Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

- Matthew 23:1-12

In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus makes his grand critique of the Pharisees and scribes and their ways of thinking and practicing religion. We begin the chapter with these verses above, in which Jesus begins his critique and sets out his complaints against the Pharisees for his followers (the disciples and the crowds). Once again, as in the confrontation with the religious leaders as they have tested him with questions over the previous six readings (see readings of this past Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday), Jesus is unafraid to criticize those in power. During this week in Jerusalem, after Jesus has been welcomed with Messianic greetings, he has cleansed the temple, and confronted and been questioned and tested by the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians. In yesterday's reading, he was questioned about the greatest commandment by a lawyer, one of the Pharisees. After Jesus' answer and refutation, and his additional question in response, about the identity and divine nature of the Messiah, no one dared to question him further. It's in this context that we begin reading Jesus' discourse against the Pharisees.

Jesus begins. "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice." We start with a warning against hypocrisy, but which embraces tradition and the role of honoring authority in religious practice. My study bible notes: The Pharisees "have God-given authority and many God-given commandments, but they are personally ungodly, coldhearted and vainglorious. Their teaching is to be honored, but they are not to be imitated." Moses' seat was a special chair in the synagogue assigned to the most famous rabbi of the town. Jesus continues: "They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. " They impose difficulties on others, but show no mercy or godliness themselves. "They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others." Their desire is for the "praise of men" and not the "praise of God." The emphasis here is on appearance and vainglory. The phylacteries and fringe borders of garments are articles worn by pious Jews to remind them of God's law. It is not by any means the religious practice of wearing these things that Jesus condemns; it is rather the sum total of emphasis on religious appearance alone, and the lack of internal commitment and faith to the nature of God and therefore the practice of mercy. Jesus is warning us all of the dangers of emphasizing outward practice alone and personal glory, without the internal commitment of true faith and living that faith, aside from seeking merely the approval of others' opinions.

Jesus continues to advise his disciples and the crowds who follow him: "But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ." My study bible notes that, as God is our true Father, a true teacher leads his people to God. The Pharisees do the opposite: they place themselves in God's stead. A note reads: "The rabbinic teachers assumed an intrinsic value for their own office as the seat of authority. According to the prevailing system of the Pharisees, the student in rabbinic tradition submitted himself to his master's authority in a total and servile manner. The call of Jesus to His disciples differed radically from the rabbinic system in that (1) the disciples were not merely servants but beloved friends; (2) their calling did not imply they would themselves become independent masters; (3) the brotherhood of disciples would remain unified and loyal to Jesus." So it is in this sense that we have One Teacher, and One Father - and we as followers are to be united under this structure of authority and understanding. We are brothers and sisters in this deepest sense of relationship to Creator and to Teacher. When St. Paul, in his letters, encourages us all to understand that we are each a part of the body of Christ, it is with this spirit in mind - we, as unique creations, are complementary to one another in this model. We all are necessary; we all are parts of the whole. We are not the Church of one man or another, we are - as the sum total of believers - the Church of Christ. So, these words are not a prohibition against using the words "father" or "teacher" (they are both applied to people in the New Testament and were used in the earliest Christian communities). It is a warning, my study bible points out, not to use these words undeservedly. To my reading, it is a call for putting first things first, in right order and relatedness, similarly to the way, in yesterday's reading, Jesus gave us the two great commandments, first and second, in their order and for right-relatedness.

"The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Once again, we are given the correct order of right-relatedness. And once again, Jesus uses words and phrases that are by now familiar to teach us the nature of the structure of power in this kingdom and in His Church. Among recent readings, we have been taught that "the last shall be first, and the first shall be last," and that "whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave." These recent readings are not the first time in the gospel these teachings were given, either. We have a repeated and emphatic emphasis on the teaching of humility and its essential nature as the key component in right-relatedness in our Church. There is no getting around these teachings; they are so central to Jesus' notion of authority that if we fail to grasp these notions, then we fail altogether at understanding his very mission in this world. The second quotation, above (from Matthew 20:17-28), continues, "just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."

These criticisms are central to Jesus' critique of the Pharisees. But we can't underestimate their importance to us today. Once again, we approach these scriptures with the knowledge that we are now in Advent, and it is a time to consider how the coming of this manifestation of the Divine and the laws and teachings of his kingdom that he will bring with him will apply to us, and shake up our own lives and our own relatedness. How are the ways in which Jesus addresses religious hypocrisy applicable in our own day and time, and to ourselves? Do we run the danger of believing that worship - and its wonderful myriad and beautiful forms - are some form of competition? I remember Fr. Thomas Keating, the wonderful teacher of Centering Prayer, telling a story about being a young monk, and trying to "out pray" some of the other young monks. We all run this danger of seeing ourselves in the eyes of others, rather than focusing on the relationship with God, to our central Teacher, and in the loving equality established in this right-relatedness with our brothers and sisters. Competition - of an unhealthy nature - always necessarily seems to imply idolatry in one form or another. Without the great central understanding in our hearts of what we place in worship there first, it seems that we, as human beings, can only see ourselves in competition to one another. Right-relatedness, as conferred by these teachings and the essential components Jesus spoke of in yesterday's reading on the two great commandments, means that we are essentially in competition with ourselves. If our central relationship is to our Creator, and all outward behavior stems from this, then competition becomes a matter of trying to see today the things we couldn't see yesterday, and moving forward in this relationship in that sense. And in so doing, the love we learn should help us to see that we are here to help one another and support each other in this journey, and to take joy in that. The Advent message, then, has to be that this light coming into the world,this great event we prepare for, is one of a great radicalizing love, that will re-establish our relationships as brothers and sisters, and teach us to see beyond our idols, whatever they may be. May you be blessed to taste and share this love, to whatever extent you are capable, and to expand that capacity.