Lacy Evans
Matthew 23:23 (King James Version)
Pharisees
23Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone
It is semantically clumsy to refer to Pharisees as legalists. Usually it is ineffective in conveying your real meaning. A “legalist” is narrowly defined as one who, in varying degrees holds that the Old Testament/Mosiac law must be followed, in order for a person to be saved. So holding the doctrine that a person must be circumcised, or keep the Sabbath, or follow the Levitical diet, etc. in order to become a Christian, in order to be a “good” Christian, or “show fruit that he is a Christian.” That would be “legalism.”
What the Pharisees did was like taking legalism and feeding it steroids in a lab. Pharisees took the Tanakh (What we call the Old Testament), and added volumes of extra stuff, commentary, rules, more rules governing those rules, etc. This extra stuff, the Mishnah, became binding in their religion. As binding as scripture. After all, God gave us teachers, priests, etc. Shouldn’t we follow them?
Modern Pharisees do similar things with the Christian Scriptures. They take good Biblical precepts, but build upon them elaborate (often beautiful) Christian “Mishnahs.” They add volumes of extra-biblical rules in which to govern our lives. Christianity ceases to be about liberty of soul and becomes a bulky burdensome yoke of rules, regulations, and restrictions.
So a Pharisee will take a 55 MPH speed limit and make that a prohibition against driving. After all if you don’t drive at all, you’ll be sure and never go over 55. Or he take a command to dress modestly and make it into a micro-managed over the top code of dress, which is strictly enforced by severe peer pressure, condescending looks, and impromptu “counseling” sessions. A command to not be “worldly” becomes a plethora of rules that govern art, music, diet, education, employment, entertainment, etc.
The binding of a yoke was for one purpose, to control the ox. A rabbi’s particular teaching was known as his “yoke”. To identify with a teacher or rabbi was to accept his yoke. Jesus said “My yoke is light”. He gives us the freedom to rebel, to mess up, to stumble. He does warn us of the consequences. He, very gently, very patiently, shows us his “yoke” and expects us to accept it, but he never coerces, never harangues, never manipulates. But strictly enforced adherence to the list becomes the mark of holiness. In some extremes it becomes the whole of holiness.
But Christ looks at he heart. Do you think the little boy who is “sitting on the outside but still standing on the inside”, or the woman who “can’t work because she has constant and severe chronic pain, but would go back to work in a second if it were physically possible” are holy because they have been “forced” to conform to a code of behavioral standards? No more holy than a chained up dog who rots away in the back yard dreaming of running away and finding himself a boy so he can finally be a “real” dog.
A “real” dog wants to please his master. He learns tricks and his only source of joy is the praise and adoring love that master, that boy. A dog needs a boy to be a real dog. A chain will keep him in the yard, but a boy will make him want to be home.
The rod is for children. If you never move past it your children will either never grow at all, or they will grow in spite of you and bolt (and rightfully so) from you at first chance, to get away from being treated like a child. I have adult children and absolutely the most dreadful thing I could think of is for them to conform to my “will for them” out of fear or coercion, for them to still try to perform for me to gain my acceptance by playing my game.
I want them to have character. I have to let them go, to let them grow, to let them fail, to let their world come crashing down. BUT they must know too that no matter what, I love them. I will help them if they ask. I will never leave them or forsake them, whatever they may do to screw things up for themselves. The prodigal son wan not berated, manipulated, not warned that if he left the (Fill in the blank) Fundamental Blah Blah local church, that his wife would leave him, he would backslide, and that his life would go to hell in a hand basket. (And that is not a rhetoric laced exaggeration, it’s almost word for word commentary from folks I have counseled.)
No he was treated like an adult. Allowed to try. Allowed to fail. And allowed to repent. Then they threw a party! The older brother was a Pharisee. He just got mad, because though he “kept the code” and never “broke ranks”, the returning son got a party. Think about that!
In Part 2, I will give the twelve signs that you might be a Pharisee.