Arrogance and the Pride of Life
Matthew 3:7-10 - The Pharisees & Sadducees
Notice how the Pharisees and Sadducees were only “coming out to where he [John] was baptizing…”
Whereas the crowds were “coming out to him…”
Matthew is alluding to a very subtle - but tremendously important - difference between these groups.
The latter got the point. The kingdom of God that John preached is about repentance, confession of sin, and Baptismal cleansing.
The former “missed the boat.”
By arrogance and the pride of life, one will exclude one’s self from friendship with Christ and His kingdom that is at hand.
The “pride of life” is marked by an attitude of arrogant self-sufficiency, self-centeredness, and an overemphasis on worldly status, possessions, and achievements.
For the Pharisees and Sadducees, their haughtiness was obvious.
This is why John is able to beat them to the rhetorical punch when he says, “Do not presume to say to yourselves ‘We have Abraham as our father.’”
He knew what was in their hearts.
Who needs confession of sin if the point of life is ethnic lineage and the external practice of the Mosaic Law?
Ironically, they are the opposite of what they claim.
The Pharisees & Sadducees may have designated themselves as sons of Abraham, but because of their unwillingness to repent of their sins they are the “brood of vipers” (or “spawn of Satan”) that John calls them.
The crowds came out to humble themselves. The Pharisees and Sadducees, to spectate & exalt themselves.
The point is that those who repent are the true sons of Abraham.
The amount of humility in our hearts is directly proportional to the amount of space we have for His life & grace.
May it be yours in abundance.
Onward and upward,
Ted
“It was pride that changed angels to devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” - St. Augustine
Here’s What I’m Reading This Week
“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?
In his 2010 book, The Shallows, Carr expands his argument into a compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind” Carr explains that the technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways.
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