Washing dishes is not just for looks. We do it to keep from getting sick. It makes a difference whether a dish is clean on the inside or the outside.
People who are not pure, but are trying to be. They are ffrustrated, consumed with guilt, and obsessed with perfection. Nothing they ever do is good enough.
People who think they are pure, but aren’t. They were proud , supreme in their self-confidence. They have faults, but they do not see them. They have sins, but do not acknowledge them, even to themselves. They have no desire for grace or forgiveness, because they think they are getting what they deserve.
People who know they are not pure, but act it anyway. These are closest to the truth. They cannot be pure. Instead of acknowledging this, however, they cover it up. These people have split themselves into two people--one pure, the other a sinner. At church they are one thing, in private they are other. This is the ultimate end of the Pharisee impulse--to produce hypocrites.
Jesus does not hate these people--He pities them. He calls them foolish, and says woe unto them. He knows that they are caught in a way of thinking that only leads to misery. He pronounces six woes over him in verses 42-49.
They care more about the law rather than people.
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
There is a scene in Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame when the unfortunate Quasimodo is dragged before a judge for a crime he did not commit. Quasimodo is deaf from years of bell ringing. The judge is also deaf. The judge cannot hear Quasimodo, and takes his silence for insolence. Quasimodo takes the judge's silence for approval. He is therefore unaware when he is suddenly taken out and whipped. The judge takes no interest in Quasimodo's cries for help, because he cannot hear them. He only knows the law and does not care for anything else.
Hugo intended this scene as an illustration of the Pharisee mentality. Pharisees are deaf judges. They read the Law, but they do not listen to people, not even themselves. They are so trapped in their legalistic myopia that they are oblivious to the pain around them.
They care about position over passion for the truth.
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
Jesus meant this to be ironic. These Pharisee/Puritans want to be known as the holiest people in town. They want this, because people look up to them. They want to be loved and admired. The problem is that what they are loved and admired for is not something that they deserve. It is like cheating on a test. We want the recognition of others, even if we do not deserve it.
They are a quiet corruption.
"Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it."
To a Jew walking over another man's grave made them unclean, and unworthy of entering into the temple or synagogue. But if he unwittingly walked over a grave, they became unclean, and did not even know it.
This may sound silly, but it is exactly the sort of thing the Pharisees would say. Jesus turns it back on them. Spending time with the Pharisees was spending time with sinners. If being with sinners made you unclean, then you could become unclean by spending time with them.
Churches are full of sinners. If going into bars make us unclean because of the sinners in there, then what does going to chjrch make us? There are just as many sinners in churches as there are in bars.
They care nothing for people's burdens
One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also." Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
A conversation with a Pharisee goes thusly
"What must I do to be saved?"
"Straighen up. Fly right. Quit sinning. Go to church."
"Will you pick me up and take me to church next week?"
"Sorry. That's not my responsibility."
A Pharisee care nothing for others. He is like a great loudspeaker, pronouncing God's word over the crowd. He does not care that he is way to loud, and that others cannot understand what he is saying. All he cares about is that he is doing what he is supposed to do, blaring God's word at the top of his lungs.
The Pharisee is the perfect beaurocrat. He believes that his job--his only job--is to teach the law. He is not in business to help people.
You cover up violence with niceness.
"Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.
There is a world of difference between compassion and niceness. We think that just because we don't raise our voice when we are doing wicked things, and keep an outward measure of propriety, that we are not doing violence. Give me a straight up fight, over a concealed dagger from someone who is pretending to be nice. There is more hope of redemption for a violent bully than for the quiet, destructive whispers of the gossip, who destroys a life and then goes to see if she can help. The Pharisees believed that as long as you did not appear to lose your temper, you were not being wicked.
You block people from finding the truth.
Because of this, God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.' Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering."
This is the worst condemnation of all. Their insistence on perfection actually keeps people from finding the truth.
A Pharisee keeps people from Christ by misrepresenting the heart of God. God is our father, our Daddy, our lover. He wants us around. The god of the Pharisees was a cosmic policeman, trying to arrive at his quota for arrests for his day. The God of the Bible wants us to prosper. The god of the Pharisees only wants the perfect to prosper. The God of the Bible loves us as we are. The god of the Pharisees only loves us is we are as he is. As a result, heaven is shut for all, and have lost the key of the knowledge of God’s love.
Here is the truth of it. We are imperfect people. We will always be imperfect people. Anyone who thinks he is not imperfect is simply blind or willfully ignorant. Our only hope is that God will forgive us.
Jesus is the opposite of the Pharisees. To them, God's acceptance only comes at the end of a long path to holiness. To Jesus, acceptance begins at the moment we turn to Him and ask for it. From there, we begin the process of being cleansed, but from that moment on, God gives us Himself. He walks with us through the mess.
He does not just give us rules. He gives us Himself.
Suppose you sat down in a restaurant and the waitress brought you a cup of coffee with a wee bit of food stuck to it. Does it matter to you if it is on the outside or inside of the cup? Wouldn't you rather find it on the outside?
Out of this unlikely picture Jesus fashions one of his little parables. He compares the Pharisees to a dirty dish.The Pharisees were one of three main branches of Judaism in Palestine. The word Pharisee means literally "The Separated Ones." The Saduccees controlled the temple, but the Pharisees dominated the synagogues all through the world.
The Pharisees said that God was judge peopled according to the Law. They tried to practice what they preached, too. Obedience is a necessary part of being pure and holy: People who are not pure, but are trying to be. They are ffrustrated, consumed with guilt, and obsessed with perfection. Nothing they ever do is good enough.
People who think they are pure, but aren’t. They were proud , supreme in their self-confidence. They have faults, but they do not see them. They have sins, but do not acknowledge them, even to themselves. They have no desire for grace or forgiveness, because they think they are getting what they deserve.
People who know they are not pure, but act it anyway. These are closest to the truth. They cannot be pure. Instead of acknowledging this, however, they cover it up. These people have split themselves into two people--one pure, the other a sinner. At church they are one thing, in private they are other. This is the ultimate end of the Pharisee impulse--to produce hypocrites.
Jesus does not hate these people--He pities them. He calls them foolish, and says woe unto them. He knows that they are caught in a way of thinking that only leads to misery. He pronounces six woes over him in verses 42-49.
They care more about the law rather than people.
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
There is a scene in Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame when the unfortunate Quasimodo is dragged before a judge for a crime he did not commit. Quasimodo is deaf from years of bell ringing. The judge is also deaf. The judge cannot hear Quasimodo, and takes his silence for insolence. Quasimodo takes the judge's silence for approval. He is therefore unaware when he is suddenly taken out and whipped. The judge takes no interest in Quasimodo's cries for help, because he cannot hear them. He only knows the law and does not care for anything else.
Hugo intended this scene as an illustration of the Pharisee mentality. Pharisees are deaf judges. They read the Law, but they do not listen to people, not even themselves. They are so trapped in their legalistic myopia that they are oblivious to the pain around them.
They care about position over passion for the truth.
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
Jesus meant this to be ironic. These Pharisee/Puritans want to be known as the holiest people in town. They want this, because people look up to them. They want to be loved and admired. The problem is that what they are loved and admired for is not something that they deserve. It is like cheating on a test. We want the recognition of others, even if we do not deserve it.
They are a quiet corruption.
"Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it."
To a Jew walking over another man's grave made them unclean, and unworthy of entering into the temple or synagogue. But if he unwittingly walked over a grave, they became unclean, and did not even know it.
This may sound silly, but it is exactly the sort of thing the Pharisees would say. Jesus turns it back on them. Spending time with the Pharisees was spending time with sinners. If being with sinners made you unclean, then you could become unclean by spending time with them.
Churches are full of sinners. If going into bars make us unclean because of the sinners in there, then what does going to chjrch make us? There are just as many sinners in churches as there are in bars.
They care nothing for people's burdens
One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also." Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
A conversation with a Pharisee goes thusly
"What must I do to be saved?"
"Straighen up. Fly right. Quit sinning. Go to church."
"Will you pick me up and take me to church next week?"
"Sorry. That's not my responsibility."
A Pharisee care nothing for others. He is like a great loudspeaker, pronouncing God's word over the crowd. He does not care that he is way to loud, and that others cannot understand what he is saying. All he cares about is that he is doing what he is supposed to do, blaring God's word at the top of his lungs.
The Pharisee is the perfect beaurocrat. He believes that his job--his only job--is to teach the law. He is not in business to help people.
You cover up violence with niceness.
"Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.
There is a world of difference between compassion and niceness. We think that just because we don't raise our voice when we are doing wicked things, and keep an outward measure of propriety, that we are not doing violence. Give me a straight up fight, over a concealed dagger from someone who is pretending to be nice. There is more hope of redemption for a violent bully than for the quiet, destructive whispers of the gossip, who destroys a life and then goes to see if she can help. The Pharisees believed that as long as you did not appear to lose your temper, you were not being wicked.
You block people from finding the truth.
Because of this, God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.' Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering."
This is the worst condemnation of all. Their insistence on perfection actually keeps people from finding the truth.
A Pharisee keeps people from Christ by misrepresenting the heart of God. God is our father, our Daddy, our lover. He wants us around. The god of the Pharisees was a cosmic policeman, trying to arrive at his quota for arrests for his day. The God of the Bible wants us to prosper. The god of the Pharisees only wants the perfect to prosper. The God of the Bible loves us as we are. The god of the Pharisees only loves us is we are as he is. As a result, heaven is shut for all, and have lost the key of the knowledge of God’s love.
Here is the truth of it. We are imperfect people. We will always be imperfect people. Anyone who thinks he is not imperfect is simply blind or willfully ignorant. Our only hope is that God will forgive us.
Jesus is the opposite of the Pharisees. To them, God's acceptance only comes at the end of a long path to holiness. To Jesus, acceptance begins at the moment we turn to Him and ask for it. From there, we begin the process of being cleansed, but from that moment on, God gives us Himself. He walks with us through the mess.
He does not just give us rules. He gives us Himself.
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