Mr. Bad Example

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Matthew 15:1-9 (NRSV)

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:

‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’”

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I'm very well aquainted with the seven deadly sins
I keep a busy schedule trying to fit them in
I'm proud to be a glutton, and I don't have time for sloth
I'm greedy, and I'm angry, and I don't care who I cross

I'm Mr. Bad Example, intruder in the dirt
I like to have a good time, and I don't care who gets hurt
I'm Mr. Bad Example, take a look at me
I'll live to be a hundred, and go down in infamy

The title track from "Mr. Bad Example" by Warren Zevon (1991)

Jesus gets ticked off over hypocrisy more than any other type of sin. People who should know better, people who are called to be better, people who have received all of the benefits life has to offer--and then forsake the call to do God's work with these benefits are never spoken of well in the gospel.

The Scribes and Pharisees had a good thing going, and they knew it. They were the holy of the holy and their place in the temple and society were secure, until Jesus came to muck it all up.

Jesus came and called them out on their hypocritical behavior. Simply men themselves, they held others in far lower esteem. They had a system or rules and laws that placed a burden on people that could not be managed. They took their own rules, which began innocently enough as ways to keep the Law of Moses, and turned them into a horrible cross for the people to carry.

They tithed to the temple-which ultimately came back to themselves-instead of helping the poor and infirm. They actually caused more distress than they relieved. They would tithe spices, keeping silver and gold for themselves.

Warren Zevon is known for the images he is able to create with words and music, Mr. Bad Example is a great example. The Bad Example here describes the Scribes and Pharisees well. They knew the sins, and exercised many of them. They knew their status, and protected it at all costs, including the death of Jesus.

"I don't care who I cross." In this context, there is a bit of double-entendre that both the Lord and Warren are smiling over in heaven.