Bishop Colin Winter was a dear friend whom I met when I was teaching at a seminary in London. Colin had been the Anglican Bishop of South West Africa, now Namibia, but he was thrown out of the country because he refused to separate people from each other during the apartheid years and repeatedly held events that brought black and white Christians together. He wore out his body as he continued the fight against apartheid through his prophetic ministry in the United Kingdom and the United States. In his exile, Colin turned down ministry in a comfortable Oxford Church and spent his time among the poor in London’s East End.

I remember Colin as I read Matthew 23 where Jesus opts to directly address those guilty of promoting inequity and oppression. To the scribes and Pharisees he cries, “Woe to you . . . hypocrites” (v. 13) and accuses them of turning people away from God’s kingdom and failing to enter it themselves.

It is one thing for Jesus to warn his disciples about their religious leaders, albeit within their hearing; but it is another to address them directly. There is no subtlety in his confrontation and no smooth talking about their behavior. My friend Colin was like this; and his church hierarchy, which was protecting huge investments in South Africa, did not like it.

Jesus’ courage becomes clear throughout this chapter as over and over he pronounces woe to the Pharisees and scribes. No wonder they look for a way to silence him, and all too soon the political and religious authorities come together to plan his crucifixion. It makes me wonder, What acts of injustice might I protest today? Is my faith community a place where all are affirmed and accepted?