The Pure Motive

This book, “Between Heaven and Mirth,” James Martin emphasizes the role of joy and humor in our faith.  He demonstrates that there is even humor in the Bible, though the writers, understandably, tended to be very serious about their writing.

For me, today’s gospel scene (Lk 11:42-46) has always been one of those moments of humor.  I see the crowds gathered around Jesus as he excoriates the Pharisees, in no uncertain terms, on how misguided they have been; how their actions are leading them to eternal perdition.  You can imagine the discomfort on the part of the Pharisees, and perhaps the amusement of the rest of the crowd at seeing this discomfort.  One of the scribes  – I imagine him with a self-satisfied smile on his face  – tries to point out that Jesus has perhaps stepped too far, and mistakenly included him and his fellow scribes in his prophetic denunciation.

Jesus turns and says, in effect, oh, yeah – you, too, wipe that smile off your face, woe to you who are equally shamed, equally damned, for your actions betray you.  Whenever I read this passage, I can hear the laughter of those who have watched the tables suddenly turn on the pompous scribe.

Yet, behind the humor is a very serious point.  Jesus points out that our actions betray us, though not always as we may intend.  Jesus knows that our actions are simply the result of our motivations.  If our motivations are not pure, then our actions or works, no matter how righteous they may appear – after all, the Pharisees were scrupulously obeying what they understood to be the law of God – must be equally impure.

For Jesus, there was only one pure motivation – love.  This love starts with gratitude at what God has done for us, a gratitude that grows into trust that God will continue to do good for us, a trust that grows into a desire to be constantly close to God, and then to grow in likeness to this God who is love, who is good, who is merciful.  One may call this virtuous cycle of gratitude, trust, love, and mercy “faith.”  We could debate which comes first, the gratitude, the trust, the desire for oneness with God, the mercy, the love, the faith, but they all grow out of and reinforce each other.  This is the pure motive which drives the works by which we will be judged.

And yet, I have often assumed that motives didn’t matter much at all.  The only thing that mattered was my obedience.  I followed the law, asked for forgiveness whenever I broke the law, and that was it.  Is this not the proof of the pudding?  Who cares about motivation if the end result is my obedience?

Jesus insists that this attitude is the road to woe and damnation.  Without pure motives, without faith, works can only amount to hypocrisy.  I may think I am one with God and I may even claim that God is number one in my life, yet without love, I am only being one with myself.   I have placed myself on a pedestal.  I have set myself up for a fall.  It is just a matter of time.

For when my motive is not grounded in love and mercy, in faith and in gratitude, I become judgmental.  I see others who are not following the law as scrupulously as me and judge them to be my inferiors, those who have not won God’s love as I have so clearly done.  Since they have not earned God’s love – as if God’s love needs to be earned – they are not worthy of my respect or my love.  I’m smug, therefore I judge.

This morning, Paul reminds us that as we judge, so we will be judged. (Rom 2:1)  Though Paul was never present when Jesus preached, and though he was writing many years before the Gospels were written, we can hear in his words the words of Jesus:  “Stop judging, that you may not be judged.  For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.” (Mt 7:1-2)

Indeed, woe to me when I judge, for affliction and distress, the wrath and the fury are mine.  

But blessed am I when I love, for the peace and the joy, the glory and the honor are mine, now and forever.  Amen.