On Becoming a Pharisee

(Based on Luke 6:1-11)

Jesus stood on the edge of the grain field with His disciples standing behind Him. He stared back at the group of Pharisees, a Jewish religious sect, even as they confronted Him in anger. They were demanding to know why the disciples were doing something on the Sabbath day that was against the law. They were plucking heads of grain out of the fields, rubbing them between their hands, and eating the grain. The Pharisees were wanting to know why Jesus was permitting them to do this because according to the law of God, this constituted work which was strictly forbidden on the Sabbath. This is how the Pharisees interpreted the law.

Jesus answers back with a question of His own, “Haven’t you read the account of how David (I Samuel 21) was hungry along with those who were with him, and he went into the tabernacle and took the consecrated bread, which only the priests are supposed to eat, and ate it along with his companions?” (My paraphrase) Jesus was asking the Pharisees to stop and think about what they were focused on. Jesus was asking, Does not satisfying hunger override the need to follow rules that call for inactivity? The Pharisees’ rules went beyond establishing a spiritual precedent for rest to the point where they denied the meeting of needs in the name of upholding an impossible standard of inaction on the Sabbath day. Jesus looks at the Pharisees and declares Himself to be the divine Son of God in human flesh, and Lord of the Sabbath. Therefore, His disciples could satisfy their hunger by pulling heads of grain on the Sabbath. This does not go over well with the Pharisees, as we read on.

In verses 6-11, we find Jesus teaching in a synagogue on another Sabbath day. In the congregation is a man with a withered right hand. His condition, no doubt, left him incapable of earning a living, especially if he was right-handed. In that same congregation, there were a number of Jewish teachers of the Law, along with Pharisees. They were there to see if Jesus would violate their laws governing work on the Sabbath by healing this disabled man. Jesus calls the man forward to stand before Him. The man with the withered hand is anticipating a healing, while the Pharisees and scribes, as they were also known, are anticipating an opportunity to pounce on Jesus for violating their Sabbath rules.

Jesus is well aware of all this, and so He looks around at these religious leaders with a combined anger and grief. He was angry because here was a man whose life was in ruins from a disability and they cared nothing about that. He is grieved at the hardness of their hearts because they let legalism brought on by their many rules they added to the Law totally take over their thinking. They had no mercy in their hearts for anyone in need. Jesus poses another question to them “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?” (NASB) His question zeroes in on the attitude of the scribes and Pharisees, who saw their authority to interpret the Law the way they did challenged by Jesus. When Jesus gives the order to the man to stretch out his hand, and it’s restored, the man gets his life back, but the scribes and Pharisees are enraged. They promptly form a huddle to determine what they might do to Jesus.

Are there Pharisees today? Yes, of different sorts. There’s the fundamentalist Christian legalist who has an issue with everything from women’s attire to activity other than a nap on Sunday afternoon. This is someone who’s quick to judge and condemn anyone who doesn’t follow their standards of conduct to the letter. There’s the strict adherent to another religion that calls for “holy war” against all “infidels” who don’t accept their religion’s teachings, or to a religion that will tolerate no rivals within their country, and persecutes anyone who doesn’t follow it. Then there’s the leaders of the woke cancel culture who call for the silencing of everyone who doesn’t support their agendas. These Pharisees also demand applause and approval for their lifestyles (particularly LGBTQ+ activists) regardless of other people’s convictions concerning such things. These and other Pharisees, like those in Jesus’ day, are characterized by a lack of compassion, mercy, and grace extended toward those who disagree. They can have murderous hatred for those who offend them, particularly those of other religions besides Christianity, and the woke culture. They can be government bureaucrats, lawyers and judges, corporate executives, educators, media persons, and religious clerics.

So, how do we respond to these Pharisees when we encounter them? By following Jesus’ example and asking appropriate questions about what they stand for. Questions could include “Why do you feel so strongly about this issue? What happened to you in the past that led you to this system of beliefs? What kind of relationship did you have with your father? Such questions can get at the heart of the matter, especially if those questioned have difficulty answering.

What happens when we identify a Pharisee within ourselves. We must recognize several things about this and turn away from them. 1) When we become so fixated on a written code that isn’t scriptural that so blinds us to the need to show mercy and kindness to others when it’s called for, we need to lay it aside. 2) When we become so focused on keeping a strict set of rules that we lose all sense of compassion and concern for the people who may become damaged or violated by them, especially if they’re our rules and not ones we read in Scripture. 3)When we become so enraged by anyone’s violating our principles or code of conduct, taking offense at the slightest infraction, that we seek to do harm to the offender, up to and including violence. When we’ve reached this point, we know we are a Pharisee of the worst kind.

So how do we avoid becoming Pharisees? By acknowledging Jesus Christ as fully man and fully God, and recognizing HIs Lordship over everything. This means receiving Him as Lord and Savior, understanding that is the only way we can be made right with God. We also need to allow Jesus to determine for us how we are to live and function from day to day in accordance with His written Word, the Bible. That’s how we avoid becoming a Pharisee.