Ancient Pharisees and Modern Church Leaders
The 23rd Chapter of Matthew is a long rant from Jesus Christ to the religious leaders of His day, the Pharisees. These guys were the 'religious right', the folks who made sure every move was in line with God's law. They made sure people knew how important they were with their lavish clothes which included prayer shawls, tassels and boxes called phylacteries (more on that later).
God had written the law to help people love one another and Him. He didn't miss a beat in His law, with nearly four books devoted to the law. Still, though, people didn't get it. People followed the letter of the law to avoid sinning, but they still didn't have love in their hearts. Without the love, they also began to break the law. About 600 years before Jesus, God said, "You don't love me, I'm kicking you out" and He brought an army in to take them all away. It only lasted 70 years, but Israel never returned to her former glory under Kings David and Solomon.
After the exile, people took God seriously. They were abiding by the letter of the law again, and still did not have love in their hearts. Afraid of exile again, the Pharisees began to make sure that Israel remained true to the law. The system of rules they implemented bordered on the ridiculous, but they thought it was the right way to go. Hey - they needed to appease God, right? They didn't realize that God is Love and all He wants is for us to love each other.
So, in accordance with Deuteronomy 6:8, they made boxes into which they put certain commandments. These boxes, called phylacteries, were tied onto their hands and foreheads to remind them of commandments - namely to love God and to love one another. They needed the physical boxes. The love was not in their hearts.
Along comes Jesus. He knows God's will. He knows that the whole reason we are here is to love God and one another. He becomes known as the thorn in the Pharisees' side, and He won't let up. The Pharisees want Him dead because they see Him as a threat. So, in Matthew 23, He tells the Pharisees exactly what's on His mind:
He opens with a very interesting statement. Speaking to His disciples, he says of the Pharisees, "You must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, fo rthe do not practice what they preach. They tied up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them."
He moves on to describe their dress: "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'"
In verses 8-12, He commands His followers: "But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." We are all one down here. The guy in the pulpit is no greater than the lady in the pew, though some would have you believe they are the best thing since sliced cheese. Rabbi means teacher. Christ is our teacher. He is our Master. God is our Father, not a pope or a priest.
He then proceeds to condemn the Pharisees. Read carefully what he says in verses 13-32, taken from The Message:
I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God's kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won't let anyone else in either.
You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned.
You're hopeless! What arrogant stupidity! You say, 'If someone makes a promise with his fingers crossed, that's nothing; but if he swears with his hand on the Bible, that's serious.' What ignorance! Does the leather on the Bible carry more weight than the skin on your hands? And what about this piece of trivia: 'If you shake hands on a promise, that's nothing; but if you raise your hand that God is your witness, that's serious'? What ridiculous hairsplitting! What difference does it make whether you shake hands or raise hands? A promise is a promise. What difference does it make if you make your promise inside or outside a house of worship? A promise is a promise. God is present, watching and holding you to account regardless.
You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God's Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment--the absolute basics!-you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that's wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?
You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.
You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You're like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it's all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you're saints, but beneath the skin you're total frauds.
You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You're cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count.
Wow. Anybody you know? How about some of the legalistic, self-righteous church leaders we have today? How about some of those who are so caught up examining the bark on every tree they can't see that the forest is on fire?
Let's continue with the next four verses, again from The Message:
Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It's on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation--and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse.
You can't squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah's son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I'm telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation.
It's purely coincidence that Christ's list of murdered prophets is A to Z - in the Hebrew alphabet it doesn't work this way. But Abel was the first murder in the Bible, and Zechariah (see 2 Chronicles 24:20-22) was the last murder, chronologically, in the Old Testament. Jesus tells the Pharisees that all the blood of everybody murdered on account of their relationship with God will come down on their hands. The Pharisees will pay for the crimes of their ancestors because the Pharisees do not have God's love in their hearts. Here's how - the last three verses:
Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God's news! How often I've ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn't let me. And now you're so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I'm out of here soon. The next time you see me you'll say, 'Oh, God has blessed him! He's come, bringing God's rule!'
Jesus loves the people of Jerusalem. They do not love Him. They are going to add Him to the list of the murdered that God sent, and He knows it. Yet, He loves them. He tells them of His eminent return, the return for which we all wait, when He will come on a white horse. This time, He won't be sitting in the shade telling parables about God's Kingdom. He'll come with a battle cry and a sword.
Folks, I'll tell you what I believe. This passage applies to all the self-righteous in the Church today. The closed-minded who work under Satan's leadership to divide the church into it's little splinters so they can be glorified - they are the modern-day Pharisees. Anybody who says that Christ's blood is not sufficient for salvation - they are the modern-day Pharisees. Anybody who says you may be saved, but you are not worshipping properly - they are the modern-day Pharisees. They are hopeless. They are frauds. They are condemned, and they are taking everybody they convert with them.
This sounds like harsh words, but they need to be said. Matthew 23 wasn't preserved so we could see how Jesus treated people 2000 years ago. We aren't meant to sit back and say, "I'm glad I'm not a Pharisee!" What can we learn from this passage? Can we learn that our modern Church needs to observe the mistakes of the Pharisees? Can we learn that the same condemnation that fell upon the Pharisees may indeed fall upon us?
I pray fervently for the Church to heal from it's shattered pieces. There are many who are praying and working with me. Perhaps you are one, as well. By working together, we can reunite the amputated parts of Christ's body. Working together, we can build a force that, unified against Satan, will show this country and this world how much love there really can be.
God had written the law to help people love one another and Him. He didn't miss a beat in His law, with nearly four books devoted to the law. Still, though, people didn't get it. People followed the letter of the law to avoid sinning, but they still didn't have love in their hearts. Without the love, they also began to break the law. About 600 years before Jesus, God said, "You don't love me, I'm kicking you out" and He brought an army in to take them all away. It only lasted 70 years, but Israel never returned to her former glory under Kings David and Solomon.
After the exile, people took God seriously. They were abiding by the letter of the law again, and still did not have love in their hearts. Afraid of exile again, the Pharisees began to make sure that Israel remained true to the law. The system of rules they implemented bordered on the ridiculous, but they thought it was the right way to go. Hey - they needed to appease God, right? They didn't realize that God is Love and all He wants is for us to love each other.
So, in accordance with Deuteronomy 6:8, they made boxes into which they put certain commandments. These boxes, called phylacteries, were tied onto their hands and foreheads to remind them of commandments - namely to love God and to love one another. They needed the physical boxes. The love was not in their hearts.
Along comes Jesus. He knows God's will. He knows that the whole reason we are here is to love God and one another. He becomes known as the thorn in the Pharisees' side, and He won't let up. The Pharisees want Him dead because they see Him as a threat. So, in Matthew 23, He tells the Pharisees exactly what's on His mind:
He opens with a very interesting statement. Speaking to His disciples, he says of the Pharisees, "You must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, fo rthe do not practice what they preach. They tied up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them."
vv 3-4
They say 'You are a sinner. You must repent.' But when the time comes for them to face the music, they pray "Lord, Thank you that I am not a sinner like this man over here."He moves on to describe their dress: "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'"
vv5-7
Self-explanatory?In verses 8-12, He commands His followers: "But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." We are all one down here. The guy in the pulpit is no greater than the lady in the pew, though some would have you believe they are the best thing since sliced cheese. Rabbi means teacher. Christ is our teacher. He is our Master. God is our Father, not a pope or a priest.
He then proceeds to condemn the Pharisees. Read carefully what he says in verses 13-32, taken from The Message:
I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God's kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won't let anyone else in either.
You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned.
You're hopeless! What arrogant stupidity! You say, 'If someone makes a promise with his fingers crossed, that's nothing; but if he swears with his hand on the Bible, that's serious.' What ignorance! Does the leather on the Bible carry more weight than the skin on your hands? And what about this piece of trivia: 'If you shake hands on a promise, that's nothing; but if you raise your hand that God is your witness, that's serious'? What ridiculous hairsplitting! What difference does it make whether you shake hands or raise hands? A promise is a promise. What difference does it make if you make your promise inside or outside a house of worship? A promise is a promise. God is present, watching and holding you to account regardless.
You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God's Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment--the absolute basics!-you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that's wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?
You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.
You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You're like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it's all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you're saints, but beneath the skin you're total frauds.
You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You're cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count.
Wow. Anybody you know? How about some of the legalistic, self-righteous church leaders we have today? How about some of those who are so caught up examining the bark on every tree they can't see that the forest is on fire?
Let's continue with the next four verses, again from The Message:
Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It's on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation--and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse.
You can't squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah's son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I'm telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation.
It's purely coincidence that Christ's list of murdered prophets is A to Z - in the Hebrew alphabet it doesn't work this way. But Abel was the first murder in the Bible, and Zechariah (see 2 Chronicles 24:20-22) was the last murder, chronologically, in the Old Testament. Jesus tells the Pharisees that all the blood of everybody murdered on account of their relationship with God will come down on their hands. The Pharisees will pay for the crimes of their ancestors because the Pharisees do not have God's love in their hearts. Here's how - the last three verses:
Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God's news! How often I've ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn't let me. And now you're so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I'm out of here soon. The next time you see me you'll say, 'Oh, God has blessed him! He's come, bringing God's rule!'
Jesus loves the people of Jerusalem. They do not love Him. They are going to add Him to the list of the murdered that God sent, and He knows it. Yet, He loves them. He tells them of His eminent return, the return for which we all wait, when He will come on a white horse. This time, He won't be sitting in the shade telling parables about God's Kingdom. He'll come with a battle cry and a sword.
Folks, I'll tell you what I believe. This passage applies to all the self-righteous in the Church today. The closed-minded who work under Satan's leadership to divide the church into it's little splinters so they can be glorified - they are the modern-day Pharisees. Anybody who says that Christ's blood is not sufficient for salvation - they are the modern-day Pharisees. Anybody who says you may be saved, but you are not worshipping properly - they are the modern-day Pharisees. They are hopeless. They are frauds. They are condemned, and they are taking everybody they convert with them.
This sounds like harsh words, but they need to be said. Matthew 23 wasn't preserved so we could see how Jesus treated people 2000 years ago. We aren't meant to sit back and say, "I'm glad I'm not a Pharisee!" What can we learn from this passage? Can we learn that our modern Church needs to observe the mistakes of the Pharisees? Can we learn that the same condemnation that fell upon the Pharisees may indeed fall upon us?
I pray fervently for the Church to heal from it's shattered pieces. There are many who are praying and working with me. Perhaps you are one, as well. By working together, we can reunite the amputated parts of Christ's body. Working together, we can build a force that, unified against Satan, will show this country and this world how much love there really can be.
posted by ClayMan at 5:22 AM
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