The Rich Man and Lazarus - A Bible story whose message is often missed or misinterpreted. 

The Rich Man and Lazarus is a story found in Luke chapter 16, verses 19-31. It has become controversial in recent years as people debate the meaning of these verses. The main problem that both sides of this debate is that both sides come to this parable looking at it through 21st century eyes instead of 1st century eyes. In doing so, both sides sermons have become lacking or so it seems to me. This is my attempt to briefly show what I see in these verses.

To see the message here, you must first go back to Luke 15:1 and see who is here at this time. When looking at this verse, you see that along with Jesus and His disciples, there were Tax Collectors, Sinners (A word that is used to describe Jewish people whom the Pharisees and and Experts in the Biblical Law condemned because of their unholy lifestyle.), along with Pharisees and Experts in the law. The rest of chapter 15 is devoted to Jesus telling parables (fictional stories that teach Biblical Truths) that defend Jesus' association with the Tax Collectors and Sinners and describe what His mission is to them. 

At the start of chapter 16 Jesus turns to His disciples and tells them the parable of a dishonest steward.  This is a parable that teaches - "make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, so that when it runs out, you will be welcomed into the eternal homes."

This offends the Pharisees.  This brings us to verse 14 and 15 which is key to understanding the upcoming parable. These verses say  - "14 The Pharisees (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed him. 15 But Jesus said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight." You might want to reread verse 15 because this is key to the upcoming verses.

Going from verse 15 we skip down to the text for this post.

"19 “There was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 But at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus whose body was covered with sores, 21 who longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. In addition, the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 “Now the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And in Hades, as he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side. 24 So he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am in anguish in this fire.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. 26 Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 27 So the rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, father—send Lazarus to my father’s house 28 (for I have five brothers) to warn them so that they don’t come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they must respond to them.’ 30 Then the rich man said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 He replied to him, ‘If they do not respond to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Now the first thing that I want to discuss is the question of whether or not this is a parable or a true story.  Both sides make valid points to their case, but in the end by making their point, they miss the truth that this teaching brings. The first thing that I want to point out is that this story is in the form of a parable. The starting words, "There was a" is much like "Once upon a time" in the American dialect, which means that this is a fable or more truthfully a parable. However, in the upcoming verses, one of the characters is named Lazarus. That is rare in parables and many believe that shows that this is a true story that Jesus is telling. People who argue these viewpoints do so because of how they want to interpet verses 22-31. More on that later.

The first thing that I want to look at is "the rich man". Who is this man. The first thing that is very oblivious.  He has wealth. He dresses in the finest clothes. He not only eats everyday, but his everyday meals are feasts, much like our Thanksgiving feasts.  What is often left out in sermons is that this is a man whom the Pharisees would praise and honor.  That means that the rich man is a good Jewish man. He does all the right things. He goes to and participates in the Jewish festivals.  He would demonstrate his spiritual cleanliness by going into a Mikveh and then into Synagogue or the Temple. 

Now the second main character in this story is Lazarus. He is on the other end of the spectrum. He is very poor. His body was covered in sores, which would make him spiritually unclean  and unable to gather and/or worship with others. He was reduced to having to beg for food and found himself sitting at the gate of this rich man's house. Now someting that is often missed in the telling of this story is the meaning of the name Lazarus. His name means "whom God helps". The meaning of this name would not be lost on Jesus' audience and adds to the meaning of the story.  Now the main desire of Lazarus is for table scraps from the rich man's table. These would be the crumbs that were often ate by the animals. ( It is tempting for me to go a goose chase to Mark 7:28, but I will not do so here).

Now we get to their deaths and again we see the extreme differences in how this is carried out. The Rich Man died and was buried. His funeral would have been a royal one full of mourners and a large procession going to his burial where he was sealed inside a tomb. The poor man also died. What the story doesn't say and that would have been understood by the original audience is that Lazarus' body would have been casted in a burning garbage pit in a place called Gehenna. A place full of maggots, and fire.  

Nest we get to see the other worldly destinations of the two main characters. The rich man is in an eternal Gehenna with fire and worms and Lazarus (whose name means "whom God helps") is carried to Abraham's side or bosom. 

Now we meet a third character in this story. Father Abraham. This term of God points out that both of these men were descendants of Abraham. They were both Jewish men, but now in the ultimate role reversal -  the one (who was highly praised in life) is in torment and the one (who was highly despised in life) is by the side of God and God is holding him like one would a child or someone when you are comforting them in their grief. And we see here what Jesus was talking about in verse 15 ( For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight.).  The rich man is now the beggar (desiring a drop of water from Lazarus) and Lazarus is now in wealth.  We could end the post right here because that is the main point. The difference between the values we put on people and what God values. However if we did that we would miss the dueling viewpoints and their arguments over verses 23 - 31. The people who generally want this to be a parable do so because they want to dismiss this description of Hell or Judgement. However even if they are right about this as a parable, they miss that God gave His judgement in the afterlife and not this life. Also from what I have noticed is that this viewpoint waters down Jesus words - "utterly detestable" to the point where they do not carry any meaning or consequence. 

 Now the other side of this debate is the literalists who take this as a literal place of judgement. (Those who know me know that I come from this side of the debate). However many of these people miss what these verses teach.  This teaching comes from verses 27-31.  (27 So the rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, father—send Lazarus to my father’s house 28 (for I have five brothers) to warn them so that they don’t come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they must respond to them.’ 30 Then the rich man said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 He replied to him, ‘If they do not respond to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’). 

 The rich man's request for someone to rise from the dead points out to him wanting someone to go and describe this place of torment to his family who is still alive. In other words, the rich man was wanting someone to go back and speak with authority about judgement, and thee fire and brimstone of Hell.  This is the message of a lot of evangelists, preachers, teachers, and pastors of today. Now the danger of this is that they all miss what Jesus is teaching in the next verse. They have Moses and the Prophets. Moses is referring to the first five books of what we call the Old Testament, the first major division of that Testament. The Prophets refer to the last 17 books of teh Old Testament and the last major division (Sometimes this division is further divided into Major Prophets and Minor Prophets). This phrase Moses and the Prophets is a synonym for the scriptures. Jesus would demonstrate the worthlessness of this teaching by literally raiseing people from the dead and no where in scripture does it say that anyone became a disciple of Jesus from these men. You see people who preach these sermons do so to produce converts, but Jesus isn't looking for converts. He is wanting disciples.   A convert may say the sinner prayer, but seldom has the works coming from their hearts that show love and faith. As James would later say in his letter - their faith is dead. a disciple who commits his life to the following of Jesus. They learn what Jesus says and they strive daily to become more like him so that when someone sees them they see Jesus through them.  

So the proverbial question here is - where do you find yourself in this narrative? 

Righteous Lot and the story of Sodom

 I have felt the need lately to go back and look at the story of Lot.  The man who was Abraham's nephew and will forever be known for living in Sodom.  This is a familiar story, but I want to look at the whole study and see what the Bible really says about it.  As we head into this story, we do so knowing that Lot was a Righteous man as recorded in 2 Peter 2. 

We first hear of Lot in Genesis 11 in the genealogy of Shem who was the son of Noah (The man who is linked to an ark (boat) and the flood). We get down to Terah who was the Father of Abram and Haran.  Haran was the father of Lot.  Then Haran dies, and Terah takes his son Abram, Abram's wife - Sarai (who was also his half-sister), and his grandson Lot and they head out to Canaan. While they  had reached a place called Charan (Most translation say Haran which is confusing since this is also the name of Abram's dead brother). while they were there, Terah dies. That leaves Abram, Sarai, and Lot. Then The Lord tells Abram to go to the land of Canaan and they all go.

Now when a famine comes upon the land, they escape to the land of Egypt. While there  They tell Pharaoh that Sarai is Abram's sister and not his wife and Pharoah takes Sarai to be his wife.  God then starts causes bad things to happen and Pharaoh discovers that Abram and Sarai are actually married and he kicks the whole bunch out of Egypt. Lot was a part of all of this. So they left Egypt and head for the wilderness of the Negeb. 

At that time, both Abram and Lot were successful ranchers who had both stock and herds of animals and the land there could not support both men's livestock and fighting would break out because of that. So Abram gets together with Lot and they decide to go different ways as way for them to maintain their relationship with each other. And so Lot decides to go to the Eden-like setting of the Jordan Valley where the city kingdoms of Sodom and Gomorrah existed. and Abram heads further into the land of Canaan. 

While Lot was living in that land, a war broke out and a number of kings invaded and made war with Sodom, Gomorrah and the region and won the war.  They also captured Lot and Lots possessions and went on their way. When this news reached Abram, Abram raised an army and went after these kings and won the victory and took back everything that this kings had took including Lot and Lot's possessions. Abram then headed back to meet up with the king of Sodom and there he also met the priest king of Salem named Melchizedek. Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the spoils of victory and then he returned everything to the king of Sodom minus the offerings to Melchizedek and also a part to the men who helped Abram.

At this point we skip forward a few chapters and we find that Abram is now Abraham and Sarai is now Sarah.  Abraham has a son named Ishmael with Sarah's handmaid - Hagar.  Also the ritual of circumcision has begun.

Abraham is resting during the heat of the day when 3 men appear before him. Now these men must have had an otherworldly appearance. I say that by Abraham's reaction and in a few verses we see a similar reaction from Lot. Now it is revealed that one of these men was the Lord Jehovah and the other two were angels. Here we see among other things the reveal that Sodom, Gomorrah and the whole region would be destroyed. Abraham then intercedes for Sodom and The Lord tells Abraham that if there are 10 righteous men in the city, the city would be spared.

So what was the people in this region doing that was so evil? The verses that I've been suminizing have already said that they were guilty of living for sensual pleasure. Ezekiel 16:49-50 tells us that their sin was that they had arrogance, abundant food, prosperous ease of living, did not aid the poor and needy, did abominations   (sexual sins from having sex with anyone who is not your spouse, (including other family members) same sex relationships, and bestiality - Jude also hints at them doing bestiality).  But now let's get back to the story. These two angels approach the city gates of Sodom and that is where Lot is at.  It is interesting that since the rescue of the people of Sodom by Abraham (Lot's Uncle) that he now sits at the city gates which is a place of influence and honor. Lot has a similar reaction to Abraham when he sees these otherworldly people and talks them into coming to his house, getting their feet washed, eating and spending the night. The Angels agree to this and after they have finished eating, all the men of the city had gathered outside of Lot's house. These men had gathered to gangrape these angels.  Now, many people teach that this was a homosexual act, but it wasn't. Homosexuality is congenial, and this was not. this was forced. This style of rape is about destroying a person, with their penis as their weapon. Lot offers to sacrifice his two youngest daughters to save the otherworldly men. The response of the mob shows us that Lot was trying to use his influence for good, when they cry out against Lot saying that he came that he came there as a guest and now has become a judge over them. So the mob decide to do to Lot what they wanted to do to the strangers plus more. The otherworldly men or angels pull Lot inside and tell him to gather his kin. Lot goes to his two son in laws but they treat Lot like he was like Don Quixote.  The angels then tells Lot to take his wife and two remaining daughters and leave the city. They then pretty much have to take them by the hand and drag them out of the city and tell them to leave the area and to not look back. Lot's wife does look back and becomes a pillar of salt. Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region was destroyed by fire and sulfur raining down on the region, but Lot had interceded for the town of Zoar and at first went there and then he went on further into a cave where his daughters thought that they were the last ones standing. They get their father drunk and have sex with him and bear him sons. I included this because when God delivered Israel out of Egypt later on, He tells them to leave the incestuous descendants of Lot alone and let them dwell in the land.

It is important that we as Christians get this story right, because God uses this story as how it will be in the end times and how God can and will deliver His people out of destruction.

The start of Sin and its Cure

 One thing that I've noticed over the course of my life is this sin that no one talks about. We find it throughout scriptures. We see it in our nation. We place  these people on high pedestals.  Our political elections are designed to put people who demonstrate this sin into power..We even find this sin within our churches, and I believe that it is this sin that is causing our church attendance to decline and the moral decay of our nation to increase.

Before I go any further, let me post a couple of verses of scriptures to demonstrate where this sin takes all of us.  The verses are Isaiah 14: 13-14. I'm quoting the NASB in all verse references in this blogpost.

13 "But you said in your heart,

'I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.

14 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.'

As you can see these verses are talking about the subject elevating himself to God.  These verses are from a bigger context dealing with God's judgement of certain people and nations and there is a debate about who these verses are referring to, but no matter what the position of that debate you may hold, the meaning of what I am discussing here is the same.  I believe that self-exalting is to sin what love is to righteousness. 

To look at this, let's go back to the Garden Of Eden and look at what made the fruit of the Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil so tempting.  We find what I'm talking about in Genesis 3:5

 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

This is the verse right before the fruit looked good to eat. It was when Adam and Eve saw the tree as a means to exalt them to be God's equal that caused the sin of eating.

Now before we go any further, let us acknowledge that there are two ways to exalt oneself. you can elevate yourself by your actions and achievements or you an elevate yourself by cutting down others. Both ways will result in you being exalted about the others.

Now applying that to God's law that He handed down to Israel, we see:

Worshipping other Gods instead of the one true God, lowers God from His rightful Status.

Making images of a God that is beyond being represented in an Image, lowers God's Status.

When you use God's name in a vain way, you lower God's status.

Working 7 days a week or forcing your hired help to work seven days a week is a way to exalt yourself. 

When you dishonor your father or mother, you lower their status and exalt yourself

When you murder someone, you exalt yourself above them.

When you commit adultery, your cut down and exalt yourself over your spouse, the person you have the affair with and also their spouse.

Stealing exalts yourself over others.

Bearing false witness or lying about someone else, cuts them down to exalt yourself.

Even just wanting or desiring to do those things, even if you don't act upon those thoughts, serves to exalt yourself over others.

Now maybe we can look back at what I started this blog post about. The American way is to honor those who have found a way to exalt themselves above others, whether it is through their monetary  accomplishments, or athletic achievements, etc.  Our Elections are based upon candidates exalting themselves. Our churches are full of Pastors who use their Seminary degrees as a means to exalt themselves. They use church statistics to exalt them and their local congregation above others. Even regular members seek to exalt themselves to be the "bell cow" of the congregations to dictate the actions of others. I could go into examples, but I think that everyone gets the ideal. Every person who has been born since Adam and Eve has had this sin, except one.

Now, I think is a good time to look at the cure for this sin and to do that, we need to look at the one, I just mentioned. That One is the person that we Non-Jews call Jesus. So let us look at Philippians 2: 5-8

5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

While the whole book of Philippians is a good book to read for this, let us look at these Christological verses that I quoted and see these things about Jesus

Jesus was in the form of God. He was equal with God. He was God. As we look at these next actions of His, let us remember that and that He never became a doormat for others to walk on.

He emptied Himself. Instead of Exalting Himself, He lowered Himself and thus elevated us. He took the form of a bond-servant, or a slave. The lowest position of any person on Earth and He became like us.  When Jesus did that, He elevated us. Then He was obedient to the point of being tortured to death and dying on a cross. By Doing this He exalted us to the point where we can now receive Sanctification.  That is we can be cured from our sins.  We can become Justified. That is - Jesus took the punishment that we deserve.  This is the basis of forgiveness. I can forgive those who harmed me because I know that someone has received punishment for that hurt that I received. 

Now Jesus did not stay in that humbled position, because God has exalted Jesus about all of us and because of that - we who have accepted His Lordship over us are elevated to be considered younger siblings to Jesus. This is what love does.  Love elevates others.  When we humble ourselves instead of exalting ourselves, we are in a position to show love for others. To meet their needs, elevates them to a higher status. By seeing our actions of love, they see the how God seeks to exalt and can take part in that, by asking God to do that for them and they will be part of the family of God.

Christmas and God's Embrace of Shame and Scandal

 It's Christmas time.  It is many people's favorite time of the year. As I sit here this year, my mind keeps pondering all the shame and scandal that God provoked during this time. That part of the story doesn't get expounded on as much as the Homogenised and Pasteurised  version does during our church services and songs. If you will bear with me, I will try and explain some of what I'm talking about.

To begin with, let us look at the announcement from Gabriel to Mary.  We she that she is a virgin who was "engaged" or betrothed to a man named Joseph. History books suggest that she was probably a teenager, maybe even as young as 14 or so. This means that she looked down upon as one who had a baby out of wedlock and may have been a pregnant teenager. Even though she was right in her song of praise that she would be known in history as being Blessed, people of her day (especially the religious leaders) would see her as being immoral and "wild". 

Joseph could have demanded that her and her baby be stoned to death because of this. He do know that he pondered what to do, so he would have considered this but instead decided just to "divorce" her (or maybe "annul the betrothal" would be a better way to understand this). At that point is when he had his encounter with an angel. So Joseph took the shame of this upon himself, and their marriage would look more like we used to call a "shotgun wedding".  We see that this indeed did happen as during a heated exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees (in John chapter 8),  they tell Jesus that they were not born as a result of fornication.

The immorality thing would not be the only thing that would cause people to look down upon them as Mary and Joseph were very poor. First we see this by they needing to find refuge in a stable or place where animals were kept.  Bethlehem that night was overrun with people who the Romans required to be there, but you still did not see "rich" people staying in such conditions. Also when Mary went to the Temple to offer her sacrifice to be pure again after the birth, she offered two doves or pigeons instead of a lamb.  This offering of doves was for people who had no money. 

Also look at the people who God chose to reveal this birth.  With the exception of Simeon, Anna, and the parents of John the Baptist, everyone else was looked down upon in this society. I'm talking about the shepherds and the Magi.  Even though sheep and lambs were very important in Jewish worship and life, shepherds were the outcasts of society. They were not allowed to participate in any of the "reindeer games" that people played in those days. To continue in my Rudolf references, they would be considered "misfits" in their society.

The Magi were not even Jews. They were star gazers from the Iran/Iraq region of the world.  (Several empires from these parts pestered, invaded, conquered Israel throughout their history.) They used the stars to predict the future. Maybe they knew the words that Balaam  spoke to Balak, when he prophesied about a Star coming from Jacob to rule the nations.  

Then we have the fact that Jesus' birth caused the execution of many toddlers and infants.  The man used by the Romans to lead this area as King (Herod the great), ordered the death of all children that were under two that were in Bethlehem  to be killed. Joseph and Mary who were warned by God about this, took Jesus and fled to Egypt.

God could have chosen to be born in any way that He wanted to be born when He came into this world, but did it in a way of a unwed teenage Mom, in a way that brought accusations of having "wild" and immoral parents. He was born among the poorest of society's moneyless people.  He sort to reveal his birth to Jewish outcasts instead of that nation's highest ruling or religious hierarchy.  He was forced to immigrate to another nation for sanctuary, to live as long as Herod ruled Israel.  

So, even from the birth, we see a God who loves the outcasts and misfits in society and chose to be numbered among them.

Roe v Wade and why I think that both sides are wrong on this issue.

Since the leak of a paper from the Supreme Court on "Roe V Wade", opinions, news reports, demonstrations, etc from both sides of this issue have been dominating our news, tv,  and internet  airwaves.  After reading or listening to what they have to say,  I find myself coming from there and thinking that they have totally missed it.  Neither side is pleasing God. I thought that it might be good for me to write what I think since I have those thoughts.  Now I realize that this could help, but there will be people who will take things out of the context of the whole argument and try to blast me out of the water.  It won't be the first time that has happened to me.  Well anyways, here goes.

When talking about abortion, I usually hear four different reasons to women to have an abortion. They are:  The Mother's life is in danger, The baby's health, rape, and what some call abortion on demand. I believe that each of these issues should be looked at individually and so here, I'm only looking at the reason that believes that any woman can have an abortion when they want, or some variety of that. I believe that is the biggest viewpoint and the one that is usually looked at in this issue. Now I'm not getting into what the 14th Amendment says, because  my argument is coming from a Biblical perspective.

Now I'm sure that last statement has gotten some people rolling their eyes and I want to thank you for staying with me so far.  As you might be expecting me to say, I do believe that this type of abortion is murder. It is the execution of a life whose only crime is to be alive. I know that there are many people who say that they aren't pro abortion, just pro choice and I will get to that in a minute.

For you see, my main concern is not the baby's loss of life, but society's loss of love. I truly believe that if the adults (notice that I'm including the man as well as the woman in this) who produced that child really loved that child, then there would be no abortion. They would work together to make sure that life had the best chance that they could provide.

I also believe that the argument about being pro choice is really an argument about exalting oneself to God-like status. I meant that last statement as a call back to the Garden of Eden and the Serpents claim that "you will be like God, knowing good and evil". This is a second wrong that I see from this viewpoint.

Also the argument, "a woman's body, a woman's choice" has a big hole in it, for the reason (unless she was raped) why she is expecting in the first place.  There are always consequences for every action. If a woman puts alcohol in her, she will become drunk or buzzed.  If she stays up all night, she will become drowsy the next day.  If she chooses to permit  a man to deposit sperm into her, she can become pregnant, even with contraceptives.

If there is love then all of this is moot, because none of this would happen and that is the way of love.

 So, if I'm basing my thoughts from a Biblical perspective, then why do I think that the pro-life group is wrong.  Basically it is for the same reason.

Now it is true that by law they will be forcing everyone to obeying the 6th commandment, but that really does not accomplish anything pleasing to God. What they would have done is to force a baby to live in an environment where the parents wanted to kill them before they were born, so unless there is repentance of that thought, then the outcome for that baby will not be a joyous one.

Also, while forcing people to obey the 6th commandment, they have forgotten the 10th which says: "Do not covet".  That means that just the thought of wanting to abort the baby is just as much a sin before God as the act. It also means that the condemnation of people is a sin before God.  There is a difference between in proclaiming that something is wrong and using that thought as a means to exalt oneself in condemning others.  That is happening on the Pro-Life side.

The sad part is that Christian message has the remedy for all of this and it is found in Romans chapter 8 and among many other verses in the New Testament. It is having the Spirit Of God living inside of us. When Christ lives within us, we become Children Of God.  He forgives us. His righteousness grows within us and flows out of us.  We live in love and we love one another.  This is the true answer to all of this.

The Church, Pharisaism, & Political Agendas

 There are a selection of scripture verses in Matthew that has stuck out to me over the years.  It seems that

  as we focus on the Pharisees as villians, we have made them into two dimensional figures, musch like the

 cowboys who wore black hats in those very old Western "B" movies.  

Just look at these verses from the NET translation: "Matthew 23:  

25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."  

In these verses, Jesus contrasts what seems to be good to the bad of the Pharisees.  When we skim over the good to get to the bad, we lose the depth of the verses.

When we look at the good with the bad, we see a pattern of being good on the outside and "not so good" on the inside.  When I started looking into this, I found this back in Exodus, from the 10 commandments. These can be found in Exodus 20.  They are as follows: 

1. You shall have no other gods before me

2. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy

5. Honor your father and your mother

6. You shall not murder

7. You shall not commit adultery

8. You shall not steal

9.You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor

10. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor

Now, as you look at these, you will notice that the first 9 are commandments of action, and the 10th one is one from the heart. The Pharisees were great at keeping the first 9, but couldn't keep the 10th one. This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 23. This contrast is also what Jesus was talking about in his sermon on the mount when he said, in Matthew 5:

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

What I see from this is that obeying the first 9 commandments is doing righteousness, but the 10th only comes from being righteous.  God is telling us that He is not wanting us to do righteousness. He wants us to be righteous.  Paul goes deeper into this when wrote Romans chapters 7 & 8.

Now remember that Paul was a Pharisee and here he tells of the inner struggle that Pharisees struggled with.  As Paul states: "Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet"

and a few verses later he says:  "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing."

You see there is no way, that you can discipline yourself or anyone else to be righteous.  Paul would go on to say in his letter to the Galatians in chapter 3 and verse 21: "if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly be by the law."

So how do we become righteous, Paul tells us in Romans 8: "if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.". This is the difference in being righteous and doing righteous. True Righteousness is God living within us. We become righteous by God living inside of us.

Now how does political agendas play into this? The answer to that is that political agendas can only coerce people into doing righteous deeds and that is not being righteous, which is what Gods wants from us.So when you see Christians (especially those within church leadership positions) post and support these political agendas, they have fallen into the same mindset that the Pharisees of Jesus' day  had fallen into, and the biggest tragedy is that they have skipped over the "new birth" that scriptures talk about, that produces true righteousness, for a false righteousness that comes from simply doing. 

The Fall of Creation: The origin of sin

 This is the third part of the trilogy about the Garden Of Eden. Creation has been finished for an unknown period of time, but there has been enough time elapsed so that certain customs (like God visiting Adam and Eve in the evening) have been established. 

So, we start this chapter with a naked Adam enjoying a naked Eve as they go through the garden enjoying the fruit of the garden as well as sex with each other. This was the world that God had made for us to live in.

Now the Antagonist appears in this story. He is called the Serpent. A lot of time and ink has put forth many ideals of what this serpent was or was not. Most will agree that this either was Satan, or an animal that Satan was working through. The thing that I wonder about all of this is - Did Adam and Eve realize that they were talking to an angel of God?  Even in his fallen state, he still was an angel. I tend to think that they did.

So we now have Satan inquiring Adam and Eve about what God had told them about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We see that Eve does not quote God - word for word, but instead she puts a bigger hedge around the command of God.   She adds that they are not to even touch the tree.  I have heard sermons criticizing her for this, but I disagree with that thought.  Building hedges around  things that will cause us to sin, is not only biblical,  it is also recommended in the Bible to the point of even self-mutilation to prevent one from sinning.

So where in the story is the origin of Sin.  I believe that we see that when the serpent says, " The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die,  for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  (NET)  When the serpent (or Satan) says that, then Eve (along with Adam) looks at the fruit of the tree and sees it as being  "good,  attractive, &  desirable".  They saw the tree as a mean to exalt themselves to be equal with God. You see I believe that the root of sin is the desire to exalt oneself or to abase others (including God). When you look at the commandments and/or the law, this is what you see is happening that results in bad behaviors.  So now Adam and Eve want to eat the fruit of the tree and this is what happens.

When they eat the fruit, they see that life is not better, it is worse. This is always the lie of sin and Satan. So they make clothes for themselves and hid from God.  God exposes then for what they did and kicks them out of the Garden. Man's work just got harder. Woman's labor just got harder. Instead of husband and wife being a perfectly matched pair, they would now be trying to dominate one another. and the serpent would forever be despised.  

So fast forward to today and we see that same thing happening in and out of the church with people trying to exalt themselves and debasing others.  However we also have the answer to all of this and that comes from Jesus coming to this Earth, being borned from a virgin, living a perfect life, and dieing a cruel death, only to rise from the grave on the third day. And if we take him to be our Savior, He will make his abode within us and others can see his love through us.  It is this love that changes our attitudes from being self absorbed to seeing others as they should be seen.