Beware the Pretentiously Pious: A Meditation on Mark 12, for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost

And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of

the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love

salutations in the marketplaces, And the chief seats

in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts:

Which devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence

make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.

There may be nothing more irritating in the all the world, than a pretentiously pious longwinded prayer.  They come in many forms in various Christian traditions, from the generally Evangelical prayers that ramble on with a never ending use of the word “just” (as in, “Lord, we just want to…”) to high liturgical prayers that are more like a droning recitation of political objectives, seminary courses, or world history.  But what may make them so grindingly obnoxious is that while they use language that pretends to address God, they are really all about highlighting the one who is praying.  From the manipulative opening, “Now everyone repeat after me…” to the coercive ending, “And all God’s people said, AMEN!”  these prayers reveal far more about the sinful heart of the one speaking them, than they do about the God to whom they are ostensibly addressed.

Pretentious piety goes well beyond prayer, though.  It is found in the vestments of clergy who want to be singled out and elevated in improper ways—from infinitely intricate adornments whose origins are lost in the Middle Ages, to expensive business suits belonging more in board rooms than sanctuaries, to designer t-shirts, Hawaiian shirts, polo shirts, or any other hipster garb that belongs in bistros, coffee houses, or bars.  It shows up in affectations of every kind, from those which drape the pastor, to that which drapes the sanctuary, and even to that which drapes the laity.

Have you ever heard the argument, “I’m wearing my best for God today?”  Really?  If so, why aren’t those expensive, intricate, or hipster clothes left at the altar during the offering, so they may be given to others in need of good clothing?  Are you a lady whose dress is chosen really for the attraction of men or for looking superior to other women?  Are you a man whose dress is really for the attraction of women, or for looking superior to other men?  Do you dress rebelliously in immodest or derelict attire, with the real intention of showing yourself better, cooler, or more righteous than those around you?

In truth, the pride of our fallen nature inspires us all to pretentious piety—shows of godliness that really aren’t oriented to God, but rather to propping up ourselves and our image.  We make pompous claims about everything from the associations we keep to the titles we claim, each with a dark and sinister motivation of bolstering our own claims to deity over our fellow man.  It is a darkness in ourselves we cannot escape in this life, an inclination toward evil that clings to our fallen nature with ghoulish tenacity.

Lest we be tempted to think this sin is of little consequence, we have our Lord’s clear condemnation pronounced upon us:  for these shall receive greater damnation.  To all the pompous windbags, all the pious sounding/acting/praying/dressing/prancing twits who presume to take the good things of God and turn them into religious self justification for their own pride and wickedness, let the Law of God from Christ’s own lips sink deep into your sin-soaked heart.  Not just hell, which is bad enough, but greater damnation is yours, because your pride and selfishness is not content to simply pervert the things of men, but you pervert even the holy things of God.

As the Word Made Flesh so often does, He preaches the holiness of His Law with all its weight and severity.  We know that no matter how pious we may make ourselves to look before our neighbors, before God Almighty who sees through every pretention we stand condemned by our sinful hearts.  The sin is not in prayer, or vestments, or suits, or t-shirts, or anything else in all creation which our Lord created good.  The sin is in us, as we corrupt every good thing we touch with our hands and our minds.  It is we who are fallen, we who cannot escape the deadly poison of sin coursing through our fallen nature, and we who are so desperately in need of salvation from the lowest depths of hell we have justly earned.

Thanks be to God, that He has not left us to die in these our sins.  For the same Jesus who speaks the terror of His Holy Law, also bears in His very person not only our sins, but the just punishment due to us all.  For you and for me, for the pretentiously pious who have been given the holy things of God and yet twist them to our own pride, Christ has suffered and died, taking the lowest dregs of eternal hell upon His immaculate Body that we might not perish eternally.  There in His Holy Cross, our Savior bears the weight of our eternal curse, and stands between His fallen creation and the righteous wrath of the Father.  And having taken all that wrath of sin and hell for every soul that shall ever live, He turns to us and offers us His peace, forgiveness, life, and salvation:  the free gift of His Grace by faith in Him alone, which calls to us with a sweetness unsurpassed by human lips.  This Word of Gospel is the cure for our sin, our inspiration to rise each day toward holiness, to show forth a selfless love which reflects His love, and a humility which reflects His humility.  Where the Law left us broken and sorrowful in the knowledge of our sin, the Gospel lifts us from our penitent contrition into new and eternal lives of faith and repentance, born from above by His Water and Spirit.

Broken by His Law and yet inspired by His Gospel, we take courage and comfort with the Psalmist of 146, singing forever to our Savior and our God:

Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.

While I live will I praise the LORD:

I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom

there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth;

in that very day his thoughts perish.

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,

Whose hope is in the LORD his God:

Amen.