Are you a Pharisee? Perhaps in the modern day this question doesn’t make much sense; therefore, perhaps it should be rephrased to say are you like a Pharisee? So, what or who is or was a Pharisee?
“Pharisee. An important Jewish group which flourished in Palestine from the late second century B.C. to the late first century A.D (Elwell, p.913).”
Various historical sources provide insight to the Pharisees; however, at this time I will reference the New Testament as a source. The very few documented words spoken by Jesus in the New Testament mention the Pharisees. Some of the things Jesus said about the Pharisees almost define the type of people they were; furthermore, Jesus almost sets a guideline to what a Pharisee was with relevance to human conduct. I will not dwell o all things Jesus spoke with relevance to the Pharisees. In fact, I am just going to dwell on one chapter from the book of Mathews.
Mathew 23:1-39 reads as follows:
"Mat 23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat,
Mat 23:3 so practice and observe whatever they tell you--but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice.
Mat 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
Mat 23:5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,
Mat 23:6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues
Mat 23:7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.
Mat 23:8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Mat 23:9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
Mat 23:10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
Mat 23:11 The greatest among you shall be your servant.
Mat 23:12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Mat 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Mat 23:14 [Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation.]
Mat 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Mat 23:16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.'
Mat 23:17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?
Mat 23:18 And you say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.'
Mat 23:19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
Mat 23:20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
Mat 23:21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it.
Mat 23:22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
Mat 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
Mat 23:24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
Mat 23:25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Mat 23:26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Mat 23:27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Mat 23:29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,
Mat 23:30 saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
Mat 23:31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
Mat 23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
Mat 23:33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Mat 23:34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,
Mat 23:35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
Mat 23:36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Mat 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!
Mat 23:38 See, your house is left to you desolate.
Mat 23:39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" Mat 13:52 And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old(Holy Bible, ESV)."’
Well, I just had you read the entire chapter 23, and I am sure that you understand some of the highlights of what defines a Pharisee or a Scribe. I think that we can ask ourselves questions that would determine if indeed we are like a Pharisee or a Scribe. For example, the first question could be, do we practice what we preach? Do we place burdens on others that we wouldn’t carry ourselves? Do we perform deeds to be seen by others, or is it to be seen by God? This one question is very interesting, and perhaps why Jesus said in Mathew 6:3 “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing…” Are we more concerned with outward appearances or just how spiritual we appear to others instead of how spiritual we really are? What it all boils down to be are we hypocrites? I think these questions can serve as a guideline to determine if we are really spiritual by Jesus’ definition. I believe that this discourse by Jesus in Mathew 23 is really timeless. Perhaps one could say that Pharisees were just historical figures; however, the actions that Jesus described that they did are still alive this day an age. I say these things so that we can conduct a self-analysis of ourselves (you and me), and If indeed we discover that we are like the Pharisees then we should repent and turn our lives in a more positive direction that Jesus desired from us. In conclusion, lets practice what we preach.
References:
Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Edition. Grand Rapids,
MI: Baker Academic, 2001.
Holy Bible, ESV.