Self-centred righteousness
This week's study is on Matthew 9:32-34:
When we read the New Testament, it's easy to make villains of the Pharisees and miss the lessons it teaches us through them. It's easy to see their mistakes as obvious because we have the benefit of hindsight, and because we assume bad motives when we read about them. But if we see them as "others" and not as people like us, we fall into the same trap they fell into, in presupposing that we're the righteous ones and ignoring anything that suggests otherwise.
The Pharisees wanted very badly to be seen as righteous by God and the people around them. They were the pillars of their community, church leaders, often wealthy and successful people. They were highly educated in theology and the political correctness of their day. They invested in social causes, memorised scripture, and did lots of other things that good Christians these days do. And yet from their perspective, Jesus was trouble. Why?
Jesus called out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He pointed out how their they had deviated from the righteousness God had asked of them and he modelled how life should be if they were obedient to what He had asked. But from the perspective of the Pharisees, they were already righteous. Someone like Jesus doing different things and telling others not to act like the Pharisees came across to them as though he was a tool of the devil, causing division in the church, creating doubt in the traditions they'd built, and distracting people from the one true path they'd spent their lives blazing. Rather than having a God-centred perspective on righteousness, they had a church-centred perspective. In other words, righteousness was defined in their eyes by how they acted and what they taught, not by what God wanted and what God had said to mankind.
We can see this in this week's verses. A man who couldn't talk and who was tormented by demons was completely healed and set free. How cool is that? Imagine how much better that man's life was after encountering Jesus. Imagine how much better his family and friends' lives were now that he could talk to them and wasn't being used by evil spirits to cause trouble. Everyone who saw what Jesus did was amazed and happy about it, except for the Pharisees.
From the perspective of the Pharisees, Jesus was evil. If you were convinced someone was evil, or crazy, or a troublemaker, and they did something miraculous, how would you interpret it? Would you throw out everything you thought about that person and suddenly see them as a great example? The Pharisees were so invested in presupposing that they were righteous and that Jesus was the problem that they not only missed the miracle but accused God of being in league with the Devil! That's about as wrong as you can get!
But despite having a clear example of how crazy it is, we see this kind of behaviour today. A church will get set in its ways, or a Christian will settle into a sort of comfortable nest of self-righteousness, and then when someone different from them begins having a successful ministry they're like "that can't be of God. It seems demonic to me." It's the same church-centred or self-centred definition of righteousness that the Pharisees used! The Pharisees were people just like us, so it shouldn't be surprising that the same traps catch us all.
Not everything miraculous is from God, but "I don't know" is a perfectly good answer if someone asks you to explain something that defies your sense of how God works. It would have been so much better for the Pharisees, or for us, to ask "are we really that bad?" when Jesus called them out, or to say "I don't know" when someone asked how Jesus did what he did. It's when we make up explanations to make ourselves or our church look good that we get into problems and start down the path to being modern Pharisees.
The Pharisees presupposed their own righteousness, but look at the difference in results between their traditions and Jesus' actions. What did the Pharisees have to offer the mute, demon-possessed man besides condemnation and exclusion? Would a speechless man who acts out on occasion have been welcome in their synagogues? Would he have been trusted with ministry? Would he have been able to study in their schools? At best they would have done the same thing we do for troublesome people: throw money at him and pat themselves on the back for helping.
Jesus, on the other hand, set him free. As far as we know, there were no conditions or lectures involved. He asked, and he was healed and set free. Theologically speaking, at least from an Old Testament perspective, that's problematic, and kind of unrealistic. And yet Jesus did it anyway. Rather than having a goal of looking good for the crowd or proving his religion to be the most correct, his goal was to love and help the troubled man.
It's a clear difference when you read the verses again. The Pharisee attitude, when they saw Jesus doing something wonderful, was to ask themselves "what is his problem now? How can we dismiss him?" Jesus, on the other hand, when encountering someone who really did have problems gave of himself in order to help him out. We should examine our actions and inner thoughts to see which of those sounds more like us.
Ironically, most people react like Pharisees when they read the stories of what the Pharisees did. "Thank God I'm not like those stupid Pharisees, who were used by the Devil. Our church traditions are better than theirs and better than any other denomination, because we really study what God wants. I hate those Pharisees and God does too." Instead of seeing it that way, be thankful for the example as a way to examine ourselves. The only thing worse than falling in to the traps they fell into is falling into their same traps despite the ample warnings their stories give us.
When God moves, which perspective would you rather have? "Wow, nothing like this has ever happened before!" or "That's demonic. Let's make sure that never happens again." It all depends on whether our view of righteousness is centred on what God does, or on what we and our church have done so far.
As they were going away, a man who could not talk and was demon-possessed was brought to him. After the demon was cast out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, “Never has anything like this been seen in Israel!” But the Pharisees said, “By the ruler of demons he casts out demons.”
When we read the New Testament, it's easy to make villains of the Pharisees and miss the lessons it teaches us through them. It's easy to see their mistakes as obvious because we have the benefit of hindsight, and because we assume bad motives when we read about them. But if we see them as "others" and not as people like us, we fall into the same trap they fell into, in presupposing that we're the righteous ones and ignoring anything that suggests otherwise.
The Pharisees wanted very badly to be seen as righteous by God and the people around them. They were the pillars of their community, church leaders, often wealthy and successful people. They were highly educated in theology and the political correctness of their day. They invested in social causes, memorised scripture, and did lots of other things that good Christians these days do. And yet from their perspective, Jesus was trouble. Why?
Jesus called out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He pointed out how their they had deviated from the righteousness God had asked of them and he modelled how life should be if they were obedient to what He had asked. But from the perspective of the Pharisees, they were already righteous. Someone like Jesus doing different things and telling others not to act like the Pharisees came across to them as though he was a tool of the devil, causing division in the church, creating doubt in the traditions they'd built, and distracting people from the one true path they'd spent their lives blazing. Rather than having a God-centred perspective on righteousness, they had a church-centred perspective. In other words, righteousness was defined in their eyes by how they acted and what they taught, not by what God wanted and what God had said to mankind.
We can see this in this week's verses. A man who couldn't talk and who was tormented by demons was completely healed and set free. How cool is that? Imagine how much better that man's life was after encountering Jesus. Imagine how much better his family and friends' lives were now that he could talk to them and wasn't being used by evil spirits to cause trouble. Everyone who saw what Jesus did was amazed and happy about it, except for the Pharisees.
From the perspective of the Pharisees, Jesus was evil. If you were convinced someone was evil, or crazy, or a troublemaker, and they did something miraculous, how would you interpret it? Would you throw out everything you thought about that person and suddenly see them as a great example? The Pharisees were so invested in presupposing that they were righteous and that Jesus was the problem that they not only missed the miracle but accused God of being in league with the Devil! That's about as wrong as you can get!
But despite having a clear example of how crazy it is, we see this kind of behaviour today. A church will get set in its ways, or a Christian will settle into a sort of comfortable nest of self-righteousness, and then when someone different from them begins having a successful ministry they're like "that can't be of God. It seems demonic to me." It's the same church-centred or self-centred definition of righteousness that the Pharisees used! The Pharisees were people just like us, so it shouldn't be surprising that the same traps catch us all.
Not everything miraculous is from God, but "I don't know" is a perfectly good answer if someone asks you to explain something that defies your sense of how God works. It would have been so much better for the Pharisees, or for us, to ask "are we really that bad?" when Jesus called them out, or to say "I don't know" when someone asked how Jesus did what he did. It's when we make up explanations to make ourselves or our church look good that we get into problems and start down the path to being modern Pharisees.
The Pharisees presupposed their own righteousness, but look at the difference in results between their traditions and Jesus' actions. What did the Pharisees have to offer the mute, demon-possessed man besides condemnation and exclusion? Would a speechless man who acts out on occasion have been welcome in their synagogues? Would he have been trusted with ministry? Would he have been able to study in their schools? At best they would have done the same thing we do for troublesome people: throw money at him and pat themselves on the back for helping.
Jesus, on the other hand, set him free. As far as we know, there were no conditions or lectures involved. He asked, and he was healed and set free. Theologically speaking, at least from an Old Testament perspective, that's problematic, and kind of unrealistic. And yet Jesus did it anyway. Rather than having a goal of looking good for the crowd or proving his religion to be the most correct, his goal was to love and help the troubled man.
It's a clear difference when you read the verses again. The Pharisee attitude, when they saw Jesus doing something wonderful, was to ask themselves "what is his problem now? How can we dismiss him?" Jesus, on the other hand, when encountering someone who really did have problems gave of himself in order to help him out. We should examine our actions and inner thoughts to see which of those sounds more like us.
Ironically, most people react like Pharisees when they read the stories of what the Pharisees did. "Thank God I'm not like those stupid Pharisees, who were used by the Devil. Our church traditions are better than theirs and better than any other denomination, because we really study what God wants. I hate those Pharisees and God does too." Instead of seeing it that way, be thankful for the example as a way to examine ourselves. The only thing worse than falling in to the traps they fell into is falling into their same traps despite the ample warnings their stories give us.
When God moves, which perspective would you rather have? "Wow, nothing like this has ever happened before!" or "That's demonic. Let's make sure that never happens again." It all depends on whether our view of righteousness is centred on what God does, or on what we and our church have done so far.
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