How a New Batch of Pharisees Comes to Be

Mike Leake 1 Comment

I once had more CD’s than I have now.

My lack of CD’s isn’t simply because of the digital music revolution. It’s because shortly after I came to faith in Christ I had a tremendous bonfire. I felt a bit silly, to be honest. We were told to bring things that were keeping us from Christ and to put them in the fire. Most brought a couple small items—many symbolic. I hauled in 200 CD’s. While my peers were burning cd’s on Napster I was torching mine in a bonfire. Only Christian music for me…thank you.**

I was taught early on in our little SBC church that I needed to be careful about my witness. Listening to Pac wasn’t a good witness for others. I was beginning to work with teens at this point and as a minister of the gospel I needed to listen to different music. There were certain things which were tantamount to preserving Christian witness. Discussions on alcohol use among Christians was all the rage during this period. But it was a settled issue for many, and that because of preserving our witness.

During that first year of my walk with Jesus, one of the hardest things I did was burn that cd collection and slowly replace it with only Christian music. I thought then that this would be one of the most difficult things I would ever do. I knew there would be hard times ahead but I assumed that once this idol had toppled it’d be a bit easier to knock the others down.

I was wrong.

Basking in my cd burning victory over the forces of evil didn’t last long. I spent the first couple years cleaning up the outside of the cup. Then the Lord started working on those inward sins. We’re still there. Pride and Lust doesn’t burn as easily as an Eminem cd. I found that all I was really doing in burning those cd’s was clearing away outward dross. That wasn’t nearly as painful as the deep heart work the Lord would have to do in the years sense.

This is why I tweeted what I did last week:

When I became a Christian, I was taught very early in SBC churches to be very careful to preserve your witness. That meant don’t drink, don’t listen to ungodly music, etc. Today our witness is being harmed b/c we refuse to “act justly, love mercy, and humbly walk with God”.

I thank God for that early season of clearing away dross. I’m glad for the work Christ has done in helping me with a reputation for holiness and godliness. But if that’s only a gloss and it doesn’t flow from the heart, then it’s going to eventually be exposed. I believe that for far too long in our circles we’ve given attention to the outside of the cup and not the inward. We are being called into that deeper discipleship of acting justly, truly loving mercy, and humbly walking with God. Because we have neglected these weightier matters we are being publicly scourged. Our witness is harmed.

Some 2500 years ago another religious group had a similar season. The Israelites were outwardly an upstanding bunch. They didn’t smoke, drink, curse, or chew and they certainly didn’t go with girls who do. The religious leaders had an outward reputation of being all about holiness and such. But they lacked administering actual justice. They didn’t love mercy. They weren’t actually walking with God. And so a prophet by the name of Micah called them out on it.

And that, in a roundabout way, is how the Pharisees were born…

Let that sink in for a moment.

The religious leaders were excoriated for their hypocrisy and lack of loving justice and mercy. As they were exposed the whole thing blew up. Out of the ashes came a group of righteous young bucks. The first few generations likely experienced real repentance and a hungering and thirsting after God. Their new passion for justice and mercy turned them from disgrace to people of favor. And so they filled the vacuum of leadership left by those non-justice loving former leaders.

Over the years as they remained in power a subtle shift took place. They stopped actually caring about justice and mercy and walking with God. Now they just outwardly loved justice and mercy and walking with God. They did all the right things and said all the right things in order to remain in power, but they became just as much of hypocrites as their ancestors. They were wonderfully conservative in their biblical exposition but they had forfeited the inside-out nature of what it means to follow Yahweh.

And then a prophet named Jesus came along…

 

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**Full disclosure. That really was an important moment for me. It was helpful for me to make a clean break from all those cd’s which had become a bit too important for me.

Photo source: here

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Fighting Injustice Without Being a Drunk Guy on Horseback

Mike Leake

Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other. –Martin Luther

The believers to whom James is writing were experiencing some serious injustice. Their wages were being improperly withheld from them. They were being taken advantage of by the wealthy. The justice system in which they operated heavily favored the rich. Therefore, they didn’t stand a chance in court.

Truthfully, I don’t believe I’ve ever experienced the type of injustice James’ audience is facing. I’ve had terrible things happen to me. I’ve had my share of suffering. I’ve lived most of my life on the poverty side of wealth by American standards. But still, I haven’t experienced this. But I could. And I know of brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing some of these injustices.

I find James’ counsel to be interesting. And in his counsel I find a strategy for believers as we engage an increasingly volatile non-Christian culture. I want to use the word of God to prepare my heart and to develop a theology before this suffering happens. James 5, in particular, helps us navigate what to do when injustice happens. There are three ditches which we are prone to follow off into in our journey on the straight and narrow.

The Sides of the Horse

First, we must avoid the Almost Asaph path. Asaph was the writer of Psalm 73. He had a brief moment when he was “brutish and ignorant”. He looked at the unbelievers around him who seemed to be living life to the fullest. They were eating Ruth Chris steak dinners and Asaph had something akin to a half-eaten Banquet salisbury steak meal. He was given over to grumbling for a season and almost consumed by it. James encourages his audience to not go down that path (James 5:9).

Secondly, we must avoid the way of the Zealots. James’ call to “be patient” is set against the militant response of Zealots. The kingdom is not to come by force. The Scriptures are clear that we must not “take revenge” but “leave room for God’s wrath”. The slow plodding and faithful waiting of the farmer goes against the political philosophy and stirring of the Zealot. The way of patience and trusting in the Lord is the way of Jesus.

Thirdly, we must avoid the way of inactivity. James’ illustration of the farmer helps us to see that his call to patience is not a call to inactivity. Farmers don’t simply sow their seed and then sit back and wait on the rain. They do everything they can to bring about the growth of their desired object. Yet, they also realize that it’s ultimate growth is dependent upon factors outside their control. Therefore, inactivity is not the way to respond to injustice.

The Saddle

James gives us a couple of interesting models for this biblical patience in the face of injustice; namely, the prophets and Job. These guys weren’t quiet at all. The whole book of Job is about Job trying to get an audience with God so that he can plead his case. He feels as if he is being unjustly treated and so he wants to make a direct appeal to God.

Likewise, the prophets are far from quiet. Read Amos and tell me these guys weren’t bold. Consider the life of Ezekiel. Ponder the tears of Jeremiah. Try calling those in power harlots as Hosea did and see where that gets you. They did not back down from fighting injustice. But notice how they did it. They did it with biblical truth. They did it with the gospel. Our greatest sword for fighting injustice is the gospel.

This is what I think many are saying when they say our efforts towards racial reconciliation should be about the gospel. I agree with this. But then we seem to take that step a bit further, and pretend like we only need to rehearse the facts of the gospel. Nothing I’m writing in this article is meant to contradict or walk-back from what I said in this article: Why Racial Reconciliation Requires More Than Gospel Proclamation.

So, let’s be honest here. The prophets preached against real actual injustice and called upon real actual leaders to enact real actual policies for the good of those being oppressed. And James is calling us to take up this prophetic voice–to patiently proclaim prophetically.

But let’s also not fall of the horse the other way. Let’s not diminish the gospel and the power of the gospel in transforming lives and hearts and actually leading to real institutional change. Let’s not pretend as if our unity in the gospel isn’t a real actual unity which really does transcend color of skin, broken ideologies, and every shred of culture. The gospel creates something new.

The only sword we have in fighting injustice is the word of God. It doesn’t mean that sword doesn’t at times tear down old economic policies or rip to shreds communities built on injustice. Nor does it mean that this sword doesn’t rebuild old fallen structures and replace them with systems which actually reflect the justice of the Lord. But it does mean that the power we have is only going to be found in patient prophetic proclamation.

I suppose you could say that’s easy for me to say as one who at this moment doesn’t have a ton in common with James’ audience. And you’d be correct. But it doesn’t make this application of what James is saying any less true. We have in God’s Word an outline of how we respond to injustice. The specifics of this are difficult, I’ll admit. But this is the path we must pursue.