Responding to the Critics (Mark 12:13-27) | 11/3/19
Mark 12:13-27 11/3/19 | Will DuVal
This morning, we’re picking back up where we left off two weeks ago in our study through the Gospel of Mark this year. We paused last week to commemorate Reformation Sunday, but the week PRIOR, we saw Jesus flipping over tables and cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem and then CURSING a fig tree, in righteous judgment against the nation of Israel for its lack of FRUITFULNESS; God’s people were SUPPOSED to be a blessing to the NATIONS, the Temple was supposed to be a house of prayer for the NATIONS, but they had instead turned it into a den of robbers. And for THAT expression of condemnation against the very HEART and symbol of 1st c. Judaism, we’re going to see in TODAY’S passages, the very same crowd who had been Jesus’ fan club as he rode into town on Monday, chanting “Hosanna! Hosanna!”, NOW, begin to turn against him during this last week of Jesus’ life, such that by FRIDAY of Holy week, they’ll be chanting “Crucify him! crucify him!”
And I’ve actually lumped 7 separate passages together for us this morning, ALL unified around this really important, and really PRACTICAL topic, of how we HANDLE CRITICISM and hostility from others. We’re going to once again DEVIATE from a STRICT chronology through Mark, because as we’ll see, Jesus was CONSTANTLY facing criticism throughout his ministry. So we’re gonna back up all the way to ch.6, and then trace this theme all the way up through chapters 11 and 12 where we left off, and see what principles and practical application points we can glean from Jesus’ example of how to respond to criticism.
Now, 3 quick points NOT in your bulletins that must be made here at the outset, EACH of which flows out of one crucial recognition. And that important recognition is that YOU AND I ARE NOT JESUS. Got that? We’re not Jesus. And BECAUSE we’re not Jesus, that means 3 things for you and me as we interpret these texts this morning:
#1, and most importantly, it means that UNLIKE Jesus, we will FAIL to respond to criticism perfectly, and thus, like ANY sermon that is HEAVY on practical tips for bettering yourself, for how you and I ought to respond, and go live this out in our lives this week, we just need to bookend that message, here at the beginning AND again the end, with the reminder that we mess up DAILY, but the good news of the GOSPEL is that we have an Intercessor in JESUS who showed God the obedience that you and I FAIL to show Him. Praise GOD that when I BLOW it, and respond POORLY to others’ criticism – well, not ME, because I’m a pastor so I don’t GET criticized... - but YOU... when YOU blow it, praise GOD that we have a Savior who NEVER sinned, and who willingly laid down HIS life FOR me in order to trade his righteousness for all of MY UN-righteousness. And yet, that doesn’t EXCUSE my sin. Paul asks in Romans 6, “What then shall we say? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may abound? By no MEANS! We’ve DIED to sin...” So we don’t use Christ’s forgiveness as an excuse to IGNORE the way that he calls us to live, and fly off the handle at people when they attack us; NO, we Christians of ALL people ought to be MOTIVATED to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and learn to respond WELL to criticism. But if we’re HONEST with ourselves this morning, for MANY of us, this might be one of the BIGGEST areas of our lives that NEEDS attention. Because when are we MORE prone to “blow it”, than when we’re feeling ATTACKED by someone else. Many of us are pretty godly people... until we get criticized. Then we lash out.
The SECOND point we need to remember is that because we’re not Jesus, and we’re NOT perfect like him, we often DESERVE it. Jesus only EVER received DE-structive criticism, because in our sin, we reject God. And ironically, it is that SAME sin that causes us to naturally interpret and receive ALL criticism of US, AS de-structive, and undeserved, “unjustified”, when in fact it may be WELL deserved and even HELPFUL to us if we would but humbly HEAR it; but IN our sin, we want to BELIEVE that we’re perfect. That we don’t make mistakes that merit critique; that we don’t NEED edifying. So we self-justify, and we get defensive.
So perhaps the most significant lesson WE need to learn about handling criticism is one we unfortunately CANNOT glean from the example of a perfect Jesus, and that is, we ought to LISTEN to criticism, and seek to LEARN from it.
Proverbs 17:10 says “A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.” And the sage doesn’t specify whether the rebuke is con-structive or de-structive! He just says, “if you’re WISE, you’ll listen DEEPLY and LEARN from a rebuke.” Conversely, you can BEAT a fool to death and he still won’t change.
Proverbs 9:8 “Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.”
Proverbs 19:25 “Reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.”
Proverbs 15:32 “Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence.”
Proverbs 19:20 “Listen to advice and accept instruction,
that you may gain wisdom in the future.”
David goes so far in Psalm 141:5 as to INVITE criticism: “Let a righteous man strike me — it is a kindness;
let him rebuke me — it is oil for my head;
let my head not refuse it.”
We ought to INVITE criticism as a way of BEING further perfected, becoming more like Christ, and even when that criticism isn’t delivered perfectly.
And the THIRD and final quick caveat is that BECAUSE of we’re NOT Jesus, discerning the DIFFERENCE between constructive and destructive criticism, and especially between the seven TYPES of destructive criticism we’re gonna see JESUS encounter today, and how to respond to each accordingly, is REALLY, really, TOUGH. Jesus was a MASTER at handling criticism, so we DO need to learn from his example today. But MAN is it hard. My FAVORITE Proverb on this is ch.26, vv4 AND 5:
“Answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest you be like him yourself.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own eyes.”
The sage is essentially saying, “If you ENGAGE with a fool’s destructive criticism, he’s just gonna pull you down into the mud with him.” And YET, “If you DON’T engage him, he’ll think he’s right, and he’ll go on being a fool and wrongly criticizing EVERYONE.” And oftentimes responding to criticism DOES feel like a “lose-lose”, doesn’t it? You can’t win either way! But the right response, as we’ll see from Jesus’ example, is always contextualized – it depends on the circumstances of a given situation. Sometimes you need to answer the fool, sometimes you don’t. So in ALL of this, there’s got to be a lot of prayer and leaning on the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
And with THAT in mind, let’s go to Him now and pray that over our study together this morning...
RESPONSE #1 to criticism is to CUT TIES. That’s what Jesus does in... MARK 6:1-6
“He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.
And he went about among the villages teaching.”
Jesus has been healing and performing miracles all OVER Galilee and Judea for 5 chapters now, and he finally returns HOME, to Nazareth, and his disciples have GOT to be expecting the biggest welcome home party EVER; we’re gonna be treated like ROYALTY here! And instead, what’s the town’s reaction? v3: “They took OFFENSE at him.” ‘Wait a minute, JESUS... thinks he’s... gonna teach us? Mary and Joseph’s boy? Who never attended a day of Torah school in his LIFE? The CARPENTER’s son! Little old Jesus? Sonny, I used to change your diapers...” And how does Jesus respond to their rejection? v6: He MARVELED at their unbelief, and he went about among OTHER villages.” And we don’t hear of him EVER returning to Nazareth, for the rest of Mark’s gospel.
He CUT TIES. Because Jesus knew there are some relationships you simply CANNOT make work. A relationship is a 2-way street, friends, and you can only be one side of that equation. You cannot control anyone else’s behavior. What you CAN decide, is how you’re gonna treat them, and if they CONTINUE to treat you poorly, at what point you’re going to cut ties and end the relationship. And some of you this morning no doubt have relationships in your lives right now that are nearing that breaking point, if they haven’t already reached it. Where you recognize, “I can’t keep doing this; this is no longer a healthy relationship for me; something’s gotta give here.” And guess what: it’s probably, like Jesus here in Mark 6, the relationships that hit closest to HOME for you, isn’t it? “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” We know from John 7:5 that Jesus’ own BROTHERS rejected him. His own FAMILY.
And maybe this morning you need to be given permission, by God’s word, to at least begin to explore the possibility of cutting ties with a really toxic person in your life. Who offers you NOTHING but criticism. DE-structive criticism, ALL the time. Listen, friends: Forgiveness is NOT the same thing as RECONCILIATION. Do you need to hear that again? Forgiveness is NOT the same thing as RECONCILIATION. Forgiveness is a command from Jesus, but forgiving someone does NOT mean you are called to continue on in a toxic relationship with them. In fact, if you HAVEN’T seen genuine repentance from them, when you’ve been wronged, then healthy restoration of that relationship is impossible. And you may need to cut ties. That’s hard. It may be the hardest thing you’ve EVER had to do. Because you LOVE them. But you can’t make them love you back. And you can’t make them stop HURTING you. And you deserve better. You’re a child of GOD. And finally standing up to them, and walking away, MAY be the best thing you ever do. For BOTH of you.
RESPONSE #2 to criticism is the COLD SHOULDER. That’s what Jesus does in... MARK 8:11-13
“The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 13 And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.”
Now interestingly, unlike his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus doesn’t cut all ties with the Pharisees, despite their destructive criticism. As we’ll see in Jesus’ remaining 5 strategies, MOST of which are in response to criticism from these very same Pharisees, he keeps coming back to them time and time again. Why? Is it because God had appointed to actually SAVE some of them, like Nicodemus? Is it because God had determined to harden their hearts, so as to use them as the instruments of executing his divine plan of Redemption, through Christ’s sacrificial, atoning death on the cross? Is it because Jesus knew that you and I would have to deal with chronic criticizers throughout our lives as well, where we don’t always have the LUXURY of being able to simply cut ties and walk away? Yes, yes, and YES. Maybe it’s your BOSS. That’s probably the easiest, most COMMON example I could think of, in this category, for most of us. If we just CUT TIES with everyone who wasn’t very good at offering criticism, we’d have an unemployment EPIDEMIC on our hands. I can promise you, you’d be out a pastor. But that’s another sermon for another day: how to GIVE criticism well! Matthew 7:1-5; James 1:19; Ephesians 4:29; Proverbs 29:11; Hebrews 10:24; Galatians 5:15. TONS of good Scripture out there on how to OFFER criticism in a loving, constructive way. Study up.
But the fact of the matter is, we can’t and SHOULDN’T always be cutting ties, or we’d have NO relationships at all. Sometimes we are simply called to “bear with” one another, to IGNORE another sinner’s undue criticism. Like Jesus here, don’t you love Mark’s description, when the Pharisees ask for a sign, after Jesus has performed 7 chapters worth of miracles, “he sighed deeply in his spirit”, and then ignores them; he gets in his boat, and sails across to the other side of the lake. Haters gonna hate. Shake it off, shake it off.
RESPONSE #3 to criticism is to CONFOUND. MARK 11:27-33
“And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28 and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” 31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. 33 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
So the first two responses were ways of NOT answering a fool according to his folly; in these next 5, Jesus is going to show us different approaches to ANSWERING a fool, lest he be wise in his own eyes. The first is to CONFOUND. We pick up RIGHT where we left off in Mark 11, after Jesus cursed the fig tree and cleansed the Temple. And the chief priests did NOT receive THAT criticism from Jesus well at all; INSTEAD, they question him and seek to undermine his authority in the eyes of the people. So they challenge him in v28: “Who exactly do you think you are, Jesus, pronouncing judgment on us, the educated, powerful, religious elite?” “By what AUTHORITY?” And they already KNOW the answer: Jesus told them back in John 5:37- “the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.” Jesus claims to operate within GOD’S authority. That’s why they’ve ALREADY attempted to stone him in John 10:33, “for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” And it’s why they would ultimately crucify him in Mark 15. But Jesus’ time has not yet come in Mark 11. So when they challenge him, he decides to ENGAGE them, but NOT to answer their question. He pulls the classic, “let me answer YOUR question with ANOTHER question...” And he STUMPS them with a doozie about John the Baptist’s authority. To prove that they don’t know the first THING about REAL authority. But moreover, to prove that not every question deserves an answer. And not every criticism deserves a direct response.
Likewise, friends, you and I will face criticism where the best response isn’t to walk away and ignore it, NOR is the best response to ENGAGE that criticism directly. Instead, Jesus goes to the HEART of the matter, their misunderstanding of the very nature of authority itself. Counselors call this the difference between the “presenting issue” and the REAL issue. The thing BEHIND the thing.
I think of an example from our OWN extended family’s dysfunction. We’ve got a TOXIC family member who we eventually DID end up having to cutting ties with, but who for YEARS was Hell-bent on pitting members of the family against one another. And at family holidays, she’d make these subtle little jabs, and criticize Polly’s grandmother, “I see you made the RASPBERRY pie again this year, that Polly loves so much; it must be nice to be the favorite grandchild.” The pie is of course just the PRESENTING issue. Everyone else in the family likes raspberry pie. NO ONE wants your weird rhubarb pie. So this has NOTHING to do with pie, and everything to do, as her comments made so blatantly apparent, with this person’s own insecurities, and jealousy, and bitter resentfulness. So to engage in an argument about the pie would be at best short-sighted and unproductive. But you can only walk away and IGNORE so many of those comments before the toxicity makes family holidays unbearable for EVERYONE. So you HAVE to say something. So what do you do?
You CONFOUND. To confound is “to perplex or amaze, especially by a sudden disturbance or surprise”. You want to disturb, surprise, and PERPLEX EVERYONE at the dinner table? Try responding with “Gosh Aunt such-and-such, it sounds like you think Gran is guilty of playing favorites with her grandchildren. That’s a pretty serious allegation. Sounds like the two of y’all have some things you need to sit down and talk through.” Confounding is sort of that MIDDLE approach, of not quite answering a fool in his folly, but not quite ignoring him altogether either. You just cut through the BULL and go straight to the heart of the issue.
RESPONSE #4 is similar, and that is to CRITIQUE. MARK 12:13-17
“And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances,[c] but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius[d] and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him.”
This time we hear EXPLICITLY in v13 that the Pharisees are trying to “trap him”. So this time, Jesus’ response is even MORE direct, and confrontational. v15: “knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test?””. What if you were even MORE direct with Aunt Such-and-such? And you directly CRITIQUED her criticism: “You know Aunt such-and-such, I don’t think your comments are fair at all. Gran spends all DAY in the kitchen making this delicious meal for ALL of us, and your response is to criticize her because you didn’t get the pie that YOU wanted; that ONLY you wanted?”
Some of y’all are SQUIRMING right now, aren’t you? Just envisioning the Aunt such-and-such’s in YOUR life, in YOUR family, in YOUR office; imagining what you’d LIKE to say to them, but the very idea of doing it is about enough to make you wet your pants in church. Cuz you HATE conflict. Any Conflict-avoiders in the room? Enneagram NINES, where you at? My peacemakers? God love you. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus said. We need you. We need you at this church. I keep having to remind myself not to feel too good about the sermon when I only hear 2 or 3 critiques, because that means there are AT LEAST another 20 or 30 people fuming behind the scenes, 10 conflict-avoiders for every ONE of ME, who would just come TELL you about it. It’s not that I ENJOY conflict... necessarily. I don’t SEEK IT OUT... usually. I just don’t MIND it. And I know most of y’all can’t even FATHOM that. But guess what, you conflict-avoiders need us conflict-TOLERANT folks too. My wife gets real grateful for me every time she needs to call customer service for a refund. Because without us, NO ONE would stand up to the Aunt Such-and-suchs of the world, and they’d completely destroy the family, the company, the PTO, from the inside out.
Conflict-avoiders: you’re not doing that person any favors by letting them continue on in SIN. That’s what DE-structive criticism is. If it issues from an impure heart, with an intent to tear down and harm, then the BEST thing you can do for them, the LOVING thing, the BIBLICAL thing, is to confront them.
Matthew 18:15 ““If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”
Luke 17:3 “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him”
Reconciliation and healthy relationship isn’t possible without repentance, and repentance isn’t possible without knowing you’ve sinned and NEED to repent, and sometimes knowing you’ve sinned doesn’t happen until someone else points it OUT in love.
YOUR SANCTIFICATION, your becoming more like Jesus, isn’t possible without recognizing you have weak spots you need to work on, and often that doesn’t happen until OTHERS are willing to LOVINGLY point out things you miss so you can grow.
Conflict isn’t BAD, people. Even CRITICISM isn’t bad. Like I said in a previous sermon, about other value-neutral concepts like money, sex, power – CRITICISM and conflict aren’t inherently BAD; it’s all about how you USE them. I APPRECIATE the 2 or 3 of y’all who provide me with CONSTRUCTIVE criticism after a sermon; that makes me BETTER as a pastor. Likewise, I want to believe that God is going to use my naturally critical BENT to help grow MANY of you spiritually in the years to come, in ways that you simply wouldn’t and couldn’t have grown if you were at a church that was all about keeping it positive all the time, and the power of you. If you want a church where you can be sure to leave every Sunday feeling really great about yourself, then I got bad news for ya here. But if you’re looking for a church that isn’t afraid to challenge you, to open the word of God and let IT convict you, about the sin in your life, so you can leave more AWARE of just how broken and in need of a Savior you are, and yet just how GRACIOUSLY God has PROVIDED that redemption for you in the person of Jesus; how great and glorious HE is, that He would choose to love and adopt and accept a wretched sinner like you into HIS perfect family and HIS eternal Kingdom. If THAT’S the kind of church you’re looking for, you’re in the right place. Because the truth is, we are ALL sinners, and we ALL need critiquing.
Jesus not only CRITIQUES the Pharisees in Mark 12. He CORRECTS them. They think they’ve finally trapped him. If he says they should pay taxes, the Jewish crowd will hate him as a Roman sympathizer. If he instructs them NOT to pay taxes, the Romans will kill him as an insurrectionist. But Jesus sets them straight: “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” If Caesar wants to print his face on coins, fine. He can keep them. Pay taxes. But YOU were made in the image and likeness of GOD HIMSELF. He has set His inscription on your SOULS. You owe your whole LIFE, your EXISTENCE, your BEING to God. He deserves it all.
Jesus does the SAME thing in the very next passage, MARK 12, vv18-27, and RESPONSE #5 to criticism: CORRECT it. This time, he’s correcting the SADDUCEES.
“And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man[e] must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”
24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.””
Jesus engages them in the most direct way of ALL here; he doesn’t ignore them, he doesn’t confuse them and turn the tables on them, he goes BEYOND simply critiquing their question and actually answers it this time, by CORRECTING them in a very straight-forward manner, their question about the resurrection, and says in v24: “You’re WRONG.” There IS no marriage in the Resurrection. And oh yeah, v26: you’re wrong about there not being a resurrection too. That was the big theological divide between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the 2 biggest denominations, if you will, of 1st c. Judaism. Jesus says, for all their OTHER problems, at least the Pharisees got the Resurrection right. Moreover, the REASON the Sadducees get it wrong, v24, is that they “know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?”.
So friends, when you encounter criticism that you need to face head-on, that must be CORRECTED, make sure you’re doing it with the word of God, in the POWER of God. That means correcting falsehood with the TRUTH of the BIBLE, under the loving direction of the HOLY SPIRIT. That’s how we help each other GROW, as believers - Ephesians 4:15- by “speaking the truth in love, we [are to] grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” It’s not either-or. It CAN’T be. As Warren Wiersbe says, “Truth without love is BRUTALITY. But love without truth is HYPOCRISY.” Neither, in the absence of the OTHER, is edifying. So when we correct others, we must do it WITH truth, IN love.
RESPONSE #6 is to CHANGE THE CONVERSATION. MARK 12:35-37
“And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet.”’
37 David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him gladly.”
Jesus’ opponents think they’ve had him on the DEFENSE this whole time. But now Jesus turns the tables on them. “Okay guys, I’ve answered YOUR questions; now I’ve got a few of my own...” And he puts the ball in THEIR court. “You’re expecting a Messianic king like DAVID, but David calls the Christ, the Messiah HIS Lord.” You OUGHT to be expecting a DIFFERENT kind of king, and a different kind of KINGDOM, a SPIRITUAL savior, an ETERNAL kingdom, that’s gonna blow David’s earthly reign and rule out of the water. How do YOU answer for THAT?!
Notice I didn’t say change the TOPIC. The point here isn’t to AVOID the criticism, the conflict, Jesus has just taken it head on, earlier in chapter 12, as we examined. I said change the CONVERSATION. If someone’s criticism is truly DE-structive like this, we shouldn’t just be content to play defense. Sometimes the best course of action is to put THEM on the defensive.
Make THEM answer for their unfair criticism. For their contentious heart from which it issues. Here’s a question to try: “Wow, you seem really upset about that; why do you think that is? What do you think it was about that little thing that I said or did, that sparked such a HUGE reaction in your heart?” Maybe the conversation shouldn’t be focused so much on ME, on your criticism of ME, but rather on YOU, what’s going on in YOUR heart that is causing you to blow up in DE-structive criticism over this?
And Finally, RESPONSE #7 is to CONDEMN. MARK 12:38-40
“And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.””
And friends, this is where we come back, full circle, to the bookend of the gospel. Because this is the one response to criticism that Jesus was JUSTIFIED in making, Romans 2:1-11 – we ALL stand rightly condemned by our own sin, and yet IN our sin, we want to condemn OTHERS who wrong us, who criticize us unfairly, forgetting that judgment belongs to the LORD alone, and that whatever hurtful thing she said to me, it PALES in comparison to the things I’ve said and done to the Lord over the course of my life. And the condemnation that I rightfully DESERVE from him...
Amen. Let’s pray.