Some choices are minimal in the severity of consequences they bring to our lives. Still, there is one choice that remains eternally relevant, and that is whether or not we accept the blood sacrifice made by Jesus Christ some two thousand years ago for the redemption of our sins and full payment for our eternal salvation. That choice is, and always will remain… paramount!
However, even in making the decision to become a Christian, many fail to see there is still but one person to follow in this decision and only one personality to emulate. That person is Jesus Christ himself, and all He revealed himself to be within the confines of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. What a simple, wise and precious life, and yet so easily discarded for the heavy religious bondage that preceded him.
After over two thousand years of Christianity, we are still divided by two groups, created by way of two distinct choices. One is the way of Jesus Christ, and the other is the way of the religious Pharisee. Sadly, much of that which is widely accepted today as mainstream, modern Christianity, is really nothing more than the age old path and attitude of the Pharisees. Allow me to list a few characteristics and see if you agree.
Characteristics of a Pharisee
1. A Pharisee glorifies in his connections with Godly men. There are many who connect with someone as a form of Godliness. “We have so and so as our spiritual father.” They may have no holiness themselves, thinking they are holy because they go to a good church or listen to the right preachers. (Matthew 3:9)
2. A Pharisee glories in external righteousness. You must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisee’s, or scripture clearly states we will in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven... (Matthew 5:20)
3. A Pharisee does not mingle with unconverted people. That is not holiness. Jesus was a friend of sinners – not a condemner of them, but a savior unto them. Jesus would have gone to an unconverted relative’s wedding reception. He did not avoid sinners, His righteousness was inside, and not an external display of political correctness. How can we win sinners if we are not friendly to them? (Matthew 9:11)
4. Pharisees are suspicious and assume the worst of others. When we see someone doing something and we assume the worst, we bear the characteristic of a Pharisee. Pharisees are always looking for the wrong in another. (Matthew 12:24)
When you take a closer look at the characteristics found in the actions and words of the religious Pharisee, you begin to see a common denominator present. I often refer to it as the 'caging of the bird' syndrome. Or…stripping away the true freedom that our Lord came specifically to deliver to all of mankind.
At the core of the religious, glass house formula, or ‘caging of the bird’, whereby something beautiful and free is removed from singing in the trees to being confined and watched within the prison of a personal cage, is found the epitome of religious, Pharisee self-righteousness. It brought death to Jesus by way of his physical crucifixion, and it continues to bring spiritual death to the heart of man today.
When Jesus Christ stepped on the scene some two thousand years ago to bring redemption, deliverance, healing and complete freedom to the heart of mankind, he was immediately brought under the close scrutiny of the Pharisee’s religious microscope. Imagine being a young child who is forced to endure the sneers and jokes of other children and their parents because you have been conceived out of wedlock by a woman and her carpenter fiancé, while they attempt to promote you to respectability by saying your birth was foretold by angels and you were not a bastard, but rather “virgin born” by the seed of Jehovah God himself. Selling snow to an Eskimo pales by comparison!
There is no doubt that the religious crowd hated Jesus from the start of his life, until the day they vehemently demanded his crucifixion sentence from Pilate. Their purpose was to catch Him in heresy and blasphemy and eventually use it as evidence against Him at His trial (Luke 20:19-26).
The evidence they presented against Jesus in the form of religious accusation was as follows:
Keeper of bad company - Matthew 9:10-11
Of poor, common-stock - Mark 6:3
Laborer - Mark 6:3
Possessed of Beelzebub - Mark 3:22
From the wrong neighborhood - John 7:41, 52
A deceiver and hypocrite - John 7:10-13
Unlearned - John 7:14-15
Had a persecution complex - John 7:20
Demon possessed--full of the devil - John 7:20, 10:20, 8:48, 52
Provoker to anger - John 7:23
A divider of the people - John 7:43
Unpopular, not recommended by rulers, unrecognized by leaders - John 7:45-49 (v. 48)
False prophet - John 7:50-52
Liar, falsifier - John 8:13
A bastard - John 8:19
Had suicidal tendencies - John 8:22
A half-breed - John 8:48
Dishonorable - John 8:49
Boaster, false representative of God, impostor, self-made man - John 8:53
Ungodly, or cometh not from God - John 9:13-16
A sinner - John 9:13-16
Crazy, insane - John 10:20
Perplexing, causing doubt - John 10:22-24
A blasphemer - John 10:31-33
That’s quite a list! Then again, I’ve never known the conservative, religious, “we’ve got to stand up for what is right” crowd to ever be at a loss for words or judgment. That ball started rolling downhill with their accusations against our Lord, and it’s been gaining speed and righteous indignation across the span of time that has led to the year 2010.
The religious crowd continues to label anyone they disagree with by one, or all of these descriptions on a daily basis. Check on any social internet posting where someone gathers up their holy robes to promote themselves as “conservative, god-fearing, born-again Christians”, ( and the key phrase is…promote themselves) and likely you will find quite frequently in their writings where those who do not walk to the beat of their drum have incurred the same religious slander that was used against Jesus, and continues to be used today. Some say, “Yes, but that was Jesus. Surely you don’t mean to imply that the one I’m writing about is on equal ground with Jesus!”
No, I would say that if the ONE who was perfect can receive such a sentence from the religious…everyone else is fair game to their evil tongue. Beware of the religious heart that Jesus described as “tombs that are painted white.” (Matthew 23:27)
Jesus was kind and patient with those who were lost and hurting in the mud and stain of their sin, but harsh and quick to use the “hypocrite” word when describing those who pretend to know it all in the name of God, but proceed to place unbearable religious yokes on others, while secretly doing worse in their hearts and with their words and judgment toward others.
How did the religious crowd respond? The same as they do now, anytime their authority or interpretation of God and their book of rules is challenged. They would respond to Jesus with, “You were steeped in sin at birth. (a slander against his ‘supposed’ virgin birth) How dare you lecture us!” Then they threw him out! (John 9:34)
Realizing this blog is turning into more of a book than a blog, I say with all love and sincerity today that God’s heart must surely be grieved to see that we have learned little in two thousand years of studying the words and life of His precious son, Jesus Christ.
Surely he weeps tears that stain the floor of Heaven, to see two choices before us, his Son, and the way of the religious Pharisee, and with great fervor we often choose to align ourselves with that group which continually brings a cage to capture the singing bird from God’s tree of freedom.
