that his student was to serve and the hat was also a symbol that the student is ready to carry the burden of others. It was then that all agreed that the teacher was truly wise and so was born the academic gown.
How are you serving others? Are you a servant leader or do you expect others to serve you? Do you attribute your success to your effort alone or are you humbled by what God has done for you?
One of the favorite hymns we sing in church is “Let us Love and Sing and Wonder by John Newton the same writer who wrote Amazing Grace. With only two years of formal education, he joined his father at sea as a ship hand and grew to become a ship captain. With constant near death experience at sea at a time when technology was poor, he finally escaped the sea when he was rescued by natives after a shipwreck. He became a Christian and studied with the Wesley Brothers. He wrote several hymns but I want you to note his lines in the hymn I referred to early:
Let us love the Lord Who bought us,
Pitied us when enemies,
Called us by His grace, and taught us,
Gave us ears and gave us eyes:
He has washed us with His blood,
He presents our souls to God.
Yes the Lord bought us and called us by his grace and taught us. He endowed us with the senses to behold and to see the wonders of the world. He washed us with his blood and presents us to God. What you are is from God. Others had tried to be where you are today but not everyone made it. Stop telling yourself how good you are but learn to see the Grace of God in your life. Without humility it is hard to see all of these and without humility it is hard to see the need to serve God and each other. Let us thank God who has been with us and has blessed us and present us to God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
