Life is more comfortable in black and white. Life is simpler when our enemies are despicable and our friends are admirable.
Outside of New England, America hates the New England Patriots. In the past twenty years, the Patriots have been in the Superbowl an astonishing nine times, winning six of those. Over that span they’ve had the incredible fortune of having perhaps the greatest coach, Bill Belichick, and the greatest quarterback, Tom Brady, in the NFL’s history team-up. On several occasions, the league caught them playing fast and loose with the rules. The combination of success and a marred record has made New England the perfect villain for American football fans.
My son rejoiced when the Patriots’ Tom Brady left the Patriots and signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, leaving the Patriots high and dry. And he celebrated when one of his least favorite football players, Cam Newton, signed as the Patriots new quarterback. Why? Because we like it when our enemies are easy to hate.
THE EVIL EMPIRE
He’s just like his dad and grandfather. I grew up hating the Yankees. My dad used to joke that his two favorite baseball teams were “the Royals, and whoever is playing the Yankees.” I agreed. The problem was, at the height of their powers in the 90s, there weren’t very many unlikable Yankees. I rejoiced when the unlikeable, steroid-abusing A-Rod signed with the “Evil Empire” in 2004. His presence helped justify my hatred.
For those of you who are rolling your eyes at my immaturity, I wonder if you might suffer the same disease in different areas? Did you hope for the worst candidate from the opposition party to make it out of the primaries? When the opposing party is in power, do you hope that they shine, or do you want them to fail (just as long as it doesn’t hurt you)?
For many of us, if we are honest, politics are a team sport, and if our team can’t win, we root for the opposing team to lose.
WHO JESUS CRITICIZES
Jesus swam against this current of the human heart. If an impartial observer of the first century Palestine were to rank the three groups (the Romans, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees) in order of whose actions were most grievous to God, the decision wouldn’t be close. The pagan Romans lived lives that were a complete affront to virtually every law of God. Their lifestyle was a veritable checklist of breaking the Ten Commandments, from worshiping false gods, to breaking the Sabbath, to sexual promiscuity. The Sadducees were significantly better than the Romans; at least they believed and worshiped the one true God. And yet, they were in league with the Romans. They sold their birthright for political power. Then there were the Pharisees: they worshiped the one true God, they cared deeply about his law, and sought to live in a manner that pleased God.
But who did Christ target with his criticism? The Pharisees. Why in the world would that be? Was Jesus’ moral calculus off? No. Was he deceived by the Sadducees and Romans? Certainly not. Jesus criticized the Pharisees because he was a Pharisee. Jesus inverts the way the world critiques. Instead of starting with his enemy, he starts with his tribe.
WOE AND REPENTANCE
Ours is a world where we wag our fingers at the other team. Turn on Fox News and conservative pundits lambast Speaker Pelosi’s duplicity. Turn on CNBC and liberal hosts rake President Trump’s character over the coals. Ours is a call-out culture, where we harangue others for violating our standards.
Jesus looks to his own and says, “Woe to you!” To translate that to into contemporary language, he says, “Get yourself in line!”
The Christian looks not for the speck in his enemy’s eye, but cries out to God for mercy for the log in his own eye. “Have mercy on me, a sinner!” We ought to cry out. Who is the enemy? I am the enemy. Who is the hypocrite? I am the hypocrite.
And, then, as our own hearts are humbled to God in repentance, our heart next should turn to our tribe. First, to our families. What do we need to ask God forgiveness for? What neighbors has God called us to that we have neglected? Where has our witness been compromised. Next, to the family of God. How can we as a church do better? What do we need to repent of? And then, let us turn to those institutions we feel some ownership in.
If our energies were expended here, our voices would be quiet and broken by the time we got to our opponents. Having spent ourselves in our own pleas for forgiveness, our worn voices wouldn’t have more than a whisper left for our enemies. And our hearts might even echo Jesus’ own pleas for his enemies instead, “Have mercy on them, for they know not what they do.”
Even Bill Belichick.
Photo by Stephane Coudassot-Berducou on Unsplash