Shutting Down The Hypocrites, Especially Ourselves

Thirty-first Sunday in Course 2024

How could you get a hypocrite to shut up? They are called “Karens” these days, which to me is an disrespectful misuse of a woman’s name. Nonetheless, no matter what you call that kind of behavior, pharisaical people are just about as irritating as one can be. And, to be clear, that means holding another person to a standard one is unable to meet himself. Jesus, here in Mark’s Gospel, gives us a start on our understanding the proper response to hypocrisy.

But first there is an important point being made about our faith by the author of the letter to the Hebrews. We don’t know when in the first century that letter was written, or who wrote it. But it appears on casual reading that the author, prophetically speaking for the Lord, wanted to answer the question, “how can the life, death and resurrection of Jesus be a sacrifice atoning for sin, when Jesus was not a Levite? He was a descendant of King David, of the tribe of Judah. Don’t priests have to first be of the tribe of Levi?” That was probably a common objective raised to Paul and the other apostles as they preached to the Jews they encountered.

Remember that in Israel, at least at the time of David, the king could offer sacrifices. Psalm 110 has this in mind saying “You [the king] are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” Now Melchizedek was king of Jerusalem at the time of Abraham, and David inherited that throne when he conquered Jerusalem. At various times David offered sacrifice as a priest-king in that line. King and priest, first David and then His heir, Our Lord Jesus.

In fact, we have good evidence that the high priest, Caiaphas, at the time of Jesus, had no right to be high priest, since he was not a descendant of Moses’ brother, Aaron.

And the argument goes on: the various high priests of Israel, at Jerusalem, were sinners just like the rest of humanity. And the latter ones weren’t even appointed according to the Mosaic Law. So the accession by Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Messiahship and priesthood was fitting. In the act of offering His body and blood as sacrifice for sin, acting as both victim and priest, he encountered and conquered death and sin. He, “holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” He “holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues for ever. Consequently, he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

That is why the psalmist and we can sing “The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation.”

Our worship, purified and offered by God’s Son, Jesus Christ, enables each of us to follow Him by loving God above all things, and our neighbors as ourselves. We do this by never disobeying the negative commandments in the Ten great ones, and always striving to do good for those around us, especially our families.

So how can we get hypocrites to keep silent? And I mean first the hypocrite that all of us can channel in our worst moments. We act as Jesus did, not judging others ourselves and providing the best example possible in our own lives. That includes continual repentance of our little sins, and confession of the worst ones.