There
were no Pharisees in the Old Testament.
So sometime between Malachi and Matthew, the Pharisees emerged as the
"contemporary" wing of their religion. They were the innovators, the highly
educated, well-connected, impeccably dressed liberal Jewish theologians of
their day.
The
Pharisees began as hip, trendy, brand new critics of Jewish tradition. The Pharisees came out saying that it was
time for the Jews to change their centuries old order of service. They employed the new rhetorical techniques
of the Hellenist Greeks to decry how the Jews had allowed Hellenist philosophy
to corrupt the purity of Moses’ original intent.
The
hip, new perspective on Judaism became popular and in the time of Jesus’s
public ministry, the Pharisees were the sect to contend with. Numerically they probably weren’t the largest
party in Judaea, but they and the scribes dominated the ancient equivalent of
social media. The scribes and Pharisees knew
how to leverage the power of public debates.
By the time Jesus began His public life, the Pharisaic trend had become the
new tradition.
Fashion
becomes a trend. Trend becomes
tradition. What we call “contemporary” is
just the new “traditional.”
Today,
we think of Pharisees as the embodiment of strict Biblical legalism and
literalism. But that’s not how Jesus saw
them.
Consider
the exchange in Matthew 15.
The
scribes and Pharisees engaged Jesus on their form of social media, public
debate.
Then the scribes and
Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, “Why do Your disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when
they eat bread.” (Matthew 15: 1,2 )
Jesus
posted a comment, saying, “Why do you
also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (verse
3)
As
an example, Jesus pointed out that a strict, literal reading of the 5th
Commandment says, “ ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who
curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ “ (verse 4) That’s a pretty
harsh, inflexible, legalistic reading of the text, but that was the way Jesus preached
the text.
Jesus criticized the Pharisees for taking a much more
contemporary, non-condemning, prosperity-centered interpretation.
In light of the changing social norms and
expectations of 1st Century society in the cosmopolitan Roman
Empire, the Pharisees felt it was no longer practical to expect children to
quote-unquote honor their parents the same way children in the past had quote-unquote
honored their parents. What was really
important was that all people had a loving relationship with God and strong
connection to the nexus of Jewish identity--- the Temple. So, the Pharisees reframed the old idea of
family by allowing children to give a gift to the Temple in the name of their
parents and thus honor parents by honoring God without the inconvenience of
having to literally take care of mama and daddy. (Matthew 15: 5, 6 paraphrased)
Jesus
said: Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.
(verse 6)
Compared to the Pharisees, Jesus was way legalistic. He believed that people in modern society should literally order their lives based on the ancient commands of the Bible.
In
John 8, the scribes and Pharisees interrupted Jesus’ Bible study in the Temple
by bringing a woman they’d caught in the act of adultery. Knowing that Roman law prohibited Jews from
handing out the death penalty and that stoning a woman in the middle of the
Temple in Jerusalem would have created all kinds of trouble, the Phariees and
scribes didn’t really want to stone this lady.
It they had, they would’ve done it already.
The
Pharisees used the adulterous woman to try to trap Jesus in the only
theological “weakness” they thought Jesus had---- His strict, legalistic
perspective on the Law.
“Teacher,”
they said, “Now Moses, in the law,
commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said,
testing Him, that they might have something
of which to accuse Him. (John 8:
5,6)
Jesus
didn’t deny the accuracy or relevance of the Law as written. He did question the authenticity of their
motives and methods under the law.
When they continued asking
Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you,
let him throw a stone at her first.” (John 8: 7)
The
Law literally condemned both the man and the woman caught in adultery.
The man who commits adultery
with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his
neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.
(Leviticus 20: 10).
The
Pharisees had let the man go.
The
Law literally prohibited partiality in judgment
You shall not show
partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you
shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s (Deuteronomy 1: 17)
The
Pharisees were clearly playing favorites.
The
Law literally prohibited using the Jewish justice system for corrupt
reasons.
You shall not pervert
justice.
You shall not show
partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and
twists the words of the righteous.
You shall follow what is
altogether just. (Deuteronomy 16: 19-20)
The
Pharisees were not legalistic enough.
They picked and chose the parts of the Bible they liked according to
what they wanted to do.
Jesus
was a strict whole Bible believing LEGALIST.
And that legalism was why He turned to the accused woman in John 8 and
said, “Neither do I condemn you; go and
sin no more.” (verse 11)
On
strict legal grounds, there could be no adultery case without 2
defendants. Also, the Law strictly
required multiple witnesses to even entertain a death-penalty case.
Whoever is deserving of
death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he
shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. (Deuteronomy 17: 6)
When Jesus had raised
Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are
those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” (John 8: 10)
Did
Jesus know that she was guilty? Of
course He did. But the Law says that
there had to be 2 or 3 human witnesses.
Oh,
and keep in mind that a strict, literal reading of the Biblical text turns up
the word mercy on multiple occasions,
in particular as a description of God Himself.
The Lord is longsuffering
and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means
clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the
third and fourth generation. (Numbers 14: 18)
In
God, patience and mercy, judgment and punishment co-exist without contradiction. And that is why Jesus, the strict, legalist could say in one
breath: Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.
Conviction
of sin according to the Law simultaneous with mercy under the law.
Through Jesus Christ, the law of the Moses is fulfilled and New Testament GRACE is possible. To reject the eternal truth of the Law is to snatch away the foundation for grace. And religion without grace is the heart of Pharisaic dysfunction.
Today’s
Pharisees are not all in the old, “traditional” denominations. Some of them are. But just as many Pharisees lead and attend
contemporary, independent, digital, and/or liberal churches. The mark of a true Pharisees isn’t the title
or suffix of their congregation. The
mark of a Pharisees is what Jesus said.
Do
your traditions make void the literal Word of God?
Do
you only see half the sin while ignoring the half closest to your own sin?
Do
you claim to fulfill the spirit of the Law when you’re really just making up
stuff because your lies are more materially profitable?
Do
you glory in the act of worship without submitting your life to the conviction and
transformation of God?
If
so, then sorry, dude. You’re a Pharisee.
Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah
prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their
mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as
doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” ---Jesus, Matthew
15: 7-9
But you don’t have to stay a Pharisee.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, but after years of being
in church-temple, he finally actually came to Jesus and was born again. (John
3)
Joseph of Arimathae was a Pharisee. He had genuinely come to faith in Jesus but
he didn’t have the courage to stand up against the weight of the Pharisaic
traditions in his peer-circle. But
when Joseph stood in the reality of the cross, he found the courage to come out
of the closet as one of those crazy disciples who believed in the literal fulfillment
of Messianic prophesy. (John 19: 38)
Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee of Pharisees. The more he studied the Law, the more
Pharisaicly he interpreted the Bible.
Saul was so deep into the Pharisees’ new traditions that he campaigned
to eliminate all of the crazy Christians who were going around talking about physical
resurrections, and the Divinity of Jesus, and a virgin birth and other such
legalistic nonsense. But when Saul had a
real, personal encounter with Jesus, everything changed, even his name. Saul became Paul, and the rest is New
Testament history. (Acts 9)
Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathae, and the Apostle
Paul each had to find their own paths out of Pharisaic thought and into the
freedom of Christ-like Biblical literalism.
The problem for the church today is not that we
read the Bible too literally. It’s that
we don’t read the Bible literally enough.
We all tend to redact the parts that contradict our current
traditions. We need to study the whole
thing.
We need to stop turning away from apparent
contradictions. Instead let’s engage
them with faith that says that that God knows what He’s doing and somehow these
competing verses fit together, and with the full power of the intellect and
resources God has given us. God speaks in the space where contradictions
are reconciled. And we desperately need
to hear what He says.
Remember that the Bible is LITERALLY the Word of
God. And if that makes you sounds
extremely legalistic, that’s O.K.
That’s literally how Jesus sounded to the Pharisees
of His day, too.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry,
and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural
leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
You
can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button
on the right-hand sidebar.
Support
by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles
Chapel CME Church
P O
Box 132
Fairfield,
Al 35064
