Taking Correction - A Reflection on Luke 11:42-46




“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.”

One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.” And he said, “Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.

 

There are times when I really wish I lived in first century Palestine so I could have seen and been with Jesus, but there are other times when I am glad I was not. This is one of those times. The way he rebuked the Pharisees was terrible, and I wouldn’t have liked to have been around to see that. He called them unmarked graves, and in case you are wondering why that was so offensive, let me explain. For the Jews, stepping on a grave resulted in ceremonial defilement. This defilement prohibited a Jew from going to the temple, or offering sacrifice, or having fellowship with another person. And this lasted for seven whole days!

 

Now, if they did any of these things that were prohibited, they would defile others. Consequently, they looked at stepping on graves with great revulsion. Think of how you would feel if you stepped in dog poop and you will get a sense of what I’m saying. And, now, Jesus was saying the Pharisees were like this. Can you imagine their shock? Jesus was telling them how dirty they were, both on the inside and the outside. And worse, that they were also contaminating. And, then, when a lawyer protested, he pounced on lawyers too. “Woe to you too, guys,” he said, “because you load people with burdens and don’t lift a finger to help them.” Ouch!

 

Ok. We have reflected upon cleanliness about a gazillion times in the past, so let us reflect upon something else today. How would you have reacted if Jesus had scolded you as he scolded the Pharisees? It’s a serious question. See, we always believe others need to be corrected for what they do wrongly, not realizing how often we are in the need of correction. And if we ARE corrected, do we accept it gracefully? Or, do we react in anger? Unfortunately, most of us do not respond well to correction. 

 

I can understand that. Correction stings. It isn’t pleasant to discover that we are doing something wrong. And it’s even less pleasant to have somebody point that out to us. Instinctively, we become defensive because our self-esteem is threatened, and our most common reaction is anger. I have had people stop talking to me completely after I have corrected them. I very rarely do this — correct people —because I believe people usually know when they are doing something wrong and don’t need it to be pointed out to them. I step in only if I think they really don’t see the error of their ways and what they are doing is hurting others. 

 

I figure that’s why Jesus scolded people too, and made that remark about unmarked graves, because not only were the Pharisees hurting themselves, they were hurting others too. However, the reaction was typical. They got angry. In fact, they got so angry, they wanted to kill him. They couldn’t see, any more than we can, that the correction was intended for their good. They were not bad people, just like we are not bad people. They were genuinely trying to do the right thing, except they were going about it the wrong way. If they had only listened to Jesus, they would have got everything right. And been blessed for it.

 

Let us not make the same mistakes they made. When Jesus corrects us, let us accept the 

correction gracefully, and change our ways. We, and the world we live in, will be better for it.


Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here:  https://youtu.be/Jv0lzTGtsu4


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