Doers of the Word
Sunday, August 29
A Milli-Vanilli Moment?
Nobody likes a hypocrite. People who say one thing and do another. Dicken’s Uriah Heep is a classic example. His character is notable for his cloying humility, unctuousness, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own ‘umbleness’. His name has become synonymous with sycophancy. (One wonders why the English rock band chose that name.)
In 1990, the group known as Milli-Vanilli exploded on the pop music scene. They had five big hits. Then it was discovered that they weren’t really singing on their records, or at their concerts. They were simply lip-syncing. The actual vocals were by two former American soldiers who just didn’t have the “look” the record producer wanted. People were outraged, and Milli-Vanilli had to give back the Grammy Award given to them for Best New Artist.
In today’s gospel, Jesus says that the Pharisees, like Milli-Vanilli, were doing an Old Testament lip-sync. They were mouthing the appropriate words, but they were not singing God’s song. The Pharisee’s are strict legalists, and Jesus reacts with surprising harshness to such petty matters. By concentrating on all the rules. The Pharisees miss the whole point of the gospel. Showy forms of legalism do not move anyone closer to God; in fact, they tend to make people proud, cliquish and self-righteous.
One way Jesus exposes the hypocrisy in the Pharisee’s attitude is by publicly healing people on the Sabbath. Fully aware that such acts will scandalize the Pharisees, he goes ahead anyway, insisting that compassion for needy people must take precedence over tradition. They care more about keeping the rules than healing the sick.
How do you distinguish between a petty rule and a requirement that Jesus really cares about?