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These three red cups represent people. I asked the students which one they would like to drink from. One said the one on the left. One said the one on the right. Nobody wanted to drink from the one in the middle. When they looked inside, they could see that the one on the left looked fine on the outside, but it was dirty inside. The one in the middle looked dirty on the outside, but it was really clean on the inside. The one on the right was clean on the inside and also on the outside. The first two cups represent types of hypocrisy.

We watched a video clip of President N. Eldon Tanner about this:

“Harry Emerson Fosdick observed that there are two kinds of hypocrisy: when we try to appear better than we are, and when we let ourselves appear worse than we are. We have been speaking of the kind of hypocrisy where people pretend to be more or better than they are. Too often, however, we see members of the Church who in their hearts know and believe, but through fear of public opinion fail to stand up and be counted. This kind of hypocrisy is as serious as the other” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1970, 52–53).

I was particularly interested in this quote because it's a common problem among youth. It is difficult to be different, to stand out. In order to blend in, it can be tempting to misrepresent ourselves.

We read Matthew 23:1-12 and listed ways that the Pharisees were hypocritcal. Then we attempted to make a "pathway of woe" by looking at the rest of Matthew 23 and noting the things Jesus said the scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites did and what we should do instead in order to follow the "pathway to happiness." Unfortunately, we didn't have time to finish this activity. We also didn't have time to study Mark 12. We will take time at the beginning of tomorrow's class.