October 14, 2005

JESUS AND THE PHARISEES

Mark 2:13-3:6

Jesus was hugely popular following his preaching tour through Galilee. Great crowds gathered almost everywhere he went. People thronged to see him, to hear him teach, to watch or even be the beneficiary of one of his miracles. This wild, almost unrestrained enthusiasm was often on the brink of running out of control. He couldn’t even enter towns and villages openly for fear of being mobbed.

But in the midst of this great popularity, there was also a growing storm cloud of resistance, of opposition, of conflict and of rejection. While many watched his ministry and were amazed, others watched and listened and were offended. The source of much of this resistance and opposition, interestingly enough, was not the Roman authorities. Nor was it the wicked, the sinners, the evil mafias of Jesus’ day. No. The real opposition came first from within the religious establishment, the religious leaders, the fundamentalists of the Jewish religion. One particular group was in the forefront of the opposition. They were called Pharisees.

The word Pharisees means “separate”. As a group, they took God’s Word (the Old Testament) very seriously indeed. They believed in God, the supernatural, the resurrection, life after death. They believed in the Law and in keeping the Law as the way to be right with God. And as a group, they were eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come. It was the segment of Judaism from which we might have expected Jesus to receive his warmest welcome. But it wasn’t to be. In fact, just the opposite.

In the passage of Scripture in front of us this morning (Mark 2:13 – 3:6) Jesus found himself in conflict with the Pharisees on three different fronts that represented the very pillars of their religious system.

The first point of conflict was over their doctrine and practice of “separateness.” As I’ve said, the very name “Pharisee” means to be separate. They took this very seriously, and refused to have anything to do with people they deemed “unclean”. They defined this category to include not only Gentiles (non-Jews) but also Jews who were not strict observers of the Law. This conflict arose when Jesus called Levi (also known as Matthew) to be his follower. Look at the account in Mark 2:13-14. (Read).

Matthew belonged to a despised group. He was a Jew but he worked for the Romans as a tax collector. Thus he was seen as a traitor who worked for the enemy. Capernaum lay along a major road between Syria and the Mediterranean, a natural place to collect taxes and customs on goods that passed through the region. These tax collectors were also hated because they were often dishonest, and cheated the people by charging higher rates of taxes than required and then pocketing the difference.

But Jesus saw something in Levi or Matthew. Maybe he had been in the crowds that listened to Jesus teaching, or possibly he had witnessed some of the miracles Jesus had performed. So when Jesus invited him to follow him, like Peter and Andrew and James and John, he left everything to follow Jesus. The very first thing Matthew did was to throw a big party in Jesus’ honor and invite all his friends. Now, this is where the conflict with the Pharisees arose. Who were Matthew’s friends? Matthew had been ostracized by the religious people since he became a tax collector. So his friends would have been fellow tax collectors and others who somehow fell outside the sphere of respectability. But Jesus went into his home with his disciples and sat down and ate with them.

The Pharisees were scandalized. Look at verse 16: When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and “sinners” Conflict #1.

The second issue that put Jesus at odds with the Pharisees was that of religious fasting. It’s kind of an interesting issue to consider right at this time of year! We find it in verse 18: Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus: “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

This may have followed immediately upon the last story. It may have been that Matthew’s feast for his friends fell on one of the days that the Pharisees were fasting. It is important to understand here that the Old Testament only commanded one fast during the year. That was on the Day of Atonement to show mourning for sin. Yet the Pharisees had kept adding to that until some of them made a practice of fasting two days out of every week. For them, it became an act of meritorious ritual observance: An external act that was believed to somehow achieve merit with God or atone for sinful actions. And when Jesus and his followers did not conform it became Conflict # 2.

The third issue over which Jesus and the Pharisees clashed was that of Sabbath observance. The keeping of the Sabbath was one of the laws of the Old Covenant that the people of Israel had frequently ignored and violated, and was a prime cause in their being sent into exile. Because of that, in the period of time between the Testaments, the Pharisees had moved to strengthen Sabbath keeping. When the pendulum swung, it swung with a vengeance. The effort to keep the Sabbath was one of the cornerstones of Phariseeism. An entire section of their Mishnah, their commentary on the Law, was given over to laws of what constituted breaking the Sabbath.

One day Jesus’ disciples fell afoul of their rules. (Read Mark 2:23-24). What was the issue here? The law made it clear that people who were walking through a field had the right, if they were hungry, to take from the standing crop. They were not allowed to use any implements, or carry anything away in a container. But they could take what they could eat on the spot. That was not the problem. The problem was that it was the Sabbath. Now the Old Testament actually only forbade work on the Sabbath. It was the Pharisees who went on to define what was work and what was not. What Jesus’ disciples were doing was taking ripe heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and then eating the raw grains. Not a great snack, but better than nothing if you’re really hungry. The Pharisees had laws that defined such actions as “harvesting, threshing and winnowing.” Therefore it was work. Therefore they were breaking the law.

Now it is interesting to note that the text does not say that Jesus did this. Only that his disciples did. But Jesus defended them. And this interaction brings us to Conflict #3.

So, these were the battle lines, the points of conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees. But really, these points of conflict were only symptomatic of a much deeper conflict. This conflict lay in the area of identity and perception and belief. Two issues were really at stake. Who is Jesus and Who are the Pharisees?

First of all, let’s consider the question: Who Is Jesus? I believe this is central to the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees, because in answering each of these points of conflict with the Pharisee, Jesus kept coming back to the issue of his own identity. In so doing he makes some remarkable claims.

Let’s look at how Jesus answered the question of why he ate with tax collectors and sinners. On hearing this, Jesus said to them: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (verse 17)

According to that verse, who is Jesus? He is the doctor. He is the physician. He came to heal the sick. He has been doing that physically. But in this case, he is obviously speaking metaphorically. The sick in this case are not physically sick. They are spiritually and morally sick. They are “tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus said, “I came for them, because they are the ones who need me. Just as I have the power to heal those who are physically sick, so I have the power to heal those who are spiritually and morally sick.” With that powerful metaphor, Jesus proclaimed two important truths. First, he has the power to forgive sins. This, as we saw last week, is a power that belongs only to God. So it is equivalent to a claim to be God. The second important truth is that no one is beyond the reach of his healing touch. His compassion and his power to heal extend to the outcasts, the social and moral rejects of the community. He is able to heal the spiritual leper, just as he healed the physical leper. Jesus is the Great Physician.

How did Jesus answer the Pharisees’ accusation pertaining to Conflict Point # 2? This is the matter of fasting which was brought to his attention by both the John the Baptist’s disciples and the Pharisees. That is important to remember, because of the way Jesus answers. Once again, he makes his own identity the central issue. Look at verses 19-20. (Read Mark 2:19-20)

I think in Jesus’ answer, he is particularly reaching out to John the Baptist’s disciples. You may recall that in his preaching, John the Baptist referred to the coming Messiah as the Bridegroom, while John himself was only the Bridegroom’s friend or Best Man. Using that metaphor, Jesus now says, “The Bridegroom has come. Now it is time for the Bridegroom’s friends to celebrate and feast.” By adopting John the Baptist’s language and metaphor it is a clear Messianic claim. “I am the Bridegroom. I am the Messiah. Forget about fasting for a while and celebrate with me!”

It is interesting that Jesus uses this occasion to make a prediction, a prophecy about his coming death. It is the first such prophecy recorded in the book of Mark. The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them… The word used for “taken away” is a strong word that means “forcibly snatched away”. That will be a time for fasting and grief, but not now.

Once again, Jesus bypasses the technical, legal question and goes right to the heart of the issue; the issue of his identity. “Don’t you recognize who I am? I am the Messiah. I am the Bridegroom. Come on! Let’s celebrate!” Jesus is the Bridegroom.

He does the same thing in the matter of Sabbath observance. In this case, his claim is stunning in its boldness. (Read Mark 2:25-28) There are really two parts to this claim. What is the relevance of the incident of David in the Old Testament? I believe the issue was one of David’s rank. Because of who David was, as God’s anointed king, the Pharisees and other legal scholars of the Old Testament never even thought to question whether he had the right to eat the show bread. He not only ate it himself, but he gave it to his followers. The parallel is clear. It was Jesus’ disciples who were eating from the grain on the Sabbath. They are the followers in the story, which makes Jesus the “David” in the story. Now a greater than David has come. Lest they miss the subtlety of the analogy, Jesus says it in clear language. The Son of Man (referring to himself) is Lord even of the Sabbath. It is another stunning claim to deity. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.

Who is Jesus? That was the central question of the conflict. The Pharisees kept trying to sidetrack him onto issues of technical rules and legal debates. Jesus refused to be sidetracked. Every issue they raise, he keeps bringing back to the question of identity. Don’t you realize who I am?

The Pharisees: Why are you eating with sinners?

Jesus: I am the Great Physician.

The Pharisees: Why don’t your disciples fast?

Jesus: I am the Bridegroom (Messiah).

The Pharisees: Why do your followers do what is unlawful on the Sabbath?

Jesus: I am the Lord of the Sabbath.

Who is Jesus? It is the central issue. But I said, earlier in the sermon, that two identity issues were at stake. The first was Who Is Jesus? The second is Who are the Pharisees?

I’ve already identified them historically. What I’m really talking about here is the matter of perception. How did the Pharisees perceive themselves and how did that compare with Jesus’ perception of them?

To address that question, let’s go back to a statement Jesus made in Mark 2:17: Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Who are “the healthy” and “the righteous” that Jesus is talking about in that verse? In Jesus’ metaphor of himself as the Great Physician, who are the ones who do not need a doctor? I believe the Pharisees would have classed themselves in that category. This was their perception of themselves. They did not need a Savior, because they had their own righteousness. They were good enough in their own merit.

This merit was based on several pillars. First, they kept themselves separated from “sinners”. They would not socialize, mingle or eat with people they deemed morally unclean. Second, they engaged in meritorious works of ritual observance. Fasting was only one of many such observances. Others included reciting prayers, tithing, ritual washing, and so on. Thirdly, they were scrupulous in Sabbath keeping, that cornerstone of Jewish religious identity.

This was their perception of themselves. But what was Jesus’ perception of them? What does the Scripture say? There is no one righteous, not even one…For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:10,23)

That is the witness of Scripture concerning all men, including the Pharisees. But in this account, Jesus himself moves to expose the evil in their hearts in the first paragraph of Mark 3. Once again, the issue is Sabbath keeping.

(Read Mark 3:1-6)

The Pharisees thought they had set a trap for Jesus. But Jesus instead turned the tables on them and used the incident to expose the evil of their own hearts. They were waiting to see if Jesus would heal this man with the crippled hand on the Sabbath. Jesus could have avoided the confrontation by simply waiting a day, and healed the man without controversy. But he seized the opportunity to reveal what was in their hearts. He asks the question: Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? Now what is the contrast that Jesus had in mind? What was the evil he was speaking about? Some say that Jesus simply meant that failure to do good on the Sabbath was to do evil, that to leave the man unhealed on the Sabbath was the equivalent of killing him.

But I don’t think that is what Jesus is saying. Who was it who had evil in their hearts that day? Who was it that was contemplating murder on the Sabbath? The Pharisees were watching for a reason to accuse Jesus. When he gave it to them by healing the man on the Sabbath, what did they do? It’s there in verse 6: Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot…how they might kill him. Do you see how far off track they had become? Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. They plotted to kill a man on the Sabbath. And they thought they were the righteous ones! No wonder Jesus looked around at them with anger and was grieved at the hardness of their hearts.

The Pharisees perceived themselves as righteous. But the righteousness they claimed was a purely external righteousness. It was a blind allegiance to and observance of an external code of conduct that left their hearts untouched.

Who is Jesus? By his own claims, he is the Great Physician, the Bridegroom, the Lord of the Sabbath.

Who were the Pharisees? More specifically, were they the healthy who needed no doctor? By their own perception, yes. But by Jesus’ perception, no. They were sick with the disease of the heart called sin. They needed the physician every bit as much as the tax collectors and other “sinners”. What is more, Jesus was every bit as willing and able to heal them spiritually as he was Matthew and his friends. But the tragedy was, they made two disastrous errors. In their pride, they failed to recognize and acknowledge their own spiritual need. They therefore failed to recognize Jesus as the only one who could meet their need.

Sadly, it is an error that many people still make today. That brings me to the final question. Who are you? More specifically, are you a Pharisee? Are you relying on your own righteousness to earn your way to heaven? Are you attempting to atone for your shortcomings by external acts of religious observance? Do you perceive yourself as one of the healthy ones who has no need of a doctor? If so, you are making a terrible mistake. I sometimes wonder whether more people have been kept out of the Kingdom of Heaven by a love of religion than by a love for sin.

In Jesus’ powerful metaphors, the blessed ones are the sick, who need a doctor and know it, and come to the Great Physician for healing. They are the Bridegroom’s friends, who recognize the pre-eminence of the Bridegroom and rejoice in his presence.

Who is Jesus? Who are you? They are the two most important questions you will ever answer.