It is easy to notice, and quite often recounted, how Jesus treated the Pharisees. Preachers take great delight in the passages of scripture where Jesus takes these "sons of hell" to task. Have you ever read Matthew 23? It's brutal. Jesus completely blasts the Pharisees. It's ugly and mean. But the Pharisees are the villains of the New Testament, aren't they? If the Gospel stories were set in the early 1900's, the Pharisees would all have black handlebar mustaches and they would twirl the ends ominously while cackling under their breaths. Yes, they are undoubtedly the bad guys here and we absolutely love it when the bad guys get what's coming to them, don't we?
This is the ending to most movies we watch. Good guy triumphs over unimaginable odds. The antagonist ends up without the girl, with mud on his face, alone in the cold, or in every action movie- dead in a very violent and creative way. And we cheer! Yes! That slimy son of a ..... finally got what he had coming to him!
You get a feel of that reading Matthew 23. All through out the Gospels the Pharisees have stood in Jesus' way. He has tried to heal people when he wasn't supposed to. He talks to the wrong people. He touches the wrong people. He parties with sinners and tax collectors.
The Pharisees try and trap Jesus with words, thinking they are more clever than he. They talk down to him. Halfway through the Gospels we are more than ready for these arrogant, self-righteous morons to get what's coming to them! And does Jesus deliver...
Sons of hell? Really? Do you remember (or do you know) who these people were?? They were the leaders of the Jewish community! They had tremendous influence over the entire culture. They were not considered villains by many- or probably most- people in their day. They were the pastors and priests for the people. This nobody- this son of a carpenter (who it is quite well known is a bastard) dares go up against this crowd?
Some backstory...
The Jews had been conquered by the Romans long before Jesus came around. In the history of the Jewish people, they had been conquered and exiled numerous times before the Romans had their shot at them. And they were always a big thorn in their tormentors side. I have a brother in law who is Jewish, so I can kinda see how that works.
Whenever this happened, the Jews always run back to their God to save them. Except this time he doesn't seem to be answering. It has been hundreds of years since God had sent a prophet to talk to his people, to rescue them, or to at least tell them what to do so they can be free again. The priests were the ones who held the fabric of the Jewish community together. Probably more than any other tribe, the Jews were mainly identified by the God they served. They were unique in the ancient world- there was one God who ruled them all. One God to find them... sorry, couldn't resist.
The priests/Pharisees were the heroes of the day. Not the villains. By and large, up until now, they were the good guys! They were the ones fighting and arguing against the hated Romans. They were the ones that were going to tell the people how to appease God so that they could once again experience the freedom they had been promised! The people looked UP to the Pharisees. Without their God, the Jewish people would have been nothing. They would have ceased to exist. The priests and Pharisees were the ones holding the nation together!They were not widely considered villains. They were respected, listened to and feared.
Since God hadn't spoken in so long, the Pharisees concluded that his people had made him angry. And they had, truthfully. In the mind of the Pharisee, the solution to this was simple- do what their God had told them to do. Easy. So they memorized the entire Old Testament. Word by word. This is all they knew to do and there is certainly some logic to it. So they memorized the message he had given them. They studied what their ancestors thought and said about it. They argued about it. They developed different schools of thought. I'm glad we don't do that anymore! How silly. But I digress.
The Pharisees decided the people had to follow all the rules to please God. And since God was sooooo angry, they didn't want to take a chance that people could break the rules. So they made rules to protect the rules. And then they made rules to protect the people from breaking the rules that would get to close to breaking the rules that God had set eons before. The same rules that they had broken that had gotten them into their mess in the first place. Only it wasn't working.
And in walks Jesus.
The Jewish nation had gotten so far off course, so lost from the original intent of God's message, that an ordinary prophet wouldn't do. The answer was, of course, that God sent himself. In the form of his son.
Jesus wasn't even a public figure for 3 full years, and he doesn't waste any time. He quickly starts turning everything upside down. He insists they have got it all wrong. He claims that they are sons of hell!
He insults them at every turn.
Jesus has picked the wrong group to take on. They have power. They can make very bad things happen to Jesus, and they do. Jesus knows this and does everything he can to get them to kill him. He goads them and insults them until they feel they have no other choice.
Side note- can you imagine how the disciples felt listening to him blast the Pharisees and willfully disobeying???
Where are the Pharisees today? Do they exist? Most Christians seem to think so. In the past they would have been praised and exalted, now it's an term used to insult. We know there are big rule followers out there and we are sure glad it isn't our church. Or is it?
If Jesus came today, whose tables would he overthrow? Whom would he whip? Whom would he have harsh words for? Whom would he consider to be a "son of hell" or a "white washed tomb"? Weeeellll, if history is any indication, it would be the religious leaders. The ones telling us how to live our lives to make God happy. The ones laying down rules for us to obey...
NO! (You may say) That can't be! I respect and look up to them... They tell us how to draw close to God... I don't want him to be angry with me...
And to be fair, many of them do tell us how to draw closer to God. And many of them are history repeating itself.
Man has a tendency to drift apart from God. Some don't care about this distance, but many do. So we try and find our way back to God- to get back in his favor. And rules are just easier than faith.
I find it very amusing that we think we are so different, so enlightened. Yes, it is true that we have the teachings of Jesus and his example, and that is huge. But are we really so different?
There is an arrogance to our age that seems to think we have the perfect revelation of the Word. Finally, we have it figured out.
I heard this from someone the other day: "The Bible is easy! You just do what it says and you go to heaven! Otherwise you go to hell! A sip of wine is sin! Just like if you drink a lot. Sin is sin."
We like to play with the things of God. We take the portions we are comfortable with and build a belief system around it. And don't you dare question that structure! Sadly, much of our construct is made of half truths and scripture taken out of context. The construct cannot be questioned seriously, for to do so is to question the authority of the people who built it- although these same people, and the ones who uphold it- would tell you that God built it that way.
True- there is usually truth mixed in. But the truth is often like a gold veneer. It is thin and insubstantial and has far less value than you might imagine. It has been spread so thin that it is almost not there at all.
We scorn and brand "heretic" any who dare question our sacred constructs. Just like they did to Jesus.
There are Pharisees around, but thank God they aren't us.
No comments:
Post a Comment