The Virtues - Justice: Making No Peace With Oppression

They that deceive and lie, who slander and hurt, who do not love shall have no part in the Kingdom of God. I speak many times of the peace and the joy that I have in Christ but this is also necessary to write on. These words are for those who are broken in spirit due to the "Christians." This is a dense topic but let's dive in.

Justice is a theme throughout the Old and New Testaments. It is seen in the plagues against the nation of Egypt with Moses exclaiming, "Let my people go", it is seen throughout the Psalms that the wicked will be punished, it is seen with the prophets demanding Israel (who is God's people) to repent, and it is seen in Jesus when he returns with the club in hand to make all the wicked bow before him. Let's see what Christ says in Matthew 23 (long passage warning) when he speaks to those who call themself Godly.

23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:

2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long;

6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;

7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.

9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.

10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah.

11 The greatest among you will be your servant.

12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Seven Woes on the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees

13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. [14] [b]

15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’

17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’

19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.

22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.

30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.

35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Takeaway: The Guilty Are Judged By Their Works and Their Motivation. Not Just Their Words Nor What They Say They Believe

Let's dissect key verses from the passage:

4: "They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move their finger."

What does this look like for today? What does it look like for people to be like this passage? It looks like those who are unwilling to bear their own responsibilities place the yoke that they are supposed to pull onto others who are already pulling their own burdens. It looks like a person who has blessings beyond compare persuading others to reap the harvest that his hands were supposed to procure. This verse is the heart of slavery. The proud will say "You bear my burden for me and not with me" and out of the mouth will come deceits to make the person feel that they are the ones guilty. It is the mouth of the Pharisees or the friends of Job that say "You are stricken with grief and pain because you are wicked or have done something wrong. I am your friend, I know that what you did is wrong so allow me to take my rod to push you down a step while that momentum pushes me to higher ground." The heart of slavery lies in this deceit of pride. So what does this look like today?

I see it when a person states some excuse that limits them in their expression of good to others. It is the man who says that I am stronger than you so give me your blessings. The abuser utilizes the weak as a punching bag. For the males, it is demonstrated in the disagreeable traits that tend towards violence. The man whose pride is insulted and thus exudes his power over the one who wronged him. The females cast stones in the form of words that can cut the deeper recesses of the heart. Strength is for the protection of those who are lesser. The physically stronger should use their hands to build, not destroy. The mentally stronger should uplift those weak in words and will to be a voice against the cynical. Those who have known the majesty of God should lead those in procession before God's throne in holiness, casting their crowns down saying that only Christ is worthy.

Each person has a burden to bear and must bear that burden well. For Christ says come all who are heavy laden and I will give thee rest. Those who do not come to lay down those burdens will become known to others by their restlessness. The mark of the Christian is the one who has laid their burdens upon the shoulders of the one who bore a Roman cross and then decides that loads of others are to be shared. If you do not share the burdens of others or allow your burdens to be shared by those around you, how can you be called the bride of Christ? Is not this the essence of hate? No matter what occurs, you will require another to be placed as a footstool beneath your feet. The Christian is the one who does not place others as a footstool but humbles themselves to wash the feet of the downhearted. For what is love but the bearing of another's burdens for the sake of good? If you refuse to be the person who sees others in pain and passes them by then rest assured, Christ will pass you by at the altar. If you trade others for pieces of silver then expect the kiss that Christ would deliver to his bride to pass by your lips. Is that not what we do when we say we have work to do but yet delay at other times for the sake of distraction? One cannot serve two masters. And we cannot love our neighbor without making time for our neighbor. Is this not what Jesus calls out in this passage? That the Pharisees speak that they have their burdens to carry but decide to bear the law rather than serve their neighbor. The Levite passed by for the sake of attending to his work. I cannot imagine the Levites joyful for passing by the man in need. To those who would pass by the neighbor in need, let him be chastised.

5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long;

6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;

7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

Do those who manipulate and push themselves up not wish to appear virtuous? The greatest of deceivers is he that makes those around him think he is good while he is in fact working for wrong. Is this not what the snake does to Eve? He tempts her by presenting himself well. The good that a snake does is for his benefit and not for the benefit of those among the downtrodden. It is only to lift up a throne in the midst of others. The true mark of one being good is that one will sacrifice both in secret and in private. The acquirement of wealth, the abstraction of knowledge, and the rhetoric in the tongue are where the evil and the good of the heart will be known. Christ does not stand for the teachers who wish to make all things theirs, for they conquer the ideas of the almighty and plagiarize the love that they borrowed from the Lord above. For though the fruit may look fresh, the taste will reveal its bitterness.

They dress in priestly garbs to buy the appearance of moral superiority but the person who sees themselves as poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom of God. Tis, not the man who dresses in gold have made his outside the advantage so that his inside is not shown as his disadvantage? Beauty is not the problem but what beauty reflects. It must reflect God and his supremacy as the creator with goodness through representations of perfection. The ideal is being holy, not simply being known by others as holy. The reflection we should come to see is not ourselves with all of our attachments but a continual image of who we were made after. For we see through a mirror dimly but one day we will see the image fully. The fullness of the kingly attire that we wish to aspire to obtain can only be known in the parts that are revealed by divine revelation.

13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

Christ speaks here of all of those men who say they hold the keys to heaven but the gates they lock only keep them and others in hell. This hell that they craft has all the luxuries. They can travel miles on this moral mission to obtain one person to add to their ranks. The rank is only another demon that will torment others with the whip of the law. The hypocrites speak that the lashed are being made holy by the cracks. The only righteousness that they will see from their actions is the God of all, the judge over the earth, to give them the treatment that they gave to others. But you, the reader, and I, the writer, are not the ones who stand back and watch the hypocrites dance around the fire, we sing the music. That is the evil of indifference. They who do not fight against the evil of themselves and the world around them only give it the music that will deafen our senses to those wrongs. The more we speak of other things, the more our ears become shut to the cries of injustice.

16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’

17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’

19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.

22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

All the sacrifices that they made were simply for naught. They swore upon the temple and all of its sacred nature to uphold the holiness that God requires of them. Yet they give a few of their riches while their hearts remain poor. Sacrifices made to purify the heart and put God in his proper place on the throne shall be the sacrifices that result in true purification, not of the body but of the heart. To cast off shackles in the manner of the Pharisees is to only pick up and bind stronger, tighter chains. The debt they wish to pay back to God can only be fulfilled by God. God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 2 by saying that his people have committed two sins, they have broken cisterns and have drawn from a well that does fill. That is the nature of these legalists. They seek to give to God their own possessions as if all the things that they have is not a gift from God! What are we to make of ourselves? We have no property that is solely ours. Soon the Pharisees will see that their offering to God will be his son upon a cross. But the gospel reverses this and says the alter you intend to sacrifice me to the god of your own prosperity will become the place where the poor and desolate will come to be made whole. He will say I have bought you with a price that cost the perfect made man. Give to Ceasar that which is his but give to God that which is his. Whose image is upon the coin? It is Ceasar's. Whose image is upon you? It is God's.

23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

The wrong that religious leaders have committed here are those of moral responsibility. An action is not made right or wrong just by the action of itself nor just its results but by also the motivation behind such an action. The whole process stems from the roots to the fruits, if we bear fruits that look nice but the tree is actually rotten inside, we find that delectable fruit to come with the whisper from a snake's tongue. They manipulate and utilize many resources to take advantage of their brothers and sisters and have a forked tongue with spit that is of the venomous sort. Do not become tempted my dear reader. Cultivate and sow the roots so that the tree may extend to the stars. As it is said, "The roots must reach to hell in order to stretch out to the heavens." That is only possible by suffering hell for the sake of others. Did not Christ after his crucifixion go to hell to set captives free and claim those that are his? There is the sacredness of Silent Saturday, that God thus made a holy day for those unbelievers. We must not sacrifice our riches for the sake of our vice. For if we do not have love then whatever is done is but filthy rags. Woe to you who desire not the good of others! Woe to you who do not love! For you will be left with no ability to love yourself or others truly.

24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.

Christ speaks now on behalf of all those who have been put to shame by the Pharisees. These religious men are a flock of cocks. They crow at the rising of the sun and call out to all that they must rise and work. They will never be the sparrow that our lord does value greatly. For the sparrow can fly to heights unknown by the chickens. The roosters are confined to the ground they were born from. The more they scare others to become like them the more the lion of satan looks on. For he comes prowling but who needs to stalk their prey when it is presented on a silver platter by the ones who are supposed to be shepherds? The only person who can keep one lion at bay is the true king of the jungle who is the lion of Judah.

30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.

35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

To the moralist of the moderns, you speak thus that you would have no part in the abhorrent evils of history but now actively commit the very acts you condemn, for you have enmity against they that come to give truth, the harsh truth at that. Christ has come and you say "Hosanna!" when he first arrives but crucify him by the end of his coming. What are you to make of yourself? Ye who are birthed from naivety. For the sins of the father descend upon his offspring and the prophets God sent to correct and discipline have been laid upon the altar of sacrifice to your own gods. You twist a crown of thorns from the roses that God grew. You are more serpent than dove. Cast down your crowns and cry holy before they become broken by the king of kings.

My last warning to you my reader is this. Do not think of yourself as above the Pharisees. The true hypocrites are we who point the gun. While the muzzle flashes at our opponents, four fingers point back.