Every one of us carries ideas sometimes beautiful, sometimes inherited, sometimes unexamined about what the Creator wants from us. That’s part of being human. But trouble begins when we claim to possess God’s only true intentions for all humanity and then use that claim to reject or exclude others. In those moments, we begin to resemble the very cadre of Pharisees Jesus confronted so sharply.
I was recently struck, yet again, by Jesus’s words in Matthew 23:23–24, where he calls out a group of religious leaders who were meticulous about minor rules yet blind to the heart of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. They strained out gnats but swallowed camels. It wasn’t Scripture he rejected, it was the narrow, rigid interpretation that weaponized Scripture against others.
Growing up wandering through many Christian religions, I understand this dilemma intimately. I was taught to accept every word of the Bible as literal truth, even when passages contradicted each other or troubled my conscience. What I find deeply ironic now is that many Jewish communities, the very heirs of these sacred texts, don’t approach Scripture with this kind of fundamentalism. Through midrash, they wrestle, question, imagine, and hold multiple interpretations in tension. They know what many Christians forget: sacred texts are meant for thoughtful engagement, not unquestioning rigidity.
When we “swallow camels,” we miss the beauty and poetry of the whole story. We cling to the easy, literal reading rather than letting the story settle in us, stir our imagination, and break open our hearts. We choose our smaller instincts over the expansive love woven through Scripture.
Stories, whether from novels, films, oral tradition, or holy books, are one of humanity’s oldest medicines. They heal our isolation. They awaken our full humanity beyond cold facts. They bind us together in communities that remember who we are and challenge us to become who we might be.
Sacred stories were never meant to be used as weapons of exclusion. They were meant to teach us, inspire us, bond us, and open us.
And perhaps our invitation is to let the story speak, let love break through and let justice, mercy, and faith rise to the surface where they have always belonged.
Smitten With Goodness 