As an English teacher, I seriously appreciate Jesus’ way with words in The Gospels. 

Usually these words are combatting The Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day, who believe they are spiritually superior to those around them, but in reality are nothing like it. They are oppressive:

They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

That’s not a church I’d want to be a part of anytime soon.

That’s a church where the leaders see the suffering of their members and turn away, pretending they can’t see it. They don’t care at all what impact the suffering has on people’s lives. The less they know the better. Sure, the suffering might ruin their lives, but the leader is sitting pretty. Why bother? It doesn’t serve the church leader.

The church member can suffer in silence. The Pharisee has got their fine reputation to focus on and promote instead.

When it comes to the Pharisees, it’s like teaching a class that thinks they’re gifted and talented, when actually they are in need of specialist remedial intervention, long term.

Sure, they can ‘code break’ and read on a surface level, but they’ve never yet managed to see the layers within the text:

You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness… You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Personally, I’m not sure why this imagery of a camel hasn’t taken off in the vernacular the way the camel going through the eye of a needle has. It’s brilliant.

You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel

Oh, they can tick all the boxes, and then some: attend church regularly (might even run one), studied at Bible college, know the original languages of the text, consistently at all the big inter-church conferences, and yet…

You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel

What a perfect description of seemingly fastidious attention to righteousness: getting spotlessly clean and clothes freshly ironed… before going outside and rolling in the mud.

Legalism at its finest. Legalism so extreme that one might call it fundamentalism.

And fundamentalism is usually very, very ugly.

As a school teacher I am familiar with fights in the school yard. I am also familiar with fighting back in the school yard.

According to Shakespeare “The quality of mercy is not strained” but for some it is.

Forgiveness is not an easy task. But it’s a necessary task.

In The Gospels Jesus also shares the words of what we now know as “The Lord’s Prayer”. The prayer includes the line:

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

A close read of the text makes it clear that God’s forgiveness and our forgiveness operate hand in hand. When we fail to forgive, we block the doorway of God’s forgiveness coming through to us.

Forgiveness is not an easy task. But it’s a necessary task.

Neither do I think forgiveness is a linear process. Some days are better than others, with no pattern to them and sometimes no known reason why.

Forgiveness is not an easy task. But it’s a necessary task.

As a school teacher I am familiar with fights in the school yard. But children are not the only ones who fight. Adults fight and fight back as well.

And so, forgiveness isn’t just something we need to teach to children. Adults have to learn to forgive as well. For “The quality of mercy is not just child’s play.”

But sometimes we think we are above that as adults. Sometimes we think we can’t let people get away with it.

This is when we sabotage the activism of others that doesn’t promote ourselves.

And when families break apart.

And when nations drop bombs on each other.

But God tells us not to give into fear or take matters into our own hands. The writer of Hebrews elaborates on this theme:

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For,

“In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”

And, “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”

But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

We can know that justice is ultimately secure.

Yours in the playground,

Alison

This post inspired by reflections on sections of ‘What’s so Amazing about Grace’ by Philip Yancey