“Come now, let us set things right, says the Lord: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow.” God is gently coaxing His beloved, calling Israel to return to Him: it's not a far step from this to “Take my yoke on my shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” Our Lord is humble, to the point of accepting the Cross, and He asks that same humility of us. “The greatest among you must be your servant...whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
One aspect of humility is obedience. Obey the rightful authority of the scribes and Pharisees; do as they say, but do not follow their example. Christ Himself obeyed Caiaphas when that one invoked his God-given authority as the Jewish high priest. It's hardly an easy command. It's certainly not all that American, now and today anyway. There are plenty of authorities, even religious ones, who are easily dismissed as “that one”. We all can think of reasons and probably even names. It's probably the least easy of Christ's commands: our first sin, remaining the most deeply rooted, was disobedience. We thought we knew better than God then. Do we claim to know better than Him now, or do we follow in the path He trod?
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