My Tithing Sermon...

“Thoughts for Those Who Are Not Well”

(Matthew 23:23-24, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 18, 2008)

Matthew 23:23-24 ²³ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. ²⁴ You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

Introduction – More trouble for blind guides

In the previous verses our Lord referred to the scribes and Pharisees as blind guides. Earlier in this gospel, Jesus had explained what that phrase meant when He was speaking about the Pharisees. He said, “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” Jesus pronounces seven woes upon these men in this chapter. As He goes to the cross He is determined to teach His disciples that, whatever points of shared doctrine there are between Pharisaic religion and the way of the cross, the two lead in very different directions and they have very different destinations.

The Pharisaic way ultimately leads followers low by insisting on going up high first. Everybody on that train ends up falling into a pit. At least that’s the way that the imagery of blind guides works. Along the way they may seem like they are the very mountaintop of holiness. The way of the cross leads followers on high by insisting on going down low first. Jesus is leading us into the kingdom of heaven, but He goes there through the worst suffering that anyone can face. This is His way to glory. It is also the way for anyone who would follow Him. The Pharisaic way seems like a great path to exaltation, but by taking that road both the leaders and deluded followers fall into a pit.

If you think of the true pathway to the kingdom through faith in Christ and a life of the suffering of the cross, it does not seem like much of an appealing advertisement. Yet our inability to accept this way in the depths of our hearts probably has much to do with our feelings of dissatisfaction. Our problem with that system is two-fold. First, we want heaven to be as worldly as all our idols, and second, we insist that the world be as trouble-free as heaven. Neither of those things will do. We accumulate an attachment to idols here on earth that we are secretly hoping to be able to take with us after we depart. On the other hand, we want all of the joys and comforts of heaven right now, and if we don’t get them, we wonder whether God is really doing His part. This is the world. It is not heaven, and it is not an easy place to live. Heaven is coming and it is full of the presence of the real God. Train your hearts for heaven by loving the real God more day by day, but do not expect that your life is going to be easy here. This is still the world after the fall of Adam, and there is still much pain and sorrow in our current condition.

Tithing our spices (23)

As those who believe in the resurrection promises of God, how are we to live in this world now? The Pharisees had that figured out. They had settled into a tangled web of religious customs that seemed designed to prove to themselves and to anyone else who might care to know, that they were not guilty of violating the traditions of holiness that had been handed down by the rabbis. One of those traditions with some biblical basis was the practice of a very exact tithing, even down to the spices that you grew in your garden.

Tithing is an ancient religious practice, where you give a tenth of what you have been given back to some greater giver as a testimony of your complete loyalty and deference to the one that receives the tithe. Abraham gave a tenth of his spoils of war to Melchizedek as a way of saying that Melchizedek was greater by far than Abraham. When Jacob had a dream and saw a ladder reaching up to heaven with angels going up and down on that ladder, he made a vow to God that if God would provide for him during his time away from home, Jacob would give back to the Lord a full tenth of all God gave to him. This was not some bargain he negotiated with God. It was an expression of worship whereby Jacob was saying to God, “Everything I every will have is from You and it all belongs to You. In testimony to this fact I give You the tithe.” The tithe has always been part of a larger system of being faithful with our blessings. That system has always insisted that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

In the history of Israel the tithe was part of the Law that God gave through Moses. This was a portion of His system for taking care of Levites, priests, visitors, widows, and orphans. It was one of a number of laws that had to do with supporting religious worship and extending mercy to those who were in need. The Pharisees in their teaching on tithing made a point that they even tithed on their spices, and they taught their followers to do the same. Why would anyone teach that you should tithe on your spices, if not to show you through that specific point how exactly he followed this practice of tithing? “We Pharisees are not loose about our giving like some other people are. The way we see it, you should even give a tenth of your spices to God.” People who love to talk about how exactly they give to God may just want to make sure that you know about their righteousness in that area of their life.

The law of the tithe was not the only law of sharing wealth in God’s system. Deuteronomy 14 and Leviticus 27 are two places in the Law where tithing regulations are explained. Two other provisions of mercy are described very near those passages. One is the Sabbath year. Every seventh year debts were to be forgiven. The second was the Year of Jubilee. After seven cycles of seven years each, there was a final year when land was restored to the poor who had been forced to sell it in order to live. It was also the year when Hebrew slaves were set free. Those who had to sell themselves to stay alive were given their lives back again. These provisions of the Law could be significantly more costly than tithing your spices. If the Pharisees were so intent on following the Law, they might have wanted to focus on these two laws. It appears that these provisions of the Law were never carefully followed the way that they are written in the Bible. Those who have wished to follow at least the Sabbath Year regulations have normally done that in symbolic ways that allow life to go on as normal while using some accepted system to make it appear that observant Jews were still following the various religious laws on this matter.

Giving to God is an act of worship. The interesting thing about laws that specify duties of worship is that they always mean much more than we may first assume. Tithing is an example of this. When you give to the Lord ten percent of whatever gain He has brought to you, it is not because you are paying your taxes and that’s just the tax rate. If that were the case, then the poor widow who was putting in all that she had was not to be commended. She should just give ten percent. The reason why she was commended by Jesus is that in her devotion she was showing what tithing was really about. Tithing is not a way of saying that the Lord is due ten percent of your increase. Tithing is a witness that the Lord owns one hundred percent of your increase. He gave it, and it is all his. Like all worship laws, it finally points to the fact that God owns everything. What does it mean when someone tithes their spices, but finds ways to get around the Sabbath year and the Year of Jubilee? It means that they don’t really understand the first thing about tithing. They may just be trying to impress other people.

The weightier matters of the law (23)

This kind of game is much harder to play when it comes to duties like justice, mercy, humility, forgiveness, faithfulness. These things are much harder to quantify. They were a part of the Law that the Pharisees tended to ignore. They were also a part of the Law that Christ obeyed perfectly. Why did Jesus go to the cross? He was perfectly satisfying the demands of the Lord’s justice for you. You deserved death. He took your death. He could have satisfied God’s love of justice by simply bringing eternal punishment upon you, but then He could not have fulfilled His great desire to show mercy. In terms of walking humbly with God, the cross is the supreme example of it. Here the Son of God has lowered Himself for us so that we might be brought high into the presence of God. He reached down so low for us in order to bring us to the highest heaven in Him. Through this cross He achieved for us everything necessary for our forgiveness, and He was utterly faithful to the plan of the Father. Through the cross, our Lord showed a wonderful devotion to the weightier matters of the Law.

What we ought to have done (23)

It was also through the cross that Jesus showed a real understanding of tithing. He gave one hundred percent. He went beyond the symbol and gave the full measure of His devotion. The joyful giver is not looking for proof that he has done his part because he gives ten point zero percent. The joyful giver knows that he has never given his all to God from the very depths of his heart, but that this is what Jesus did for us. Therefore he gives, and he is happy. There is nothing wrong with tithing, even on your spices. There is something wrong with thinking that you have actually fully obeyed the tithing laws of God in the fullness of what they really mean, especially when you do not keep the more costly provisions of the Law having to do with the care of those in need among you.

Medical advice… (24)

To take pride in your tithing, and then to miss the beauty of the cross, is to miss the weightier matters of the Law, and to be blind to the way that they have been obeyed by Christ, and by Christ alone. This is not good for your spiritual health, because it leads you to overestimate your goodness, and to miss the goodness of the One who died for your sins. The cross is for people who know that they are not well. They are sick, and they need a doctor. Here is some quick medical advice for anyone who wants to follow God. Don’t swallow a camel. By the way, if you do decide to swallow a camel, there is really no need to strain out every gnat. Both of these animals were unclean under the Old Testament Law. If you parade the fact that you tithe your spices and then ignore justice, mercy, and faithfulness, then you are doing something that is not good for you. You have swallowed a camel. No need to mention how careful you are about the gnats. The amazing thing about the Pharisees is that they swallowed a camel and had absolutely no sense of any stomach ache. They thought that they were in perfect health. There is only one Man who has ever been in perfect spiritual health. For our sake He took our sin sickness upon Himself. Let us give Him the credit He deserves. We were not all that well. He took away our guilt and shame. In Him we have life.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What is tithing and what does it represent?

2. How is it that there are some parts of the Law that are weightier than others?

3. What kind of life of law-keeping is Jesus insisting on and how does it differ from the Pharisaic way?

4. What makes the gnat/camel comparison funny? What are we to learn from this humorous comment?