By Martins Oloja
This week I have had
to deepen my understanding of why Master Jesus had to be angry with (religious)
hypocrites of his time. Jesus is introduced to us in the scriptures as a calm,
cool and collected teacher, preacher and healer until he encounters hypocrisy and
speaks angrily about hypocrites. In the account in Matthew 23, Jesus who for
the first time shows that he can lose his cool too, pronounces a series of woes
on the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees.
He condemns the Pharisees’ lack of spiritual
values, as shown by the arbitrary distinctions they make. For example, they
say: “If anyone swears by the temple, it
is nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is under
obligation.” They thus show their moral blindness, for they put more emphasis
on the gold of the temple than on the spiritual value of Jehovah’s place
of worship. And thus, they “have
disregarded the weightier matters of the Law, namely, justice, mercy and
faithfulness.” (v-16-23).
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| *Mugabe |
