The Church is Full of Hypocrites – and That’s Exactly the Point!

This year, once again, we relived the Easter Sunday Miracle.

I’m not talking about the very centerpiece and Ground Zero of the Christian faith, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day, as promised in Scripture.

No, I’m referring to the incredible number of people who mysteriously materialize in church at the conclusion of Holy Week, on Easter Sunday.

Where they come from and how they find their way here, I do not know. But I’ve witnessed this phenomenon for as long as I’ve been a pastor.

““I don’t go to church because it’s full of hypocrites.” ”

My response, of course, is always: “We are really glad you are all here with us on this special day,” with no one-liners thrown in about Chreasters (those who attend church only on Christmas and Easter).

I sincerely welcome the opportunity to preach the Gospel to these folks in the hope that the Holy Spirit will penetrate their hearts and bring salvation.

As I cast the net one more time, I prayerfully anticipate the presence of God, who is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

It got me to thinking about a theme I’ve heard for fifty years: “I don’t go to church because it’s full of hypocrites.”

Now, I would take this excuse more seriously if people were at least consistent in their logic, but such is never the case with unbelief.

“Surely you can find hypocrites at any grocery store.”

Surely you can find hypocrites at any grocery store. Just walk into any Fry’s, Safeway, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Costco, Kroger, H-E-B, ALDI, Stop and Shop, Albertsons, or Trader Joe’s.

Each one abounds with hypocrites, but you don’t boycott the store and go on a forty-day fast in protest.

We encounter hypocrites daily on the streets of our city. Does this mean we give in to road rage or refuse to venture out of the house?

Why is the Church singled out for this responsibility-absolving accusation?

The deeper question is: What should Jesus’ Church look like in its composition, influence, and reach? Is the Church only for “good” people? Is it a museum for the saints, or is it more akin to a hospital for sinners?

The answers to these questions really matter.

The biblical picture I pondered over Easter weekend was this: “They crucified Him between two thieves; the one on His right hand, and the other on His left.” In his gospel, Mark points out that in doing so, the soldiers fulfilled the prophecy that said, “He was numbered with the transgressors” (Mark 15:27-28).

The Cross of Jesus carried in itself the seed of His Church, birthed that day in a thief who came to himself on the neighboring cross and repented. In doing so, that sinner was instantly made right with God through His Son Jesus Christ, the only “good” Person who ever lived.

Jesus never built his Church with people who had it all together. He started it with sinners, skeptics, outcasts, and criminals.

The most frequent criticism leveled against Jesus during His ministry wasn’t at all about His theology (although calling Himself “I Am” definitely ruffled some feathers). It wasn’t about His miracles. It was about the company He kept.

“Jesus never built his Church with people who had it all together. He started it with sinners, skeptics, outcasts, and criminals.”

His parables about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son were preceded by the crowd’s murmurs on that subject. “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’” (Luke 15:1, 2 NIV).

Again and again, Jesus was accused of being “a friend of sinners,” and in fact, it wasn’t a false accusation. It reflected the very nature of His mission as He stated it in Luke 19:10: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Consider a few notable examples.

The Court of Fickle Public Opinion

In Matthew 11:16-19 Jesus said, “To what can I compare this generation? It is like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends, ‘We played wedding songs, and you didn’t dance, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t mourn.’ John the Baptist and his tone of austerity caused people to say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man comes and He attends feasts and festivals, so they say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’”

Jesus exposed the childishness – then and now – of people who want religion on their own terms. They’re never satisfied – especially not with Jesus, who doesn’t fit into their religious categories. Jesus concluded, “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results,” and dead religion has never produced any exciting results.

Matthew’s Party

In Mark 2:13-17, Jesus called Matthew (Levi) in a rather dramatic fashion as he sat at work in the tax office. Tax collectors were considered treasonous. They were not only despised for the profits they made, but because they were made at the expense of their own countrymen.

Tax collectors were not the sort of people you’d call to start a world-shaking movement.

Jesus walks right up to Matthew and says, “Follow Me and be My disciple.” Imagine the power behind this demonstration, as Matthew gets up, leaves all the taxes behind, and follows Him.

Matthew is elated, and it makes perfect sense that the first thing he does is to throw a party for Jesus and invite all his friends. In fact, many tax collectors joined him in following Jesus.

When your heart has been touched by Jesus, you want others to experience the same for themselves. Naturally, this rubbed the religious leaders the wrong way, since they had little room in their hearts for these people.

“They grumbled, “Why does He eat with such scum?’ Jesus heard this, and told them, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.’(Mark 2:16-17).’”

The Sinful Woman with the Alabaster Jar

In Luke 7:36-50, Jesus is asked to dinner at the house of a Pharisee named Simon. He and his friends sat astonished as a woman of notorious reputation made her way uninvited into the house and all the way to Jesus. Against all cultural norms, she knelt at His feet and wept, her tears falling on Jesus’ feet. She wiped them off with her hair, kissed His feet and anointed them with the costly perfume she had brought in an alabaster jar.

“He doesn’t see her through the lens of her past, but through the lens of His love and forgiveness.”

“If this man were a prophet, He would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!” thought the host in shock. Of course, Jesus does know. He doesn’t see her through the lens of her past, but through the lens of His love and forgiveness.

The Lord contrasts to Simon the woman’s loving response with the rude, cold, and discourteous welcome that he himself had shown Him; then He said, “Her sins – and they are many – have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

Where do we fall on this spectrum?

Zacchaeus in the Tree

Luke 19:1-10 tells us about the chief tax collector in the region of Jericho who had grown very rich in his position, a man named Zacchaeus.

The city was all abuzz over Jesus’ visit, each wanting to catch a glimpse of the Man from Nazareth. Zacchaeus was not immune to the excitement, but as a small fry not welcomed by the masses, he found it hard to get through the large crowds to get a clear view.

He ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to get a front row seat. As He passed by, Jesus looked up in the tree, called Zacchaeus by name, and invited Himself to his house for dinner. Zacchaeus scrambled down, overjoyed to accommodate the Master.

Once again, the people were displeased with Jesus: “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled. But in the heart of Zacchaeus an amazing transformation took shape as the day of salvation arrived, “for the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

“The story of Jesus is not a sanitized story.”

The story of Jesus is not a sanitized story. Throughout His life on earth He is surrounded by misfits, sinners, and seekers, as well as skeptics and religious people.

This is the Gospel. It’s not for people who think they’re good. It’s for people who know they’re not. It’s for the prodigals, the skeptics, the weary, and the searching.

So it should come as no surprise that on Easter Sunday, all sorts of people flood into His Church – some devout, some doubtful, some broken, and some returning after years away from God.

That’s because, deep down, something in the human heart recognizes that this is the kind of God we hope for. One who welcomes. One who forgives.

One who doesn’t recoil from our mess, but steps into it and redeems.

At its best, the Church is the only place where all kinds of people can come in and find that Jesus still keeps company with sinners; that He still offers resurrection to anyone who asks.

Oh, happy day! When Jesus washed my sins away!