“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed. Then you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would never have joined them in killing the prophets.’ “But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started. Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?

Matthew 23:27-33

Dear God, when I read this passage this morning it reminded me of the “Disney Princess Theology.” Surely, Lord, not me. It is those bad ol’ Pharisees who were like that. Our churches today aren’t like that. My church isn’t like that. Surely, Lord, not us.

Well, maybe it is us. Who do I embrace and who do I condemn? Do I embrace the wealthy, powerful, influential person over the weak and awkward person? Do I make decisions to align myself with those who will help me maintain my status and power, or am I willing to sacrifice things that I perceive to be to my benefit so that your greater plan might flourish?

Yes, I can’t help but wonder what areas of my life you are pointing out to me in this passage? I certainly judge people whom I perceive to be making bad decisions with their lives. Why don’t I befriend them and reach out to them? Am I afraid of them, or do I simply not want to extend myself into an uncomfortable situation?

Father, help me to be sensitive to my Pharisee-like ways. Help me to not assume that the bad people in the Bible are not representative of me, but instead be open to examining my own heart and discovering the parts that need purged and healed by your Holy Spirit. Love through me. I will start that process by loving you and then loving others.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen