Thoughts and Prayers VIII

Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb . . . 

 - From Luke 4

Jesus got snarky.

He walked into a synagogue in Nazareth, and saw the Scribes and Pharisees, and said: "So now you'll start quoting Scripture to Me . . . "

The Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day are history's prototypes of hypocrisy. They weren't just hypocritical from time to time (like all of us): they were hypocrites. They weren't believers . . . . This needs to be repeated - they were not believers. They might as well have been agnostics, or even atheists. But they were learned, and they knew Hebrew scripture. They used it to try to trip up the Master. 

The Thoughts-and-Prayers-Don't-Work People are the educated ones. The smirk on their face (you can almost see it in their social media comments) is the accompaniment to their predicable hashtag #thoughtsandprayersdontwork. They're like the Edward G. Robinson character in The Ten Commandments: "Where's your messiah now?"

The Scribes and Pharisees used Scripture to try to trap Jesus into proving Himself a hypocrite. They tried to use His own words against Him. But He turned it on them and illuminated their own projection of hypocrisy.

1) They knew Scripture; 2) They were highly educated; 3) They looked down on others that were not as sophisticated as they; 4) They used Scripture against believers; 5) They loved calling other people "hypocrites." 

Is it any wonder why Jesus made hypocrisy the theme of every sermon targeted at the Scribes and Pharisees?

It is tempting to side-up with the smart and popular people that, without much creativity, proclaim "Thoughts and Prayers don't work." It's predictable. It's mean-spirited. It seems designed more to draw attention to the speaker (or writer) than to any real wrong-doing anywhere. 

"Where's you Messiah now?"

"Thoughts and Prayers don't work!"

"I know what you're going to say."