Workarounds – Matthew 23:16-24

I like this Wikipedia explanation of a workaround: “A workaround is a bypass of a recognized problem or limitation in a system. A workaround is typically a temporary fix that implies that a genuine solution to the problem is needed. But workarounds are frequently as creative as true solutions, involving outside the box thinking in their creation. Typically they are considered brittle in that they will not respond well to further pressure from a system beyond the original design.”

The Pharisees have surely been creative in their workarounds to the problems presented by the Law, but their solutions are definitely brittle, as Jesus shows.

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (Matthew 23:16-24 ESV)

In the next two “woes” Jesus critiques and condemns the Pharisees’ attempts to get around the Law, on the one hand, and then the maximizing of the minutia of the Law and the ignoring of the big rocks of the Law.

The Pharisees knew how big a deal it was to keep one’s oaths.  The second of the 10 commandments was not to use the Lord’s name in vain, which meant, in part, not to use His name as support for your truthfulness and then be untruthful.  But people needed an oath of truthfulness because humans are inherently untrustworthy.  So the Pharisees found loopholes like swearing to one’s truthfulness by the gold on the temple, which would sound solid to someone but which in their minds meant they weren’t really swearing by the temple or by God, for that matter.  Jesus exposed this folly

In contrast the Pharisees tithed even the spices in their gardens, something Jesus said they should do, but which led to their focusing on their outward obedience to a relatively small law and neglecting, as Jesus pointed out first, the big commands to love God and one’s neighbor, things which couldn’t always be seen by others.  They strained the small things out of their wine that made it ritually unclean (gnats) and left a camel in it (another unclean and very large animal).

What are your work-arounds for obeying God?  How do you rationalize what you do so that you don’t feel guilty?  And what do you pride yourself on accomplishing obedience-wise that actually distracts you from the need to really love God and love people?