Swallowing camels

Last week I was particularly moved when I read my church's daily devotional. It comes from Matthew 23:23-24.

23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!"

Jesus' righteous indignation here is directed at a group of people who rank high on religion but low on faith. They are so concerned with following the letter of the law to a T that they neglect the spirit of it. In another verse, Christ would illustrate this as cleaning and polishing the outside of a vessel while its insides are rotten and decayed.

Mint, anise and cummin were practically worthless herbs, yet Pharisees worked painstakingly to assure they were included in tithing. But every second these men spent measuring their spices was a second they couldn't spend on the "weightier" matters of justice, mercy and faith. Is there anything more tragic in religion than when rules become the goals themselves instead of the guidelines?

But the image that stuck with me the most was that of straining gnats from water and wine to avoid ingesting them, only to end up swallowing a camel. Such a stark reminder and haunting image. Not that Christians today would make such a mistake :) Is it a mystery which God is more concerned with -- pure hearts or pure language? Budding faith or short skirts? Spiritual growth or two glasses of wine?

Justice and mercy and faith ... oh my. May the divine meanings of those words guide our motives as we not only judge the world around us, but most importantly ourselves.