Do you know of any situations where trouble is coming unless people change? What, if anything, can you do to help them? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1063).
"O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent
to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as
a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
(Luke 13:34 NIV).
"Woe
to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! 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 should have practiced the latter, without
neglecting the former. (Matthew 23:23 NIV).
It
is worth asking "why do prophets have such a tough time?"
The answer is pretty much always the same. The self-righteous are
enraged and scandalize that anyone could find anything at all serious
about them to criticize. This is due to the fact that in order to be
self-righteous, one must have carefully contained ethical
imperatives. Broader implications along with the "spirit of the
matter" is not to be entertained under any circumstances. Thus,
for example, the self-righteous rage at anyone they consider a
traitor. Yet, traitorous acts are by them carefully delimitated.
Jesus was to them clearly a traitor to his religion. He was obviously
worthy of death. Yet all the time, while Jesus's accusers
meticulously observed the letter of the law, they flagrantly violated
the spirit of the law. They were hardhearted and unforgiving and
this had many practical, everyday implications resulting in their
being essentially cruel to others-- thus being antithetical to the
centrality of God as a loving being. They accused Jesus of traitorous
acts for something that they themselves were most thoroughly and
seriously guilty of. Once again the many ironies of human behavior
and history are plainly evident.
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