Jesus’s parable about the religious person and the sinner is very telling: “Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: "Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: 'I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don't cheat, I don't sin, and I don't commit adultery. I'm certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, 'O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.' I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." (Luke 18:9-14)
There was a time when I was leaving a store that, like often before, I saw people that were homeless, disabled, obese, or very unkempt. I thought, ‘Thank you God, for the blessings that you have given me (and that I am not like them).’ I immediately sensed God say in my spirit, “Don’t you dare see yourself as superior to them! Everyone has their own lot in life. You do not know what they have been through. Would you be any better if you had to deal with what they have had to deal with? I love them just as much.” I had spent a lot of effort helping a participant in our divorce ministry to not go homeless and got to know how many terrible situations some people have had in life. I had to admit that I would have probably done worse if I had gone through what they had gone through. I realized later, that I have been in some ways like the Pharisee in the scripture. I tended to look down on others that weren’t as well off as I was. The Pharisee strictly kept religious rules and traditions, and didn’t consider himself a sinner “like everyone else.” He looked down on 'sinners.' Do you see that in other Christians and even yourself? I think most Christians don’t realize that sin is sin and even though they go to church to some degree or another, they are not any less sinners. Scripture tells us to be truly humble and not to think we are superior to others. To many of us, church is sort of a nice ‘club,’ where the good people go and do the Christian show, while in truth, we should think of it more like AA or Celebrate Recovery, where everyone is a sinner that is aware of their need for help. The only difference between us and other sinners is that we recognize our need for help to this spiritual disease and that there is a spiritual answer. Like an alcoholic who has embraced the AA approach, we know that we will always have inclinations to sin and we need God and fellowship with other Christians to help us resist sin and to grow. What the Bible says and what Jesus said repeatedly must be taken seriously. One of the the biggest themes of Jesus' life and teachings was his dealing with the religious leaders of the day, particularly the Pharisees. In over two dozen occasions he had interactions with them, including in John 5, 7, and 8, starting with anger that he healed on the Sabbath and a series of other confrontations. Even a lot of believers ultimately wanted to stone him.
His main theme in his interactions with the Pharisees was condemnation for them for legalism, pride, hypocrisy, and so forth and their lack of truly knowing God and recognizing him as God's son. After many hours studying the Pharissees and the other religious leaders who were against Jesus, the simplest way I can describe them is that they were focused on Jewish rules , including those things they had added to the rules, but they completely lost the spirit of the law by ignoring the most important things. What were the most important things? Love God/Jesus, justice (which in the Bible usually meant justice for the marginalized people), mercy (which is 'forgiveness, withholding judgement, and compassion for those who have come up short in some way') and have faithfulness (steady following of God/Jesus). It wasn't a mistake that God had the amount of times those interactions and how long Jesus talked about them in the Bible. He meant to send a message for that generation and all generations to come. That is a message that would resonate from their day right up, through the hypocritical and sometimes corrupt formal Catholic days, to our day. It's a mistake to dismiss the scriptures about the Pharisees as "oh that's something that was just in their day and doesn't really have much impact on us." I believe that Jesus was showing love and justice when he rebuked the religious leaders. Most of all he was showing love to the people and to us by making clear the danger of not having the God's love in them. Also, like God, he hated the evil that they represented. In John 5:42, he says: “Your approval means nothing to me, because I know you don’t have God’s love within you." We need to seriously consider what God saying through this theme. In summary, a key message for us from these scriptures is Love God and having the God's love in you, practice mercy, be for justice, and have faithfulness. Finally, in midst of all the hatefulness and hate in from the Pharisees, his direct message to them was:
"Jesus said to the people who believed in him, You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32
PROBLEMS WITH JEWISH LEADERS: John 8:12-30, John 8::31-59, Luke 11:42, Matthew 12:38-42, Matthew 19:3-9, Mark 12:13-17, Matthew 22:34-40, Luke 7:30-33, Luke 7:36-50, Luke 19:37-40, Luke 20:1-8, Luke 20:19-26, John 8:1-10, Mathew 22:41-46, Mark 12:38-40, Mark 12:41-44, Matthew 12:1-8, Matthew 12:9-14, Luke 14:1-14, Mark 7:1-13, Luke 13:10-17, Luke 13:31-33, Luke 12:1-3, Matthew 5:20, Matthew 16:6-12, Matthew 21:33-47, Matthew 23:1-35, Luke 16:1-15, Luke 18:9-14, Matthew 9:2-7, Matthew 10:9-13, Matthew 9:32-34, John 5:31-32, Mark 12:18-24
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