Matthew 23:13 “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.”
Matthew 23:23 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”
Matthew 23:25 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.”
Chuck Yeager had been pulled from his Test Pilot School (TPS) class to be a part of the X-1 program, and eventually was the pilot who first broke the sound barrier in that rocket plane. Shortly after the X-1 program finished, the rule-followers of the day made a point that Yeager was not qualified to be a test pilot because he had not fully finished the course at TPS. It was ridiculous to regress the record-shattering test pilot back to school, but the “rules are rules” mentality prevailed and Yeager was sidelined until he could finish his remaining six-month chunk of schooling.
Yeager was lambasted by an extra hard workload dumped on him by those instructors who were jealous of his world-record-breaking accomplishments. Though his practical flight test experience had dwarfed the school curriculum, the antagonistic attitude by his instructors was overwhelming, especially when added to the extra responsibilities Yeager carried as an in-demand test pilot persona. The instructors ganged up on Yeager to try and fail him out, but Brigadier General Albert Boyd, commander of Edwards Air Force Base, stepped in, slammed his fist on the table and demanded the attention of the TPS commandant. In that meeting, Boyd aggressively exerted his waiver authority to grant Yeager his test pilot school diploma. It was only then that the famous Chuck Yeager officially became a test pilot, breaking through the Pharisaical perspective of the self-righteous rule followers.
In our Christian lives, we all sometimes fall into the traps of the scribes and the Pharisees. We rely on our own righteousness in strict observance of the law. We rest on a “rules are rules” mentality, and elevate the letter of the law far above the spirit of the law. In doing so, our pretentious persona loses all of its perspective. Our spiritual micromanagement causes us to omit the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.
PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO MAINTAIN A PROPER PERSPECTIVE THAT NEVER FOLLOWS IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE SCRIBES AND THE PHARISEES. We must never omit the weightier matters.
ADMIN: Today is the 76th Anniversary of Chuck Yeager’s heroic shattering of the sound barrier!
