Straining Gnats, Swallowing Camels
Gregg A. Parker – Nov 14, 2004

Read Matthew 23:23-24 Micah 6:6-8


Do you think it's possible for religion to become the very thing
that would keep us from God?

Would you ever imagine that the things we do in the name of God might in
fact, divide and distance us from him?

Do you think it's possible for faith to become a fence that could actually
separate us from a real and true spirituality?

Jesus does!

Listen to Jesus' words in Matthew 23 where he delivers a scathing rebuke of some of the religious leaders of his day. He takes them to task for a religion that is vacant of reality; for a faith that fails to connect — for a fastidious piety that completely misses God's will and way.

(Read Matthew 23:23-24)

There's a deep caution in this text that members of the church need to hear:

Just because we use religious words and engage in religious behavior does not mean that our religion will be a reflection of the heart of God. Matthew, chapter 23 is a challenging chapter of the Bible where Jesus takes to task those who reduced the spiritual journey into what is actually a rigid march of hypocrisy. Jesus blasts these religious leaders, denouncing them as blind guides who have completely missed the point of faith. For all of their moral fervor, for all of their intense bible study, for all of their obsessive religious practices, Jesus says that the Scribes and Pharisees still do not have a clue of what it means to know and serve God.

This chapter is famous for Jesus' 7 woes against organized religion (we've read one of them here). Seven caustic cautions that are just as, if not more relevant today than when they were first delivered. At the heart of them all is the warning that religion too easily becomes an external thing with no real resonance or relevance to the world.

The 7 woes are a critique of a faith that “looks the part” but fails to reflect the reality. And I have to admit, having been raised in the Lord’s church I find this idea that a religious person can be both sincere yet seriously wrong . . . of great concern.

See these people thought they were right and fine. These were deeply religious people who had “assumed” their lives and choices were blessed and on track; and yet Jesus says they are not even close to what the heart of the gospel is. Blind guides he calls them. He is saying that when we can't see what God values, then, at least in our souls, we become blind.

Jesus calls it straining gnats only to turn around and swallow a camel.

That's a striking image isn't it?

It makes even more sense when we realize that both gnats and camels were unclean animals to the Jew. Of course it was easy for them not to eat a camel but gnats were a different matter, as we all know from our summer picnics. So when a very religious person back then drank wine they would put a linen cloth over the lip of the cup to strain and filter it and in that way insure that they would not even inadvertently swallow that which was unclean.

Jesus looks at the religion of the scribes and Pharisees and sees this habit of straining the wine as a perfect metaphor for what is wrong with their faith. He says they are so narrowly focused on the wrong things that it’s like they are straining out the gnats but then swallowing camels whole! Today we might say they major in the minors and neglect the essentials.

In short, they had missed the point and failed to understand what God was really saying to them. The scribes and Pharisees had seriously missed the point of the Scriptures and gotten their religion all confused such that they no longer understood what it was that God was saying to them — even though the prophet Micah had said it so beautifully a couple of a centuries before.

Micah (Micah 6: 6-8) raised the question of what was the point of religion —

What was it that God wanted from us. He asks, "With what shall I come before the lord? Shall I come with burnt offerings? Will the lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born???"
….. and then Micah himself replies: "God has told us what is good and required of us: it is to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God."

Listen, it's always easier — and therefore always tempting — to reduce our religion down to measurable little details. It’s always easier if we can segregate and isolate a few specific behaviors and call THEM sin; or lift up certain religious practices and assume that in keeping THOSE we are fulfilling all that God wants and desires for us. Consider for example what the scribes and Pharisees were doing. The law said they should tithe, that is, give 10%, of all that they had. So these scribes and Pharisees became like cocaine dealers cutting a line of drugs — they are measuring out every little grain and speck of every herb and spice in their kitchen thinking that this proves their faith and fulfills their duty to God. They're dividing up the oregano and the basil, the rosemary and the garlic salt but Jesus’ point is that while they are bent over the kitchen table trying to separate off 1/10th of their herbs, people are walking by their houses hungry and in need and THAT is where God wanted their faith to be active, not just at the spice rack.

See the point is not that their tithing did not matter: Tithing was good and a requirement under the Law! But, as exacting as it was to separate out and give 10% of their spices, it was far easier than having to work for justice, show mercy and thus make faith real.

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Religion is often more than the things we would like to suppose it is.
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MERCY means moving towards the person in need with compassion and help. It also has to do with us forgiving those who sin against us, as God forgives us.

Again, it is simpler to divide sprigs of parsley or to do the things we find more comfortable, but it is mercy that finds the hurting person and extends to them the heart of God through the resources of our lives or to forgive and forget the trespasses of another.

And FAITH? Faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Heb 11:1)

This is not just a “feeling” or “belief”. James puts it this way (James 2:18): "I will show you my faith by what I do." Jesus is looking for that kind of faith from us: a faith that goes beyond splitting spices to become involved in true worship, obedience and the needs of God's world.

Christianity is more than a few religious habits that we keep a few times a month. Jesus is calling us to care about justice, to make mercy our goal and to have a faith that is vital and real. The truth is that if we are not “extremely careful”, our religion can be like a vaccine, like an inoculation, that gives us just a bit of the substance without ever having to experience the full reality of its significance.

Today I am calling on each of you to join me in looking again at the reality of our religion: will we dabble our feet in manageable religious behaviors or will we take the plunge of discipleship and give our lives and hearts to what matters to the heart of God? The goal is to not allow the minor issues to become more important than what is most important.

There was once a gentleman by the name of Larry Rinkin, of Minnesota. In 1989 Larry, an experienced skydiver and amateur video photographer stepped out of an airplane to film his friends as they came skydiving down after him. His film in fact shows just that. Larry jumps out of the plane and then a moment later his friends follow with clothes flapping and hands waving. In a few moments, one by one the friends pull their ripcords and are snatched up into the sky as their parachutes stop their free fall. It is then that Larry's video shows him reaching and searching and frantically grabbing for a ripcord that was not there. Somehow, Larry Rinkin had stood in the plane and remembered to turn on his camera, check the battery, adjust the aperture and set the camera to automatic focus but Larry Rinkin forgot to put on a parachute. He got all the details right but forgot the most important thing and so he stepped out of the airplane and fell to his death.

He strained the gnat and then swallowed the camel.

The secret of life is in knowing what is most important. The temptation of religion is to turn faith from a real and vital power in our lives into a manageable and defined set of certain external behaviors. But when the externals become more important than the main point; when the minor issues become major concerns; when we get caught up in tending to the wrong things and forget what is most significant, then we are straining gnats and swallowing camels — then we have fatally fallen from what it is that God wants from us: which is to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.

(COMPARE THE FOLLOWING)

Gnats We Strain

Attending Sunday morning worship services
How we dress for worship services
Telling others we are members of the Church of Christ
Ensuring the preacher can defend his teachings with scripture
Expecting God to know our hearts, wants and needs.
Judging others
Stay on the constant lookout for hypocrites
Expecting a reverent, holy worship service
Concerning ourselves with other’s children

Camels We Swallow
No real concern about missing bible classes, Sunday evening or Wednesday services.
Dress to draw attention to ourselves
Never really attempt to teach them about the church, in humbleness and love
Not studying the scriptures daily ourselves
Not approaching God in prayer, daily and regularly
Not removing the plank out of our own eye
Don’t approach others about perceived sin, are content to let them perish…. “they’ll get what they deserve” attitude.
Worrying more about how long the preacher will preach or if the song leader missed a note.
We do not discipline our own. Allow our children to play and sleep in services, and have no real concern or preparation for their bible classes. Allow them to dress immodestly and regularly hang out with others who present constant temptations to sin. Not having an “active” concern when they are well past the age of obeying the gospel or are obviously living out of duty.

Final Thought

There are many in the Lord’s church today, who are very educated and intelligent, and because of this have a very hard time ever seeing “wrong” in their own lives………..thus were the Scribes and Pharisees.

1 Corinthians 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.