cktimes.ca Archives for The Pastoral Lens
The Pastoral Lens
Academy Award Performance
Tuesday, August 3, 2004
One of the things my wife and I enjoy doing is getting away to Stratford, or Niagara-On-The-Lake, to take in a great play. Our anniversary is in early October, so that is usually the time we go. If we go to Stratford, which is our favourite spot, we stay at a nice, Victorian bed and breakfast place in St. Mary's. The owner of this particular B&B is quite the theatre maven, herself, so we get a good review before we ever reach the theatre.The world has a fascination with acting. When Christopher Plummer played at Stratford, crowds flocked to see this stage legend. The roles that the various actors play get embedded on our memories and form an indelible impression. I will never, ever be able to see Buddy Ebsen without running his character through the sieve of his role on the television series, The Beverly Hillbillies" which ran so many years ago. If an actor is good, really good, they become the person they are portraying in your eyes. Their stage presence draws the audience in and transports them into an escape to the actor's world. I am amazed at how this happens to me when I go to Stratford. As I exit the theatre, I have trouble readjusting to the real world, the one I was in before I entered the theatre. I am left admitting to myself that the actors did their job perfectly, fooling me for the past two and a half hours into believing that their world was the real one and mine the stage performance.
During Jesus' day, a strict, legalistic sect known as the Pharisees were the performers of spiritual plays. Their spiritual facade didn't fool Jesus, however. Jesus called these religious frauds "hypocrites." The word "hypocrite" actually means "play actor." The version of spirituality that these Jewish leaders displayed in the public eye indeed fooled many into believing that they were the real deal. In fact, their hypocrisy was so convincing that they held great sway over the general population, making these people feel so inferior to their play-acting leaders. The secret to their success was that the masses were kept from seeing their true colours. What they were in public was a far cry from their actual lifestyle. Jesus, on the other hand, like a first-century Paul Harvey, knew the rest of the story. He instructed the people in Matthew 23:3, "Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do." Later on, in Matthew 23:27, Jesus said this: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." Jesus couldn't stand that the Pharisees appeared righteous but really weren't. He found their acting, their hypocrisy, an abomination.
The Christian faith has been maligned for many years because many of its proponents have succumbed to various shades of hypocrisy. This double standard has turned many away from following Jesus. If you are reading this article and you are one of those who has left the church (or has never chosen to go in the first place) because of the rank odour of hypocrisy, let me challenge you. Pick up a Bible and start reading it for yourself. Forget all the junk you've seen and just go to the source. Unlike a Stratford performance, the characters in the Bible are real people living real lives. The stories of their lives won't win an Academy Award, but they will reveal the heart of the Heavenly Father. Why not start reading today?
