Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Matthew 11:11 (ESV)
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Matthew 23:13 (ESV)
Just scattershooting while wondering what ever happened to meaningful words and where did some of these more commonly used meaningless words come from!? One that I hear far too often is “elite.” Talking heads, news readers and commentators love to report what it is that the elite think. It seems that saying that elevates themselves to that same status.
Elite: the richest, most powerful, best-educated, or best-trained group in a society. That’s the Cambridge Dictionary definition. Allow me to ask an important question: who is it that puts someone into that category? Who is the “elite” monitor? Who pins the badge on their lapel?
And I think I have the answer: they themselves do it. In Scripture they are called hypocrites – defined as one who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion; a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings. Charles Spurgeon once noted, “It is the easiest thing in the world to give high marks when grading your own paper.”
Is anyone else out there a bit worn from hearing what the “elite” think about any issue? Seems to me that if they were indeed elite, they might have solved all these issues already.
As did the scribes and Pharisees of ancient Israel, they love to hear themselves introduced as the cultural or academic or financial elite, when it turns out that most of us, particularly those of us who have spent our lives working to provide for our families have a whole lot more common sense and character than those living off previous generations.
As for me and my family, we choose to be identified as children of God, citizens of America, and decidedly NOT elite!
Well put, Dr. Mike!
Often I have of these latter years been labeled as an “elite” because of my educational background and life experiences. I have never felt that I have ever been or ever will be someone worthy of the title. I tell people who try to put me in that roll, “look, I’m just an old farm boy from Kentucky and more importantly, I am a sinner like any sinner, but I am saved by grace just like any other believer. I could easily quote Paul when he said, ‘There but by the grace of God go I.'” (A quote from John Bradford, a martyr by the hands of ‘Bloody Queen Mary,” who was contextualizing 1 Corintians 15:10.) Therefore, to me, there are no “elite” for we are all essentially in the proverbial “same boat” in life before a Holy God. The rich young ruler called Jesus “good” and was set straight as Jesus asked him, “Why do you call me good as there is only One Who is good, even God.” (Paraphrase of Matthew 19:16-17; Mark 10:17-22; and Luke 18:18-23.) “And that’s all I have to say about that.” (Forrest Gump)
Hear, hear!!!