Spiritual Hiccups - Ticking Off Jesus

Have you ever wondered what Jesus would think if he visited your congregation?  I'm not talking about his presence being there but about the Jesus we meet in the gospels walking in off the street and dropping in on a worship service, a fellowship dinner, a committee meeting, and so on.  I was prompted to wonder about such things after reading today's gospel and being reminded once again how it took religious people to get Jesus really honked off.

For many of us who grew up in the church, this fact is sometimes missed.  Pharisees, scribes, and such have become such stock, bad guys that we don't necessarily see much beyond cartoon, cardboard cutouts.  (I grew up in the South where sometimes Catholics got the same sort of treatment.  If the Catholics did it, surely it was a bad idea, which explains why Ash Wednesday, Lent, and so on are somewhat new to me.)  But what if we replace the term "Pharisee" with something not having the same negative stereotypes?

Today's gospel features Pharisees and lawyers, and I don't think it is all that much of stretch to rename them pastors and theologians.  (Maybe Protestant pastors; we'll let the priests and Sadducees be Catholic.)  It isn't very hard for me to imagine Jesus lashing out at some of us pastors and theologians for being overly concerned about keeping our churches going, about getting the doctrines straight, about worshiping in the proper manner, without worrying much about issues such as justice.  If Jesus visited our committee and board meetings, I can visualize him getting enraged over how little "good news for the poor" gets emphasized and how the poor are often viewed as little more than opportunities for mission projects, who should show gratitude to us for our noble efforts.

It isn't that pastors or theologians are such bad folks, but then neither were those Pharisees and lawyers Jesus addresses.  But all of us can get terribly preoccupied with running our little religious enterprises and mistake all that work and energy for loving God and serving others.

It took religious people to really get Jesus angry.  Perhaps that is because he thinks we should know better.  Perhaps that means we religious types would do well to spend more of our time getting closer to Jesus, letting him invade every little corner of our lives, and letting him rattle our cages now and then so that we get back on the path he shows us.

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