Here in the church I'd like to poke fun at some of the straight-laced, self-righteousness that passes for Christianity. So, behold, I bring you the Pharisee joke! For instance, you might be a Pharisee if you've ever shouted, "Amen!" more than 51 times during a single sermon on somebody else's sin. You might be a Pharisee if you think the only music God listens to is at least 100 years old ... if you're sure nobody has ever had to forgive you ... if your black leather Thompson Chain Reference Bible is so big it takes two hands to hold it up. You might be a Pharisee if you think the world would be a better place if everyone were just like you ... if you think Jesus might have overstepped his bounds when he turned water into wine ... if you think big hair is a sign of holiness ... if you go to church to prove you're good!
Seriously, in the Gospels Jesus issues three bewares to his disciples. Mark 8:15, "Beware the leaven of the Herodians." Such were Jews who went along with the occupying army of Rome that they might prosper materially. To them nothing was more important than property, career, and money.
Jesus also said, "Beware the leaven of the Sadducees" (Matthew 16:6). Theirs was the problem of liberalism. Discounting scripture, such Jews did not believe in angels, spirits, or even the resurrection. (This is why they were so sad, you see.)
The third beware is of the leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:6). Their leaven was legalism. Taking the Ten Commandments and interpreting them, these Jewish believers constructed a code of over 5,000 laws to ensnarl life. By following their code they understood they were earning God's love, deserving salvation, and even putting God in their debt. The depth of their sin was most evident in their refusal to admit their helplessness. They believed they were somehow good enough to earn salvation.
The word "Pharisee" is Greek and literally means "separated ones." At the time of Christ the Pharisetical sect was the most powerful group among all Hebrews. While the Herodians and Sadducee sects were snobbishly standoffish, the Pharisees were the sect of the common people. Theirs was a quest to make the law of God practical daily bread, not cake for special occasions. Never numbering more than five or six thousand in number, the Pharisees did their best to live morally and involve God in every detail of their lives, be it how and what they ate, whom they married, or how they dressed.
In their day, the Pharisees were much admired by the common people. Their zeal for traditional Jewish values, their strict lifestyle, placed them on a pedestal of respect. When Jesus came and ministered he frequently ran into the Pharisees -- in the temple, at funerals, at weddings, in synagogues. The New Testament tells us that the Pharisees, the best Bible students of their generation, the best behaved, became the constant opponents of Jesus Christ and, in the end, actually plotted Jesus' death.
Today, we who know the scriptures and share a commitment to God would do well to learn from the mistakes of the Pharisees lest we, too, come to oppose the works of God in our generation.
Following are 26 soul-searching questions you may use to see if what troubled the Pharisees troubles you.
1. Are you increasing in pride or humility? In 49 A.D. Paul, a Pharisee, converted to Jesus Christ, went up to Jerusalem to discuss the gospel with the apostles. Of the meeting Paul wrote, "They added nothing to me." Such arrogance began to melt, however, as the Holy Spirit began to work on his character. Six years later he called himself "least of the apostles" and confessed, "Now we see through a glass darkly" (1 Corinthians 13:12). In A.D. 60, he wrote, "I am the least of the saints" (Ephesians 3:8). In A.D. 65, "I am the chief of sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15). Then, near life's end, he wrote, "I do not consider that I have attained it" (Philippians 3:12).
2. Are you hypocritical? Jesus said the Pharisees "do not practice what they preach." He called them hypocrites who bind huge burdens upon others which they refused to lift themselves (Matthew 23:2-4, 15). Saying one thing and doing another is the bane of being religious, isn't it? How easy it is to condemn a woman pregnant out of wedlock, then go home and watch a pornographic film. Or, don't we get angry over someone else's thievery, yet dismiss our behavior when we snitch stamps at the office?
3. Do you have faith in your ideas and traditions about God instead of a relationship with the Living God? Paul observed the Pharisees were "zealous for the traditions of my fathers" (Galatians 1:14). Once, when Jesus ate with the Pharisees, he didn't wash his hands first. And they became so incensed they rejected him (Matthew 15:1-2). Think of it! Their form, ritual, and traditions stood in the way of their knowing Jesus the person.
4. Are you inclined to see what's wrong with everything? Do you have a critical spirit? Jesus healed on the Sabbath. The Pharisees said, "No!" He ate with a harlot. The Pharisees said, "No!" He ate with unwashed hands. "No!" He cast a demon out. "No!" the Pharisees chorused.
In Luke 7:32, Jesus observed that this generation is like school children who pipe and their friends won't dance, who wail and their chums won't cry. "There is no pleasing you!" We simply find something wrong with everything.
John Wesley pointed out that every gift God gives man is quickly sullied by human hands. He said every revival comes with defects. So he'd pray, "Lord, send revival without the defects." But then he told the Lord, "If you won't do it, then send the revival with the defects."
Pharisees only see the smoke, never the fire. They complain about defects, never seeing the revival. Negative, critical persons, they are judgmental.
5. Do you have a martyr syndrome? In Matthew 6:16 Jesus explained how the Pharisees, while fasting, would screw their faces up in misery to call attention to their sacrificial devotion. "Don't do it," Jesus commanded.
Isn't it easy to say, "Oh, woe is me! I'm the only one. Pity me, suffering for Jesus, I am. So persecuted. So misunderstood!"
6. Do you crave recognition? The Pharisees loved to grab the best seats in the synagogue or at a table feast. They sewed bells on their robes so you'd hear them coming, even provided a trumpet fanfare before they made an offering.
Isn't it easy to show off like that? "Look at me! See my zeal for God? Hear my amen? Watch me lift my hands to Jesus in worship! Am I being spiritual or what?!"
7. Do you believe you are closer to God than others? Luke 18:9 says of the Pharisees, "Confident of their own righteousness, they looked down on everybody else." Isn't it true we judge others for their flaws, ourselves by our virtues, and always get such nice comparisons? And soon we start to believe we're special and God's opinions are the same as ours.
8. Do you have a "That's him!" attitude or a "That's me!" attitude? Luke 18:10 and following is a parable about two men who went to pray in the temple. A sinful tax collector stood in a corner and, confessing his sins, asked for mercy.
He had one eye on God and one eye on himself. The Pharisee, however, stood up front and center, looked to heaven, and bragged to himself, "I thank you, God, that I'm not like other men. I tithe, fast, pray...." He had one eye on himself, one eye on his neighbor, and no eye on God. Aren't we perfectly capable of hearing a good sermon and thinking, "Boy, he really gave it to them today, didn't he?"
9. Are you constantly wallowing in guilt? Do you have feelings that you can never measure up? Are you driven instead of called? Do you feel compelled to work for God? To be clever? To be a super star instead of a super servant? Are you trying to go out and take Billy Graham's place?
Paul, writing of his days as a Pharisee trying to earn salvation, wrote, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" The Pharisee, motivated by guilt, works to prove he is righteous. The Christian, motivated by gratitude, works in the joy of the Lord.
10. Are you repulsed by emotional extravagance? Once a prostitute knelt at Christ's feet, wetting them with her tears and drying them with her long hair. The Pharisees were utterly scornful. Later, during Jesus' donkey-bourn triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Pharisees demanded Jesus squelch the enthusiasms of the adoring crowd. How do I react when in worship others weep, raise adoring hands, or leap for joy? Do I recoil in critical judgment, saying, "I don't like it!"? Or do I ask instead, "What does Jesus think of it?" Is it okay if God blesses someone else in worship?
11. Do you use emotion as a substitute for the Holy Spirit? Paul wrote in Romans 10:2, "I bear them witness, they have a zeal for God." My! My! How the Pharisees could turn it on! Tears at funerals, anger at Christ's Sabbath healings, dancing at festivals. But it was canned religion, calculated to say, "Look! See how much I care!" Beware lest our amens, our raised hands, our tears, be self-generated congratulations instead of true acts of worship.
12. Do you glory in the past? Do I relish so much what God has done that I reject what he is doing? The Pharisees stood before Jesus and haughtily remarked, "We have Abraham as our Father" (Matthew 3:9). A man and movement of God 1,000 years earlier thrilled them more than what God was doing under their noses.
Take Christian music. How George Beverly Shea could sing gospel music in the 1950s! But when we hear contemporary Christian music by Amy Grant, isn't it easy to sniff, "Her music is of the devil!"
13. Are you addicted to self-help pop psychology? Are you basing God's love for you on performance or grace? In Romans 7:7-25 Paul wrote of his days of trying to earn salvation with good behavior. He used "I," "me," and "my" 46 times in eighteen verses, complaining of his utter wretchedness in trying to change. Then in Romans 8:1-17 he wrote of "the Spirit" fifteen times in seventeen verses, reveling in God's free and intervening help in his life.
A Pharisee tries to fix himself. A Christian trusts God to do it. Check out your local bookstore. The self-help section is huge! Diet, stress-relief, looks, money, relationships. If the twin results of the fall are fear and pride, you see it focused here. Fear -- of health, looks, weight, money matters. Pride -- I'll fix it! Just give me a few weeks! I can measure up!
14. Do you bring division or lasting works? Mark 2:16 tells of Christ's meal with the ignorant, harlots, tax gatherers, outcasts, misfits, and lawbreakers. The Pharisees wouldn't join him; they dismissed the entire group as foolish and waved others away.
Still today we can use our influence to tear everything apart that's not perfect, not our taste, not up to our standards, not ... not ... not...! Yet criticism is the easiest part of any job! But patience, mercy, covenanting, laboring -- this is the real work. It's, "What have you built?" Not, "What have you criticized?"
15. Will you take correction? The Pharisees wouldn't. When Jesus corrected them they were "offended" (Matthew 15:1-2). They were not "coachable." They had arrogant, independent spirits. Me? Will I take correction in how I relate to others? In child rearing? In my comprehension of the Gospel?
16. Do you believe you have been appointed by God to fix everything? Read Mark 2 and 3. Jesus is at work. Healing. Exorcizing. Plucking grain. Discipling twelve men. And the Pharisees are there constantly yammering, "No! No! No! This is not proper!" Am I like that? Fussier than God? Nothing is ever good enough?
17. Is your prayer life mechanical? Jesus spoke of how our prayers can be public, full of vain repetition, nothing but heaped up empty words. But prayer is not a formula. It is a dialogue between two people who love each other -- Father God and a child of faith.
18. Do you believe you are on the cutting edge? John 7:47-48 tells of the crowds flocking to see Jesus. The Pharisees are jealous. When someone asks their opinion, they huff, "None of us have believed in him!" Isn't it too easy to believe we have a lock on truth, that our ministry is the best, that if God was going to do anything he'd surely do it through us?
Just read the church advertisements in the papers: "Home of Old Time Religion." "The State's Most Exciting Church!" "The County's Fastest Growing Church!"
19. Are you bossy? The religious Jews ordered people about. Report this. Stop that. They even ordered Jesus' arrest (John 11:57). Behold! The god-complex! "Follow me! I'm not lost! I know the best way!" "Just sit and listen! I'll lower some advice to you!"
20. Are you intolerant? Acts 15:5 speaks of a controversy in the early church. The issue was over whether a person must be circumcised before being baptized into Christ. The Pharisees who'd trusted Jesus were saying their way was the only proper means. Still today, don't we quibble over the form of baptism? Or how renewal comes only through Bill Gothard's Institute, through Experiencing God book studies, through the Toronto Blessing, or through Promise Keepers? "It happened to me like this. It was so right for me. Therefore it must be so right for you!" And suddenly my way is the only way.
21. Do you have pride in comparisons? "Our church musical is the best in the city!" "Our preacher is a doctor!" "Our church is the most prestigious." The Pharisees were into that sort of thing. "Spiritual peacockery," I call it.
22. Are you unmerciful? Sticklers for the law, the Pharisees caught a woman in the act of adultery and gathered to stone her (John 8). In Matthew 23:23 and following, Jesus complained that they "neglected mercy." A real test of our character, of any church, is how it handles moral failure -- the imprisoned, AIDs victims, unwed mothers, liars. An emotionally troubled woman, struggling with alcohol abuse, says, "Most churches you go to when it's all okay. If things are bad you stay home. This church is different. Everybody comes here hurting and it's okay." O Lord, may it ever be!
23. Are you suspicious of new movements? The Pharisees watched Jesus cast out demons and said it was a sham (Matthew 9:34). Their attitude was that if God were going to do something in town, he'd clear it first with them.
24. Are you offended when you are addressed without the use of a proper title? Pharisees loved to be called Rabbi, Master, Father, Teacher (Matthew 23:7). Today it is Reverend, Doctor, Bishop.
Geoffrey Chaucer, in Canterbury Tales, wrote of preachers and roosters having much in common. "They love to strut in public and preen. And they're both given to crowing at certain hours each day." Jesus said, "The greatest among you shall be your servant."
25. Do you over-react when you see carnality? The Pharisees were a sin patrol. Like a smoke alarm constantly sniffing for smoke, they patrolled society for sin -- sexual sin, dietary sin, Sabbath sin. And when they found it, they went off like they'd never seen it before! Come on! Get real! Just look inside. It's all there! Aren't we all sinners?
26. Do you glory in anything but Jesus and the cross? Jeremiah 9:23-25 warns, "Thus saith the Lord, 'Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, or the strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord ...' " 1 Corinthians 1:31 says, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord!"
Never, "I did it!" Always, "God did it!"
Conclusion
First Corinthians 10:12, "Let every man that thinks he stands take heed of himself lest he fall," invites a serious self-examination. And, ouch! I find so much of the Pharisees in my own character. It seems that Satan has tried to substitute human effort for Christ's spiritual work in my life. The results are unflattering. Self-righteousness for grace, pride instead of humility, cleverness instead of the cross. And if I don't combat it in Jesus, I'll become a wolf instead of a lamb.
In the late 1960s a soldier returned from Vietnam with a war bride. They made their home in rural Virginia. And they went to church. He was suffering post-battle stress syndrome and drinking heavily. She was Asian, lonely, and struggling to understand American society. The town shunned her. She was "different." It was whispered she'd gotten pregnant to trap a husband and escape Saigon. People would not let their children play with hers. No one rang her phone. She grew depressed and finally killed her child and herself.
At her funeral the Lord asked the pastor, "Where are your sheep?" He gave no reply. The Lord asked a second time, "Where are your sheep?" And the pastor said, "I don't have any sheep. I have a pack of wolves!" What of us? What of us? Will we be Jesus' lambs or self-made wolves? The one is the product of grace. The other of demons and self.