You Brood of Vipers!

“You snakes, you brood of vipers.” Addressing someone in such a manner does not feel like the best way to win friends and influence people. It seems more likely to drive a wedge between people and draw battle lines in a conflict.  And yet, Jesus had no problem speaking such seemingly harsh words.  In fact, in one chapter of scripture, Matthew 23, Jesus not only calls the teachers of the law and the Pharisees snakes he also calls them hypocrites, children of hell, blind guides, fools, and whitewash tombs. Ouch!

We have all had moments when we were tempted to address someone like this.  Thankfully, most of the time we manage to refrain.  What keeps us from speaking such harsh words may be the fear of how the other person might respond or because we have no desire to escalate the conflict, but I think for most of us we simply believe speaking words like this to someone would be unkind at best and unloving at worst?  A loving and kind person would never say such things to someone else. Right?

Where does that leave us with Jesus?  Do we just chalk His words up to the fact the religious leaders were so bad that they justified Jesus’ comments.  Was it acceptable for Jesus to be unkind to them because of the burden they placed upon the people.  Was He justified in being unloving to these men who seemed to be misguided, and seemingly operating out of mixed motives, when it came to their life long devotion to serving God and His people.

Part of what makes a good story is the conflict between good and evil, the clash between the good guys and the bad guys.  In the Gospels Jesus and his followers are definitely the good guys, and the religious leaders seem to be the bad guys.  Reading Jesus words from this point of view makes what He said seem quite justified. 

I can just imagine the crowd which was listening to this exchange cheering as each phrase rolled off of Jesus' tongue.  “Way to strike another blow at the bad guys Jesus!”  I can imagine them feeling like I did as I watched the final scene in Cinderella Man as James Braddock unleash a flurry of blows upon his evil opponent Max Baer.  I was so drawn into the emotion of the moment I began throwing punches in the dark movie theater, buffeting the air in hopes it would somehow strength Braddock to finish the fight, and triumph over his opponent.  Is this what Jesus was seeking to stir in the crowd as he pummeled his opponents with his words?

It is hard for us to consider anything else, especially given our love for these kinds of stories, (Cinderella Man is one of my favorite movies) but I have been thinking about this perspective and the fact we want to split everything and everyone in to good and bad.  Given this point of view Jesus’ seemingly unkind and unloving words not only feel justified, but right. Is that how we should really see it?

I not sure, but one thing I do know, Jesus is that He is the embodiment of love.  Scripture tells us that God is love. It is not simply a quality He displays.  It is who He is.  Scripture also tells us Jesus is Emmanuel, which means God with us.  Love is not something Jesus exhibits.  Jesus is love Let that sink in for just a moment.

Jesus is love when He is healing people.  He is love when He shares people sorrows.  He is love when He speaks words of life.  He is love when He touches the unclean.  He is love when He engages and embraces the outcast. He is love when He eats with sinners and tax collectors.  He is love when He washes His disciples’ feet.  He is love when He gives up His life for us, and I have to believe, because He is the incarnation of love, He is also love when He speaks what we hear as harsh word to the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we should read them in the text as touchy-feely phrases which should make those who they are directed to feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  They are indeed rebukes.  I am sure they cut the religious leaders to the core, but I do not believe Jesus spoke them in order  to injure.  He was not seeking to kill and destroy. That is not why He came.  He came to impart life, life to the full.  Given this fact, what if His words were not meant to wound, but to heal.  What if any cutting they did was not intended to harm, but to remove the very thing which was destroying the opportunity for the teachers of the law and Pharisees to experience the life they not only were intended, but desired in the deep place of their heart, to live?

If this was the case, I think we would see these harsh words in an entirely different light.  Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” Could it be that Jesus was being a faithful friend, even to these religious leaders?  Rather than pummeling an opponent, could He have been  inviting them to discover life?

What Jesus said about the religious leaders was true, and it was hard to hear for sure, but could it also have been spoken in love. In our culture we have such an aversion to speaking words which are both hard and true.  We think if a person speaks words which cut someone to the core they must be unkind, and  unloving, What if, however, it was just the opposite? What if speaking the hard truth was actually a very loving act?  What if the words spoken actually pointed to the the way of healing?  If we recognized them as such we would probably embrace the speaker as a faithful friend rather than dismissing what they have said.

Thinking about all of this has changed the way I read Matthew 23.  I no longer envision it as a prize fight and my guy, the good guy, wins.  I see it as a glimpse into a surgical ward, where the one who speaks such words does not find joy in the blows He delivers, but rather utters them in the hopes they will bring about healing.  It is truth which opens our hearts to healing and sets us free.  This seems especially true when the words are hard to hear.

In Acts 6:10, after Jesus has shown us the fullness of his love and has returned to the Father it says this, “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests (many of whom were Pharisees and teachers of the law) became obedient to the faith.”  Isn't it surprising so many of those who were choosing to follow Jesus were the very same people to whom Jesus has spoken so harshly.

I cannot help but wonder how many of these priests might have been listening when Jesus spoke the words in Matthew 23.  If they were there to hear him utter those words, I imagine they were quite painful to hear.  Even so, I also wonder if they were also the words which planted the seeds which would later give birth to belief. Given their faith, I wonder if later those religious leaders, looking back on words Jesus had spoken, considered them far more loving than harsh.

From their new vantage point, Jesus' words must now have appeared to be words of life, motivated by love, and spoken as an invitation to freedom. Knowing who Jesus is and looking squarely at the one who is the personification of love, I cannot imagine them being anything else.