Pharisee Foolishness

Religion is something people love. Either they love to love it, or they love to hate it. Everyone has an opinion on right and wrong. (even if their opinion is that they do not exist) There is no debate that has raged as long as this one, nothing that has split so many families, friends, and countries. It seems the more religious a person or group is, the more they split. In fact, the more you study any religion, the more you see what people disagree on.

But lets look at what we mean when we say religious. One of the first words that pops into my mind when I hear that word is Pharisee. The Pharisees were a powerful group of religious leaders in Jewish history. They upheld the Torah and Talmud primarily, along with the Mishnah and a few other writings. The Torah is the name they gave the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) which were written by Moses. They contained the Law, given to them by God. The Talmud expounded on the Law, and the Mishnah expounded further on specific judgements by great rabbis in history. These men had literally hundreds of laws they memorized to 'make sure' they were righteous enough. Indeed, throughout time, the Talmud and Mishnah expanded to include various by-laws and exceptions to further "complete" the Torah's writings.

We won't go into all the details of the Talmud and Mishnah. (that would be hard as the Talmud alone is over 6,200 pages long) But it is suffice to say they had rules. And rules. And rules. They tithed, they prayed, they fasted, they basically lived at the Temple. If memorization, style, and sacrifice could save a soul, these guys had it made.

But what did God think of this form of worship? Well, lets take a look.  He addresses their form of worship in Matthew 23:1-39, we will take excerpts from this passage and go from there. I strongly recommend you read the whole chapter.


²  “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, ³ so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.

Here is what Jesus says on the matter. He tells us that what they teach (the Law) is good. But the works they do are not in alignment with their own preaching. Jesus is just warming up to the subject though, it seems. He gets more into this dissertation in a moment. He starts in on their self glorifying attitude. He then moves on to tell them that they are Hell's sons and spawn more of the same. (verse 15) These are not light words, but they are spoken from God Himself. He goes further and says that they are forgetting the basic teachings and trying to only follow the complex parts of faith. It is interesting to note, He does not tell them that they should not do what they are doing (in context to sacrifice and offerings) but that they are not doing enough. He says they are straining out the smaller parts (gnats) and swallowing whole errors (camels). He goes on to say "these things you should have done without neglecting the others" (emphases mine) The Pharisees were by no means "too righteous" (an impossibility) but they were not righteous enough. They assumed following the "advanced teaching" was more important than action. Jesus continues His speech with something no man wants to hear from God: "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?" (verse 33)

So what is the application of these chilling verses? What can we do to avoid the error of the Pharisees? Is there any modern version of this problem?

I don't want to accuse people of things, nor do I want to play Judge (that is not my role, but God's); but that being said, there are some things that weigh greatly on my heart. There are teachers today who condemn almost every group, (as the Pharisees did with the general population and even the Sadducees) and there are those who hold the teachings of old preachers, great though they may be, as level to the very Word of God (the error of the Talmud), they expound on great Theological concepts and doctrines and neglect the appalling implications they make (the same thing the Pharisees were accused of in verses 16-23). They take their doctrine and hold it as the only correct, indeed the only possible true view, without realizing that this falls dangerously close to the Pharisees' own error.

Conclusion

Jesus met many people: prostitutes, thieves, con artists, adulterers, & liars. He welcomed them to Himself, seeing them as lost sheep who were looking for their shepherd. But when He came to those "leading" the sheep; His tone changed. He condemned them, ran them out of the Temple with whips, and called them the sons of Hell. Why? Because they were already convinced they were righteous. They assumed that what they had done, what they taught, and what they were was "good enough". This is why they were condemned so strongly. May we learn from their sobering example.