from Dining with Jesus

In Luke 11, Jesus says:

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

“Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.” Luke 11:42-44

When I pastored in Atlanta, we had two services on Sunday morning. After each service, I used to stand at the back and greet people as they’d walk out. A lot of people told me that meant something to them. They appreciated that, and so I did that. Sometimes my hands would literally ache as I stood there listening to what they had to say, smiling and endeavoring to be polite. I felt like this was something I was doing for the congregation. It was an act of love to stand there.

You know what? When I left the pastorate and moved up to Wears Valley to start the children’s home, I couldn’t believe how much I missed shaking hands with those people. I couldn’t believe how much I missed that feedback. I couldn’t believe how much I had depended, without knowing it, on the affirmation that I received from the folks who listened. I had been kidding myself. I thought I was doing this for them. The fact is, a huge part of what kept me motivated was the fact that I was doing that for me.

We can kid ourselves a lot about why we do what we do. We don’t like to think this about ourselves, but the fact is, you don’t have to be a Pharisee to like being recognized. There are times when we’d rather go incognito, but most of the time we like it when we’re recognized in town and people say, “Hey, how are you doing?” We like it when they offer us the best seats. The problem is when we start doing what we do in order to get recognized, when we start doing what we do because we feel we deserve recognition and the best seats and all that stuff.

I’d like to think I’m not as bad as the Pharisees that Jesus is saying “woe” to. But even if He doesn’t say, woe, w-o-e, to me, He does say, whoa, w-h-o-a, as in: “Stop! Cut it out. You can’t go around insisting that everybody has to recognize you and your contributions and realize what wonderful things you’ve done.” Here’s the deal: You may not insist on that in the way that you treat others, but if you’re craving that, you are guaranteed to be disappointed. You are guaranteed to have your eyes on the wrong thing. And not only will you miss out on the heart of worship that you should have toward God, who ALONE is worthy of our praise, but you’re going to live a much more miserable life. “You foolish people,” Jesus said. No matter what you have accomplished in this life, in a few generations, nobody’s going to remember.

Last year, I was doing a conference in Western Carolina and I had a little free time so I went by the cemetery where my parents are buried. I noticed all these names of people that I knew in the cemetery. Here was Robert Barker’s mom. Here was Robert Barker’s dad. And here was Sam Thielman’s dad. And here was Ruth Graham’s dad, and mom. Here were all these people, there in the cemetery, that I had known. But my kids didn’t know those people. And someday, there won’t be anybody living who knows those people. Just names on a tombstone. And if you get a really big tombstone, you can put more stuff on there about what you did. And you know, who will care? Nobody! I mean, it’s just amazing.

Jesus says, “Woe to you. You want to be recognized. You love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it.” Now, that statement had meaning on several levels. Jesus is not only saying, “You’re going to be totally forgotten.” But to walk over a grave was to become ceremonially unclean. And Jesus was saying, “Just getting near you makes people dirty.” Now that’s potent. Some would even say unkind.

As with Jesus’ other statements to the Pharisees, I have to be careful not to automatically distance myself from these rebukes. If I am not careful, what Jesus says to them can go “in one ear and out the elbow.” I pray that God will help me see my own potential for the same sins that ruled the Pharisees.

…from our Executive Director, Jim Wood.