Luke 12:1–12
Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Beon your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
8 “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. 9 But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
Sincere Imitation
This portion of Luke’s Gospel begins with an interesting detail— “A crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another.” If you’ve been reading along in Luke, you may have noticed a pattern: the growing crowds. As early as Luke chapter 4, “people were looking for him” (4:42), “large crowds” gathered around Jesus (8:4), and these crowds continued to increase (11:29). But by chapter 12, the crowds had grown to such an extent that people were “trampling one other” just to get a peek at Jesus. At this point in his ministry, Jesus is ‘trending upward,’ in today’s language; he’s gone viral.
But Jesus’ response to this moment is not what we’d typically expect. He doesn’t ride the wave of popularity, making the most of the momentum he’s generated. Jesus initially ignores the large crowds and speaks first to his disciples, warning them against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. What is it about the growing publicity that prompts Jesus to have a private word with his intimate few?
To our ears, ‘hypocrite’ is an entirely negative word. But in Jesus’ day, it was more commonly associated with the theater. A ‘hypocrite’ was an actor who plied their craft of ‘hypocrisy’ on stage, simulating the speech and behaviours of a character they were cast to play. A good hypocrite knew how to please the crowds. They were masters at conforming to their role and adapting themselves to meet or hopefully exceed the expectations of their audience. This was the chief concern (fear) of the stage actor.
Jesus takes this theatrical word and applies it to the Pharisees. He warns his close followers against the kind of play-acting that the Pharisees engaged in because he knows that as the crowds increase around them, so too does the temptation to play to those crowds, to keep that upward trend going, conforming and adapting to the expectations of their growing audience.
Even outside of Christian circles, hypocrisy is considered a negative quality. To put on an act, conforming to the expectations of others is bad form and it’s bad for us. Our culture’s cure for this—the antidote to hypocrisy—is often a prescription of self-discovery, and inward journey. “Don’t conform to other’s desires; be true to yourself and follow your own desires.” But this is not the cure that Jesus offers us. Instead, Jesus urges us to become conscious of what audience we are playing to and make sure it’s the right one. He frames the problem of hypocrisy in terms of fears: the fear of others or the fear of God.
The Pharisees clearly fear others. As the practiced actors that they are, the Pharisees greatly value the crowd’s approval and are fearful of losing favor with them. And this pre-occupation with pleasing the crowds has become their life’s obsession. In Luke 11, Jesus accuses these men of utterly neglecting the interior life while paying far too much attention to the exterior of parts their lives, the parts the audience can see and critique. Jesus doesn’t dismiss fear altogether, saying it has no place whatsoever in the human heart. He suggests that this fear of others is too shortsighted! Rather than fearing others, who can only see the external, who can only pass a cursory judgement, who can “kill the body and after that can do no more” (verse 4), Jesus suggests that his followers should instead fear “him who, after your body is killed, has authority to throw your body into hell.”
These are alarming words! They make us deeply uncomfortable. The disciples probably felt uncomfortable when they first heard them too. But in his next breath, Jesus reassures us that we need not fear because God loves us in a way that the crowds never will. The fear of others is misplaced. If you fear anything at all, don’t fear the crowds; fear God instead! In the full sense of that word: appreciate the awesome, fearsome power of God and hold God in the highest regard. Pursue his approval above that of anyone else. And if we do this, Jesus assures us we will discover the most wonderful surprise: we actually need not fear him because he already knows us and already loves us. As the hymn Amazing Grace puts it, “‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.”
The questions we need to wrestle with are these: To what audience are we playing? Whose expectations are we conforming ourselves to meet? Who are we trying to imitate? Some might protest to these questions. Especially in our Western, radically individualistic culture, we like to think that we play to no audience whatsoever, that we march to the beat of our own drum. But this is a self-deception. Ever notice how groups of non-conformists all begin to dress and talk alike? We are all playing to an audience. Some people are just more conscious of this than others. And this is why, I think, Jesus pauses at the peak of his popularity to caution his disciples. “Beware,” he says. “Be aware of the audience to which you are playing.”
Humans can’t help but imitate. We are born with an instinct for it. Babies watch and they copy, and adults instinctively encourage this kind of imitation. My grandson is just beginning to speak, and I’ve invested a significant amount of time trying to get him to call me ‘grandpa,’ repeating the word slowly and clearly. When I ask him, “Can you say, ‘grandpa’?” I’m really asking him to imitate me, to pattern the sounds he makes after the sounds I make. Imitation is how we learn to speak, develop life skills, and master the social rules that make life in community possible. Humanly speaking, it’s not a question of if you will pattern yourself after another; it’s a matter of who you are patterning yourself after. Be aware of this and choose your audience wisely. You could spend your life pursuing the ever-changing demands of the crowds, hiding those parts of yourself that will not play well to the current audiences. Or you could pursue the One who knows you best and loves you most. God already knows what you’ve “said in the dark” and “whispered in the ear in the inner rooms.” He knows and loves you. Jesus informs us that he cares so deeply for you that he even keeps a running tally of the number of hairs on your head!
To fear God and conform yourself to him is not hypocrisy. To fear others and adapt to their expectations is a betrayal of the real you; it is like putting on a false self. But to pattern yourself after Jesus Christ and conform yourself to his expectations and desires is to discover your true self. After all, we are made in his image. We are designed to live in sincere imitation of our Maker. And this is where joy and fulfilment are found; this is what it means to be human. This is also where freedom from the fear of others is found. As author Os Guinness beautifully puts it, “Above and beyond the impossible-to-satisfy constituencies is the one audience that matters– the Audience of One.”
1Play to that audience and find your authentic self.
Take a moment or two to consider the various audiences, or constituents that are a part of your life (we all have them). Ask God for insight and an awareness of whose expectations you are trying to meet. Whose opinion of you matters and how much does it matter? According to them, how are you doing? What is important or lovable about you? What expression is on the face of these crowds when they look at you? Disapproval? Indifference? Adoration– on the condition that you continue to meet their expectations?
Now, turn from the crowds, look to Jesus, and ask him these same questions. According to the One who made you, what is important or lovable about you? As you look into the face of God, what expression is on his face? What is he asking you to be or do?
Author Bio
Kent Dunham serves as the associate pastor of
Yarrow Alliance Church in Chilliwack, BC. A husband, father, and grandfather, Kent loves teaching, preaching, helping folks connect with one another in Christ. In his spare time he loves climbing on the many boulders strewn across the Fraser Valley.
1. Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Thomas Nelson, 2003), 73.
Luke and Acts taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®
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