Luke 12:1 (ESV)
In the meantime, when so many
thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one
another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Thousands of people had gathered.
In the moment it would have been easy to become proud. Do the Pharisees get
such crowds? Nobody got crowds like Jesus. Yet Jesus concern for his disciples
is something more insidious than pride. It’s hypocrisy. The Pharisees impose
laws on top of laws but fail to understand that holiness is primarily about the
heart.
Pride is a danger, but hypocrisy
is more devious. It causes people to think they are holy when they are not. It enables
people to judge others over less significant issues. It promotes pride and
arrogance. But worst of all, it assumes that God thinks like me, that somehow, I’m
acceptable to God because I am holy. Yet the gospel is just the opposite. I am
holy because Jesus’ death and resurrection have made me acceptable to God.
So how do we deal with hypocrisy
in others? Jesus challenged the Pharisees but then assures his disciples that the
two-faced approach to holiness will one day be exposed. In the end all will be
revealed. Those who are truly holy will be shown to be so. Those who are hypocritical
purveyors of holiness will be exposed. The best approach to exposing hypocrisy
is to look in the mirror.
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