"You say that.......You die!!"

By John Stallings


The first sermon Jesus preached in His own home town almost got Him killed. We’re told about the incident in Luke 4:16-30.

He’d spent forty days in the wilderness & was now returning from Capernaum in southern Israel to His neck of the woods in Nazareth. Now He was back home where He grew up.

As was His custom Jesus went to the Synagogue on the Sabbath & was greeted warmly. After all, this was a home town boy who’d gone away & made good. He’d come back to Nazareth with a degree of fame & the town was a- buzz.

In those days if there was no priest, a person of some standing could be asked to read from the Old Testament Scrolls & take a stab at expounding on it before the crowd.

It’s always hard to know what to preach for your first sermon in a place. Jesus’ assignment was made harder because He was preaching his first sermon on His old stomping grounds. Should He try to challenge them, encourage them or both?

Jesus was handed the scroll & asked to read a little & then comment on what He read. He read from Isaiah 42, 58 & 61. The passages He read told about the messiah whom the Jews were expecting & then He sat down to make a few comments.

The comments Jesus made couldn’t have lasted more then roughly ninety seconds but did He ever kick-over a bee-hive? Better still it was as if someone threw a hand grenade into the temple where Jesus was sitting speaking to the people.

It happened in a blink of an eye. Blue skies turned to dark thundering storm clouds producing jagged streaks of lightening in a heart-beat. The people exploded, rose up as a mob, surrounded Jesus & ushered Him out of the temple toward a near-by cliff.

If a miracle hadn’t happened to allow His escape Jesus would have died at the hands of old friends & maybe a few relatives. Most all preachers have preached sermons that were received less than enthusiastically but nothing like this.

What on earth did Jesus say in his first sermon that incited the crowd of homies to gnash their teeth & come at Him with blood lust in their eyes?

Here it is. After reading about the coming Messiah He told the listening audience, “I’ve told you about the Messiah, you’re looking at Him.”

Oddly enough, they were still O.K at this point. They were still smiling & showing signs of appreciation. In Luke 4:22---….they wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.

Jesus continued, telling them that He knows a prophet is usually not honored in His own home town. But then things turn ugly. He began to relate how God in times past had often chosen to bless foreigners & outsiders before He’d bless Israelites, His chosen people. He cited Namaan the leper & the widow Of Sidon who saved Elijah & received a miracle supply because of it. He was in essence telling them not to be complacent because they were Jews; that God could & often did by-pass them & bless non-Jews.

This was information-overload for these religiously puffed-up people. Now they are ripping-mad at Him & ready to wring His neck. They said, “The nerve of this young home boy to challenge our position as first in God’s kingdom.” After all we’re Jews. You’ve crossed the line young man, ----you’ve gone too far. –

“You say that….. you die.”

What had Jesus done to these Nazerites that stung them so deeply and caused them to hustle him toward a high place to try to throw Him over?

HE HAD CHALLENGED THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Of course they were God’s chosen people. But they had forgotten what they were chosen to do & preferred to bask in the title only. They wanted that chosen place but wanted more to be comfortable & ignore their purpose. Jesus saw they were stuck-in-the-mud so He lit a fire under them, to say the least.

How dare Jesus remind them of their history; that if they & their ancestors forgot their purpose, the prophets had no choice but to by-pass them & go bless Gentiles instead?

God is also still telling us that we can’t take His blessings for granted because of who we are. When the people in Jesus’ home town heard that message, their stubbornness & self-righteousness caused them to reject it & Jesus too.


LET’S LOOK AT SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Self-righteousness by definition is,

--“An attitude of complacency with ones self, smugly moralistic & intolerant of the opinions of others. Self- righteousness is rooted in pride-- & pride is arrogance inflated with conceit.

Self-righteous people find no fault with themselves but they find numerous faults with others. They are guilty of gross arrogance as they see themselves perfect in knowledge & righteousness & have little problem holding themselves up as an example for others to be judged by.

Self-righteous folk not only see themselves as up, they see everyone else down. They have to be careful not to walk in the rain because they might drown with their nose stuck so high in the air.

Self-righteousness says, “I’m with God, but the rest of you have lots of room for improvement.” All would be right with the world if everyone were like them. Or so they think.

Self-righteousness is a sense of moral superiority that appoints itself as prosecutor of others sinfulness, & acts as if it were incapable of the sins others commit.

We’ve all known people who were so self-righteous they could be clinically diagnosed. They are not capable of seeing the world in anyone’s eyes but their own. They are among those people who can curse you in public & then turn around & blame you for getting them upset. They are incapable of seeing how anyone could be hurt by their behavior.

They are the bullies who can bloody your nose & while you lay on the ground trying to stop the bleeding, they yell at you for not offering them a hanky so they can wipe the sweat off their foreheads.

I once ran into a friend of a person who’d done me a horrible injustice & still owed me money & when I smiled at them all I got was a dirty scowl in return. This lets me know that everyone in this persons world will be totally conditioned to believe what they say, (many times this will be offspring) or they will no longer be in their world.

If they do feel any guilt about wrongs done to you, they’ll try to offset it by maximizing some imagined wrong you did to them, & so as long as you play along with them you’ll never hear the end of it.

If you don’t have experience with their type, or a lot of spiritual insight, after they’ve abused you, they’ll even trick you into believing you’ve wronged them. Only much later will you say, “Hey wait a minute, I was the one who was beaten-up!

If you’re not careful, you’ll get so sucked into the self-righteous persons web that ( especially if you’re married to one) you’ll waste precious years of your life trying to rationalize with them why they should treat you better & end up falling into a black-hole of catering to their every whim.

Notice that self is at the center of this life, not Christ.

Paul tells us in Romans 10;3,--For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness & going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Self-righteousness says, -- “I know better than you do,” I am right, you are wrong.” “I’ll do this your way this time but my way is better.” Self-righteousness can go so far, especially when dealing with people close to them, as to say in actuality or in essence, “Look, you are an ignoramus. I don’t even want to waste my time talking to you. What you have to say isn’t in the least important & when I want your opinion I’ll give it to you,” or in some cases, “when I want your opinion I’ll knock it out of you.” “You can think the way you think or join me & be right.”

When husbands treat their wives this way they’re likely going to be sitting before a judge soon & when parents treat their offspring like this the offspring will rebel sooner or later.

The Pharisees were self-righteous & Jesus called them hypocrites because they set up standards that they actually thought were better than His.

When I turn my personal convictions into your duty, & then sit back & judge & criticize you for your failure to perform according to my standards, then I’ve not only become an annoying person, I’ve become evil, poisonous, pernicious & full of deadly pride & self-righteousness.

If you don’t believe self-righteousness is evil, read again through the New Testament & that fact will be hard to miss. Romans 3: 10-12 says,

There is none righteous no not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God….there is none that doeth good, no not one.

Everyone is self-righteous to a certain extent. We find it hard to detect self-righteousness in ourselves, I know I do. When I started this article, I determined to look inside myself painful though it is. By nature I must keep a constant vigil on myself at all times, and believe me I don’t say that with a self-righteous attitude.

Let’s drop the “plumb-line” & see where we stand in the area of self-righteousness. A self-righteous person stands on their own laurels, their knowledge, and their talents. They are unloving, selfish, mean-spirited, & not generous. Think about this; in Jesus’ time many repented of their sins but few of the self-righteous repented, because they didn’t see their need. After all, how do you reason with self-righteousness? A person infected by it hasn’t a clue to their own faults or sins.

All the qualities Jesus spoke of in the Beatitudes –poor in spirit, meek, merciful, peacemakers etc.—are the opposites of self-righteousness. The degree of self-righteousness varies with the person but it’s far more ingrained than any of us ever dreamed it could be.

Many of Christ’s teachings & parables were used expressly for the self-righteous. The parable of the prodigal son was basically told to highlight the self-righteous elder brother who never left home & was always obedient to his father.

Listen to these words after Jesus told the parable in Luke 18 of the Judge who feared neither God nor man; -- And He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Vs. 9

When self-righteous people go to church, they split up. Half sit on the front row with their shovels, & as the truth comes from the Word they shovel it back to the others sitting on the back row with their umbrellas up. None of the self-righteous crowd is getting anything. You’ll often hear them say after a good sermon, with a straight face, “I wish so-n-so would have been here to hear that.”

If you read in Matthew chapter 15, 21, 22 & 23 you’ll find Jesus getting progressively tougher on the self-righteous. In chapter 23, it reaches a crescendo which is mind-boggling & Jesus is practically scorching the earth around the Pharisees. Yet even in that chapter He shows love,

--O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killeth the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not.—Vs. 37

Listen to Proverbs 16:2,

All the ways of a man are right in his own eyes; but the Lord weighs the spirit.

If I’m reading right it’s not possible for us to know our hearts unless God shows us. Our self-righteous hearts justify everything we do. Jeremiah 17:9 says, --The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Then God answers, I the lord search the heart I try the reins even to give to every man according to his works….Jer.17:10.

We are naked & opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, including the thoughts & intents of your heart.—Heb.4:12-13

David said,--…..Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Ps.19:12


AVOIDING SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS IN MY OWN LIFE—

1. I must first conquer self-righteousness in my own life then & only then can I set an example leading others in the right way.
2. I must never allow myself to become needy, needing constant positive feed-back & nourishment from others. Matt. 6:1-4
3. I must constantly be reminded of my dependence on Christ. Phil. 4:13
4. I must consider others better than myself.—Phil.2:2-4—Rom.12:9-10.
5. I must give God the glory for every accomplishment. 1 Pet.4:10-11
6. I must keep my eyes in God’s mirror & constantly be applying His word to my life. James 1:22-25
7. I must continue learning to humbly receive criticism though I abhor it.—Proverbs 9:8-9
8. I must be willing to turn the other cheek. Matt. 5:38-42.
9. I mus tn’t be a self appointed examiner of warts & carbuncles in others. It’s highly likely that everything I criticize in others I’ve done myself. Mark 7:2
10. I must show mercy & forgiveness whenever possible. Matt. 9:13

In closing, there’s’ no better template for us to follow to avoid self-righteousness than The Sermon on the Mount. Matt. 5:3-5-12.

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit---HUMILITY
2. Blessed are those who mourn—REPENTANCE
3. Blessed are the meek—UNDER GOD”S CONTROL
4. Blessed are they who hunger & thirst after righteousness—DESIRING GODLY THINGS.
5. Blessed are the merciful—FORGIVENESS.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart—HOLINESS OF LIFE
7. Blessed are the peacemakers—PEACEFULNESS
8. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake—LONGSUFFERING—(Longsuffering doesn’t mean-“I’ve been suffering a long time.”)
9. Blessed are you when they revile you & say all kinds of evil against you falsely---FAITHFULNESS.

An individual wearing the robe of self-righteousness will be wearing the frock backwards so that the back of the hood actually covers their face. This is the reason they’re blind to things as they really are. The worst part of that is the person doesn’t know they are really blind.

To others this is obvious but to the poor souls wearing the garments of pride & self-righteousness they actually believe they see & they always see themselves in a different light than others see them.

The antidote for self-righteousness is real salvation, a gift that isn’t purchased by following laws, rules, regulations, creeds dress codes etc. Yes we’ll bring forth fruit as committed Christians but that’s only because of the life of Christ that resides within us.

The other antidote is to accept the fact that salvation is 100% of God & He loves & accepts all mankind who trust in Him for salvation.

When we do these things the crowds of people beneath our feet will suddenly disappear & our hearts desire will be to give thanks & bring glory to our Father who’s set us free & has chosen to use us as instruments to set others free also.

I can’t brag & tell you that I’m completely set free in the area of self-righteousness, but I can tell you I’ve seen some big changes in my life in the last two decades.

As I’ve written in blogs before, I find myself being truly grateful for the small things like a warm meal placed on the table by loving hands. Like plenty of clean water & clean sheets, a loving family & friends, things I once so grievously took for granted.

Maybe that sounds crazy to you but to me at this juncture of my life I see it as a sign that I’m entering into His rest, His nature & His life.

I say, -“Thank you Lord. You’ve begun a mighty work in me; now please continue it until some day soon, I satisfied, --shall awake in your likeness.”

John