Second Woe

 Matthew 23:15 KJ2000

(15)  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you travel on sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.


Some years back one of my co-workers, knowing me to be a Christian, brought me a copy of Playboy magazine.  In it there was a letter.  The writer described himself as an atheist, and aired the possibility that he would become a minister.  He thought the hours suitable, the job respected and the pay good.
Playboy's reply showed some wisdom.  It began, "On the off hand chance you're not putting us on,." and said this was something like an ardent communist becoming a stock broker.

There were no further letters, as far as I know, so we will assume the writer took up some other occupation.  But there is a parallel in this verse.  Consider what it must be like to be an evangelist for the Pharisees, trying to convert some heathen.

First, the rate of conversion is very small.  After all, if you want to recruit someone into an honest religion, they have to believe that you believe.  This is like recruiting someone into the Mafia—you have to convince them of the profitability and also the necessity of the hypocrisy.

And for so little in the way of results, it takes a lot of effort.  Why would anyone put in so much work for so little result?  Perhaps it's pride when you do succeed;  more likely, it's self justification ("You see, we are truly religious.  We're evangelistic!")

But see the moral inversion you get!  The student is worse than the teacher at this.  Again, this is pride.  A student of a righteous teacher wants to imitate his teacher;  the student of a hypocrite wants to exceed his teacher.

Consider the result:  the poor heathen is condemned by the religion he left, and by the God he professes to worship.  He doesn't even have the consolation of being an honest heathen.  

This is indeed a terrible fate.  History shows us that the average heathen is a ripe subject for conversion to Christianity.  Christ, in his earthly ministry, saved his condemnation for the hypocrites of his time, and none other.  Why?  Because the heathen who is converted to hypocrisy is almost invulnerable to conversion to the true faith.

Worse;  if you are the hypocrite doing the recruiting, you produce children of hell.  Think about that for a minute:  what does that make you?  Perhaps now you see why Jesus used such shock tactics in dealing with the hypocrites.