{"id":1698,"date":"2025-07-16T14:44:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T14:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/?p=1698"},"modified":"2025-07-16T18:12:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T18:12:18","slug":"what-are-you-sneering-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/?p=1698","title":{"rendered":"“WHAT ARE YOU SNEERING AT?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“WHAT ARE YOU SNEERING AT??\u201d:
~ The Chosen<\/em> Devotional Vol. 5, Day 12: A PERSONAL REFLECTION.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were SNEERING at Jesus. He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. . . .” (Luke 16:14-15, NIV).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This daily devotional quickly gets to the \u201cheart\u201d of the matter: Who (or what?) has your heart? \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I read the verses above, I was immediately struck by the phrase, “who loved money.”\u00a0 Like most of us, my default diagnosis of the Pharisees’ problem is the PLEASURE that money brings through its “stuff”–designer shoes (well, sandals), fancy cars (well, wagons, & chariots), 85″ flat screen TVs (well, amphitheaters), and the like.\u00a0 You know. “Stuff to have FUN with.” \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now there is nothing sinful about \u201cplay\u201d per se. But play turns dark when it rules the day . . . and the night . . . night and day!  To put it bluntly, when personal pleasure becomes the \u201cbe-all and end-all\u201d of someone\u2019s existence, that person has made Pleasure her\/his god\u2014virtue is at best suspended and at worst downright rejected in service of personal, playful, pleasures which now can come even at the cost of someone else’s harm.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is more of a modern diagnosis of the Pharisees’ problem. It is serious for sure. The stakes could not be higher. But there’s something far more serious and sinister at play (pardon the pun) in the Pharisees love of money, and The Chosen devotional nails it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because wealth was wrongly understood as an unassailable sign of divine sanction and personal piety (cf. the modern \u201cProsperity Gospel\u201d), affluence served to pad the Pharisees\u2019 resum\u00e9. What the Pharisees were really after was control, influence, and personal aggrandizement, and the trappings of wealth bought it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Jesus accused them of justifying themselves for this love of money. \u201cAfter all,\u201d they likely reasoned, \u201cwe\u2019re using the money for religious causes\u201d (like high-profile almsgiving and ostentatious displays of extravagant generosity). But these acts of \u201cgenerosity\u201d were (mostly NOT, or indeed NOT AT ALL) out of compassion for the poor, but rather out of their concern to \u201clook good,\u201d to \u201cappear pious\u201d so they might maintain influence and control among the people. Their so-called \u201cacts of piety\u201d amounted to little more than \u201cbreadcrumbing\u201d (i.e., emotional manipulation flowing from a lack of true commitment to mutually-respecting relationship that simply keeps the other person \u201con the hook). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, the sin of the Pharisees\u2019 \u201clove of money\u201d amounted to using people for personal gain. Of course, this runs counter to the divine nature, character, and will that God designed to nourish and sustain His human offspring.\u00a0 Using people for personal gain is the pathway to perdition; instead, using personal gain for people is the pathway to peace.\u00a0 Using ALL one\u2019s resources to help someone\u2014even to the point of sacrificing one\u2019s life\u2014is the supreme example of \u201cagape\u201d love. This is precisely what we see through the “CrossLens.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Pharisees\u2019 sin goes deeper than the attempts to purchase power and control. These Pharisees are deliberately posturing themselves as the source of power and control. The unspoken implication of their self-aggrandizement is that for the average pew-warmer the Pharisees are God. Does that not explain why they were so upset with Jesus, Who (legitimately!!) indicated by his WORDS and DEEDS that He INDEED  was\/is GOD?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As chosen SERVANTS of Yahweh, the Pharisees had failed miserably.  They directed the attention (i.e., glory) to themselves rather than to God Who alone is worthy of that honor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

True ministers of the gospel take pains to direct the attention to Jesus.  Witness the apostle Peter who said, \u201cWhy do you stare at us as if we made this man walk by our own power or piety?\u201d (Acts 3:12b)!  And the apostle Paul who, when those in Lystra wrongly assumed he was a god, said, \u201cWe too are men, with human natures just like you! . . .\u201d (Acts 14:15).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scripture is clear:  \u201cGod opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble\u201d (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). And it is not without significance that Jesus\u2019 kingdom manifesto (a.k.a. the \u201cBeatitudes\u201d) that outlines the very traits that MUST characterize ALL citizens of God\u2019s kingdom begins with humility: \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit\u201d (Matthew 5:3). Paul expressed the \u201cBeatitudes\u201d this way: \u201cThe fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control . . .\u201d (Galatians 5:22). These attitudinal traits are the litmus test of whether a Christian leader is \u201cdriving under the influence\u201d of the Holy Spirit OR \u201canother (of a different kind) spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Christ\u2019s ambassadors, believers are called upon to glorify God in all our speech, deeds, and attitudinal posture. How much more must this be true of those whom God calls into full time ministry?!  \u201cFather, deliver us from the temptation to self-exaltation! Amen!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“WHAT ARE YOU SNEERING AT??\u201d: ~ The Chosen Devotional Vol. 5, Day 12: A PERSONAL REFLECTION. “The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were SNEERING at Jesus. He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. . . .” (Luke 16:14-15,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biblical-themes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1698"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1710,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions\/1710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}