Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Oh, the scribes and the Pharisees.
Jesus acknowledges they were preaching the right things. The 
problem was they weren’t living them, judging where compassion was needed, polishing their public images instead of getting their hands and robes dirty in service.
The Messiah was right in front of them, day after day after day. But while their works were there to be seen, they couldn’t see what was right in front of them: the promised Messiah. The realization of the prophecies. The earthly culmination of God’s love. Their resistance to the possibility was too strong. To them, things were already set right, and would continue to be right if only the itinerant preacher would be quiet.
We, of course, are nothing like the scribes and Pharisees. We don’t judge where compassion is needed. We don’t polish our images instead of getting our hands and robes dirty. And if Jesus was right in front of us, we’d see Him for sure. Right?
Right?
May we be more aware of our errors than the scribes and Pharisees were. May we say yes when the Lord offers to set things right with Him and His people.
