AS we continue to meditate on this rebuke Jesus gave to the Pharisees and Teachers of the law we come now to Jesus rebuking them for seeking to be greeted with reverence by people they met in the market-place by seeking to be addressed as 'Rabbi'.

We need to be careful here and properly understand what Jesus is saying and teaching. In society people and their offices are distinguished by titles which have grown up over time. These identify people and what they do. There is nothing wrong in this of itself. A judge is called 'your honour' to indicate the dignity of his or her role in administering the law. There is nothing wrong in the titles given within the church to distinguish office. These are necessary to distinguish people who are ordained to minister in the church and teach. Many other examples can be added in illustration of the use of titles as necessary. Having a title to distinguish office and role is not wrong. What is wrong and offensive is when people with titles seek to gain ascendancy over others, and claim importance which they have no right to, and pretend thereby to be different and better than other people.

This is what had happened with the Pharisees and the Teachers of the law. Nor is this something that was peculiar to them. The church down history has been plagued with similar attitudes amongst the clergy and bishops. It happens in secular society also. People in office claim reverence and importance because of their office which they have no right to. The trouble is that when this happens these people seek to dominate and often oppress those they feel beneath them, and use the power of their office for personal advantage, and personal gain. The Pharisees were behaving in this way. Because of this they were failing in the obligations of their office as Jesus points out. We saw this in our last meditation.

There is no place in the Kingdom of God, and so in the church of God, for such attitude and behaviour. Jesus explains this, and how offensive and wrong this is in verses 8 to 12.

The truth of the matter is that there is only one in the Kingdom of God who has and deserves the title of 'Rabbi' or 'Father' or 'Teacher' as the one to whom we give honour and obedience and reverence. These titles can never be given to human beings in this way, and should never be claimed by human beings in this way. The only one Christians give honour, reverence and obedience to is Jesus Christ, our Lord and God and Saviour.

This does not alter the fact that some human beings are called to teach in the church of God, or that some people are called by Christ to positions of responsibility and some authority, but it is all under the supreme authority of Christ, and under subservience to Christ.

Such positions should never be claimed by those who have them as making them superior or more honourable than those they serve. The position is simply to serve Christ and promote the honour and will of Christ. The responsibility and position must be undertaken with humility and with a sense that none of us are worthy for such place in the service of Christ, and none of us can fulfill the office without the grace, wisdom and ability given by Christ through the Holy Spirit. Understanding office within the church in this way means that a person in office is always kept humble, and when honour comes and blessing is received, the honour is attributed to Christ and glory is given to him.

The fatal tendency, as was seen in the Pharisees and teachers of the law, is that honour and glory is claimed and attributed to men, and not to Christ. This is a grievous sin.

Jesus rebukes all such pretension, and tells us in verse 12 that it is offensive to God. The work of the church will not prosper when those who minister have the attitude Jesus exposes which existed in the Pharisees and the Teachers of the law. Humanly speaking men may seem to gain honour and power, but this will not be from God, and will be temporary, and in the end God will bring them down. One very vivid example of this in history is the life and fate of Cardinal Wolsey during the reign of Henry VIII.

The sad thing is that when ministers in the church are like the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law, people suffer. The people in Jesus' day were kept from the grace of God, and their souls placed in jeopardy. They were deprived of the bread of life. Down history people, for lack of true ministers, have been led astray, and given a bad example of living, to the destruction of their eternal soul.