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We love to hate Pharisees
I grew up thinking that Pharisees were holier than thou religious types, the worst of the worst. They were horrible people pretending to be super righteous people. Was I wrong? Well, no they were and are that, but it was a naive and incomplete understanding of how universal the problem of self-righteousness really is. The world we live in at this moment is really not a very religious place. Yet, it is filled to the brim with self-righteous and hypocritical people that say one thing and do another while at the same time condemning anyone that would disagree or point their hypocrisy out as evil.
While the original Pharisees were religious establishment types, the modern Pharisees have their own religious beliefs and they love power, influence, and public respect fully as much as any biblical Pharisee. They are self-righteous or to put it another way, fully convinced of their own self-defined rightness. They condemn as evil all those that disagree and use public opinion as their source of authority.
With this awareness let’s have a look at a portion of Matthew were Jesus describes this situation in his day and see if any of this sounds familiar.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,
“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat,
so do and observe whatever they tell you,
but not the works they do.
For they preach, but do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,
and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
They do all their deeds to be seen by others.
For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,
and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats
in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces
and being called rabbi by others.
But you are not to be called rabbi,
for you have one teacher,
and you are all brothers.
And call no man your father on earth,
for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
Neither be called instructors,
for you have one instructor, the Christ.
The greatest among you shall be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
[Matt 23:1-12 ESV]
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
Not long ago I asked my grandson what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said, “I want to be an “influencer” on YouTube”. This made me laugh because of its raw honesty. We all want to be respected, we all want our opinions to be the guiding principles of others. And, we all like to pretend we don’t. The Pharisees were in just such a position in their society. They were the teachers, they were respected in the streets. Their opinions were sought after and people feared to contradict them. They decided who was in and who was out.
Our culture is no different, though the current popular religion has nothing to do with the true God, in practice it has many gods and many dogmas. And there are those that set and enforce those dogmas, they are the respected and feared ones. They are the ones that people fear to contradict. Think about it, people no longer fear to contradict Christianity, that’s how you can tell that Christianity is not the dominant religion in this world. If you want to know who the Pharisees are today just ask yourself who do I fear to contradict? Who sets the tone and who decides what is and is not acceptable? And who is it that is constantly fighting against Jesus and his teachings? These are the modern Scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees.
So why did Jesus talk about them so much?
Why did the Gospel writers spend so much time on them?
Two reasons come to mind for me.
* They are still around.
* The culturally powerful and influential are still at work resisting Jesus and his teachings. They are and always have been energized by the “spirit of antichrist”. They are the influencers and the “powers that be” and they never change because Jesus never changes. They are quite literally anti-Christ.
* We can so easily become them.
* This is the real threat. This is why the second half of this teaching focuses on making sure the disciples don’t become the very thing that they hate. It is all too easy to be right and wrong at the same time. Jesus instructs his original disciples and us to avoid even the language of “teacher” and “father”(both were titles of authority in the culture of Jesus’ time.)
* The way to avoid becoming the thing you hate is humility and service.
This Week
This week as we reflect on this I think there are two ways we can respond as well.
* First we must remember that having cultural authority does not make you right. Nor does agreeing with cultural norms. But our disagreement mustn’t degenerate into a self-righteous hatred either, lest we once again become the very thing we hate.
* We must humble ourselves and serve, allowing our actions be our strongest argument. We will still be hated by those that hate Jesus. But we will be hated unjustly since we will be hated for our actions rather than our hypocrisy and empty talk.
We must “Speak the truth in love” as Paul teaches, neither kowtowing to the mob nor being an ugly mirror image of the mob. But rather showing the reality of our words with our deeds. Loving each other as Jesus loved us and gave his life for us.
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
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By Tom PossinI grew up thinking that Pharisees were holier than thou religious types, the worst of the worst. They were horrible people pretending to be super righteous people. Was I wrong? Well, no they were and are that, but it was a naive and incomplete understanding of how universal the problem of self-righteousness really is. The world we live in at this moment is really not a very religious place. Yet, it is filled to the brim with self-righteous and hypocritical people that say one thing and do another while at the same time condemning anyone that would disagree or point their hypocrisy out as evil.
While the original Pharisees were religious establishment types, the modern Pharisees have their own religious beliefs and they love power, influence, and public respect fully as much as any biblical Pharisee. They are self-righteous or to put it another way, fully convinced of their own self-defined rightness. They condemn as evil all those that disagree and use public opinion as their source of authority.
With this awareness let’s have a look at a portion of Matthew were Jesus describes this situation in his day and see if any of this sounds familiar.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,
“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat,
so do and observe whatever they tell you,
but not the works they do.
For they preach, but do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,
and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
They do all their deeds to be seen by others.
For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,
and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats
in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces
and being called rabbi by others.
But you are not to be called rabbi,
for you have one teacher,
and you are all brothers.
And call no man your father on earth,
for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
Neither be called instructors,
for you have one instructor, the Christ.
The greatest among you shall be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
[Matt 23:1-12 ESV]
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
Not long ago I asked my grandson what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said, “I want to be an “influencer” on YouTube”. This made me laugh because of its raw honesty. We all want to be respected, we all want our opinions to be the guiding principles of others. And, we all like to pretend we don’t. The Pharisees were in just such a position in their society. They were the teachers, they were respected in the streets. Their opinions were sought after and people feared to contradict them. They decided who was in and who was out.
Our culture is no different, though the current popular religion has nothing to do with the true God, in practice it has many gods and many dogmas. And there are those that set and enforce those dogmas, they are the respected and feared ones. They are the ones that people fear to contradict. Think about it, people no longer fear to contradict Christianity, that’s how you can tell that Christianity is not the dominant religion in this world. If you want to know who the Pharisees are today just ask yourself who do I fear to contradict? Who sets the tone and who decides what is and is not acceptable? And who is it that is constantly fighting against Jesus and his teachings? These are the modern Scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees.
So why did Jesus talk about them so much?
Why did the Gospel writers spend so much time on them?
Two reasons come to mind for me.
* They are still around.
* The culturally powerful and influential are still at work resisting Jesus and his teachings. They are and always have been energized by the “spirit of antichrist”. They are the influencers and the “powers that be” and they never change because Jesus never changes. They are quite literally anti-Christ.
* We can so easily become them.
* This is the real threat. This is why the second half of this teaching focuses on making sure the disciples don’t become the very thing that they hate. It is all too easy to be right and wrong at the same time. Jesus instructs his original disciples and us to avoid even the language of “teacher” and “father”(both were titles of authority in the culture of Jesus’ time.)
* The way to avoid becoming the thing you hate is humility and service.
This Week
This week as we reflect on this I think there are two ways we can respond as well.
* First we must remember that having cultural authority does not make you right. Nor does agreeing with cultural norms. But our disagreement mustn’t degenerate into a self-righteous hatred either, lest we once again become the very thing we hate.
* We must humble ourselves and serve, allowing our actions be our strongest argument. We will still be hated by those that hate Jesus. But we will be hated unjustly since we will be hated for our actions rather than our hypocrisy and empty talk.
We must “Speak the truth in love” as Paul teaches, neither kowtowing to the mob nor being an ugly mirror image of the mob. But rather showing the reality of our words with our deeds. Loving each other as Jesus loved us and gave his life for us.
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe