Which devour widow’s houses, and for a shew make long prayers; the same shall receive greater damnation. Luke 20:47
Many years ago, a teenage friend of mine and I were sitting on our bicycles, watching the local minister of the little United church as he turned onto the road leading to his home. It was a gravel road, and the man of the cloth had a heavy foot, spinning his tires as he made the turn. Gravel stones flew and the rear end of the car fish-tailed as it approached the narrow bridge, avoiding the guardrails of the bridge by only a few inches (this was in pre-metric days). We shook our heads at such a display of reckless driving, and my friend made the observation, ‘It’s a good thing he’s got a sure ticket to heaven, ’cause he’s going to get there quick’. For some reason, he thought that the minister of a church would be automatically assured of Heaven. Actually, there are many people who think that. The scribes and the Pharisees of whom Jesus was speaking in today’s text apparently thought that. What a rude awakening they have had!
There was an old law, long since repealed, that enabled people to escape the consequences of serious crimes if they could read a portion of the Bible in court. Called ‘benefit of clergy’, this law existed during a time when few people could read or write. Some people actually escaped the gallows by using this loophole. The scribes and Pharisees appeared to think that their knowledge and skill in the Scriptures was enough to assure them of escaping damnation. So they were unkind to those they considered less than themselves, and were heartless toward the poor. Jesus warned them to search the Scriptures because in them they thought they had eternal life, but in reality the Scriptures spoke of Christ. They failed to recognize the One of Whom the Scripture spoke, and are now in hell. All about us are religious people who are relying on their religion, not on the Lord Jesus. Tragic is their end!
It would be good if all of us had the same knowledge of Scripture that the scribes and Pharisees had. It would also be good if we spent as much time in prayer as they did, although we should do our praying in the closet, not in the public market. Sadly, their knowledge and use of the Scriptures, and their abuse of what they called prayer were all for show and were empty of any true value. How different should be the reading and meditation on the Scriptures and the precious time of prayer for the true child of God! These essential elements of our life as Christians are far too important to allow us to relegate them to ritual and show.
Have we escaped damnation? Not by our prayers or our Bible reading, we haven’t. Not by being more pious than others, we haven’t. But by the blood of our Saviour, we have. In deep humility, let us give thanks to the Lord Jesus today. Not of ourselves… all of Himself. -Jim MacIntosh