THE BLIND GUIDES

One of the longest discourses in the New Testament is the Matthew 23 message to the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus starts this way: “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden” (23:2-4). That’s a nice opening for sermon-of-the-week.

Previous to this he had said: “They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch” (Matthew 15:14). This is what happens when religious leaders lead others down paths that are destructive, false and not the intent of written and oral traditions of Biblical thought. It takes others into the ditch (or pit). These guides are also headed to the ditch, but apparently have decided it is OK to do so. I fear they know longer know the difference… or they wouldn’t do it.

Come, they say, and we will lead you into the same ditch we are going into. Jesus uses thirty-nine verses in Matthew 23 to warn and tell what he thinks of the kind of religious thought and practice. ‘They don’t practice what they teach.’

Find a place where the shepherds teach, practice and example love, light, life and liberty. Follow them as they follow the Lord.

“Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’”
(Matthew 23:4-7 The Message) Jesus