Thoughts for the Day

Jesus said, 'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practised without neglecting the others. 'You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

(New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

14 centuries BCE (before common era) Aaron, the elder brother of Moses, was anointed as a High Priest, and his sons after him. They possessed no land but served in the Temple, and tithing payed for those who ministered there. There were tithes on hundreds of things, including mint, dill and cummin. Many of these herbs were laid on the floor of the Temple and so were used in great quantities.

But Jesus goes on to draw a humorous picture of a man straining his wine to get out a miniscule insect. He is so keen to observe a kosher diet he wouldn't eat a gnat that hadn't been treated according to the law, yet he would cheerfully eat a whole camel, also forbidden. The theologian Barclays says 'It is a picture of a man who has completely lost his sense of proportion'.

He is making the point that while the Scribes and Pharisees are so concerned with tiny matters of the law they have ignored the larger issues of justice, mercy and faith.

Sometimes we too get sidetracked by unimportant issues and forget those of justice and mercy.

Tuesday 25th August, follow up thoughts

Lord Jesus,
when we find ourselves caught up
in small unimportant things,
teach us to see that we need to continue
looking at the bigger picture,
including issues like
poverty, inequality, and injustice,
and help us to try to do something
even in a small way.
Amen.