Are You a Pharisee?
The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why
are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” – Mark 2:24
Our pastor recently explained that the Pharisees weren’t
priests. They were lay people. Folks like you and me. They were doing all they
could to keep the Jews, Jews by forcing them to follow man-made rules.
The Pharisees fought hard for what they believed was
right. But were they right? They were so focused on their rules, and their
power, that they missed the Messiah. Do we miss Him too?
I am reminded immediately of sweet friends who have
turned radical in this hurtful political climate. They are conservatives –
which is fine – who believe that only they are right and everyone else is “dumb,”
“an idiot,” “un-American,” and on and on. In their hearts they think their
beliefs justify their commentary.
Newsflash: Jesus isn’t a Republican or a Democrat.
Both parties get some things biblically correct and some things biblically
wrong. That’s a sad truth that neither side wants to admit.
The Pharisees hated Jesus because they couldn’t
control Him. Jesus was the authority and He spoke like it. He came and
undermined their laws. He told them things not everyone wanted to hear.
Have you ever been the lone voice against the crowd?
It’s not a fun place, is it? Unfortunately, right doesn’t always get
recognized. The crowd gets so focused on what they want to believe that they
miss the message right in front of them.
Some of the most hateful people I know are active in
their churches. They are loud vocalists on Facebook, sharing derogatory story after
derogatory story. They aren’t interested in truth. Facts mean nothing to them.
If someone says something they agree with, they share it.
Why? They are fearful of what they might lose. Just
like the Pharisees, they have an agenda and it’s not following Jesus. He’s just
an excuse. Unfortunately, His beliefs and theirs aren’t always compatible. That’s
true of both sides of the political debate. We are all so busy being right that
we miss Jesus.
As much as we love Jesus, we don’t always want to do
what He says. We don’t want to love our enemies and we surely don’t want to do
good to them. We want our neighbors to only be Americans who look just like us.
We want to keep our money for ourselves or, at least, only use it to help
people like us. We want freedom but we define it in different ways. We aren’t
willing to compromise, to listen to the other side, to even consider that maybe
we don’t have it all right.
And we wonder why our kids are killing each other. We
wonder why God doesn’t seem to be around. We demand He be put back in our schools
and government even though the first place He needs to be invited back into is
our homes and our hearts.
I don’t know your political beliefs. I don’t even care
what they are. When I try to determine what is right or wrong, I seek truth
from God’s Word. That’s not an excuse to shift words and pull things out of
context to justify my beliefs. It’s an effort to really hear what He says.
Honestly, I don’t always like what He says but that’s what true faith is all
about. It’s putting what God says above what I think.
The next time you’re tempted to turn belligerent or
get angry because someone disagrees with you, take a deep breath and consider
their words and yours. We don’t have to agree in order to be kind. And
sometimes we aren’t as right about what God says as we want to believe.
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