13th entry - Being a "Pharisee"

Two weeks ago, my church cell group embarked on a weekly chapter-by-chapter study of Philip Yancey's "The Jesus I Never Knew" (1995). For the 3rd week's discussion, the corresponding chapter was "Background: Jewish Roots and Soil", in which the author highlighted salient aspects of the time and place when and where Jesus was born and brought up, so that readers can have a better understanding of the Messiah. For the benefit of those of us who neither read the book nor intend to do so, I have decided to provide a summary of the key points in the chapter before attempting to articulate my views.

Before I begin, I would like to admit that I have not finished reading the entire book, which meant that my interpretation of the implications behind individual chapters will be understandably lacking in depth and breadth. Nevertheless, from the chapters that I read, I felt that Yancey was trying to fill the gaps we have in our understanding of Jesus, which arise from relying solely on the Gospels without an appreciation of the social and political history of His time. As Yancey began to paint a picture of Jesus' life, starting from the circumstances surrounding His birth, readers would catch glimpses of a world that is so culturally remote from ours. I cannot help but marvel at the fact that the sermons and parables Jesus delivered then (specially-tailored for His people) could still be so applicable to us now.

Chapter 3 particularly delved in-depth into Jesus' race during His time, and explained why the Jews received their Messiah with skepticism, suspicion and even hatred. Jesus was very ordinary in many ways; in fact, He chose deliberately to be ordinary:

1. Jesus neither had a privileged family background nor the benefit of superior religious scholarship. His ancestry consisted of people from a wide stratum of society - from King David to the prostitute Rahab, from Jews to gentiles (non-Jews).
2. Jesus had an ordinary name in His time, and He lived His life as an ordinary Jew. Up to the commencement of His ministry, Jesus grew up like most typical Jews - in poverty and under oppression.
3. As a Galilean (a northerner), Jesus was even despised or looked down upon by other Jews, as the Galilean Jews were considered a culturally backward bunch.
   

With such lack-lustre ancestry and possibly even dubious family background, it is little wonder that Jesus' claim to be the chosen Messiah was met with skepticism and suspicion. It did not help that during Jesus' time, there were plenty of false prophets and individuals claiming that they were the Messiah. In contrast to what the prophet Isaiah had foretold, and much to the disappointment of the "lavish" Jews, Jesus' arrival was not heralded with earth-shattering, highly-visible signs.

The Jews held high hopes for their Messiah, as they had been suffering oppression under the Roman empire. Most Jews in Palestine resisted adopting Roman culture (to varying degrees), refusing to compromise especially as regards their monothesistic faith. Herod ruled the Jews with an iron thumb to quelch the rebellious groups among them. Ironically, the Jews under the Romans lived in a similar way that the Palestinians now lived under the Israelis - as "second-class citizens". Back then, the Jewish Zealots behaved like Islamist Palestinian terrorists of today - the last son of Judas, a founding member of the Zealots, captured the Roman stronghold of Masada and in order to defend it, 960 Galilean Jews (including children) chose to commit suicide rather than be taken prisoner.

However, not all the Jews were equally resistant to their oppressors. Some, like the Sadducees, collaborated with the Romans and enjoyed life, as they did not believe in an afterlife or divine intervention on earth. The Essenes were Pacifistic, withdrawing into segregated communities in caves or the dessert, believing that they could quicken the advent of the Messiah by religious piety.

The majority of the Jewish middle-class were sort of "in between" - many of them belonged to the Pharisees, who held high standards of purity and imposed them on everyone else. They were "hesitant to follow too quickly after any imposter or miracle worker who might bring disaster" on the Jews (hence their relentless scrutiny of Jesus). However, they adopted a "pragmatic approach to the ruling government" but balanced this with "a willingness to stand up for principle".

Although the Gospels record much conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees, Yancey explained that decades after Jesus' death, when Jerusalem had been destroyed and all other Jewish groups had been diminished, the Pharisees were the sole surviving threat to the early Christians and thus understandably became the focus of the Gospel writers, when in fact Jesus had more in common with the Pharisees than any other group at the time.

Yancey commented that for all their differences, the Jewish groups had this in common - the desire "to preserve what was distinctively Jewish, no matter what". Jesus represented a threat, and even Yancey would have perceived the threat. Ironically, the real threat that brought down Jerusalem in A.D. 70 came from other charismatic Jews who by their extremist actions provoked Rome to destroy the temple and the city. The city was later rebuilt but Jews were forbidden to enter it.

What is my own take on this? If I had been born in Jesus' time, would I have readily accepted Him as my Lord and Saviour? The answer is probably a "yes" if I was one of those who were privileged enough to be healed by Him, or to have had the time to listen to His sermons or witness His miracles. After Jesus died, for a time I would probably shake my head and return to my normal way of life, being disillusioned and resigning to my "fate".

Would I support the Apostles? I probably will, if I believed their miracles and witnessing about Jesus' resurrection and ascension. My heart might nurse hopes that Jesus would come back really soon and bring with Him the heavenly armies to crush the Roman oppressors. Would I have declared myself to be a Christian and lived like the Apostles? Probably not, for I would fear persecution from the rest of my community, which might come before the Messiah returned. I do not think that I will have the courage to be a martyr - who would take care of my family if anything happened to me?

What kind of a Jew would I be in Jesus' time? I dont think I want to be a Essene recluse - with so many restrictions, my life would be no different than under oppression by the Romans. I also dont want to be stricken with a guilty conscience by living lavishly like a Sadducee, even if I had the means to. Not only would I see the Zealots as a terrorist group and distance myself from them, I might even speak out against them openly and report them to the authorities if I knew their identities.

Like Yancey, I would probably be a Pharisee as well. If my mind were closed up and my heart was hardened, I would probably believe my well-meaning friends or the highly respected Rabbis who would be cautious and skeptical, and join in their condemnation of Jesus' declarations as heresy. I would find it easier to believe that everything society is willing to accept must be right. Wouldnt most people do that? I probably dont have the resources to analyze the truth from multiple sources of information, or the time and energy to bother since I would have other urgent preoccupations like where my next meal is coming from.

We now live in a world where multiple sources of information are widely available, and most of us have the time and energy to pursue things we enjoy. But have people changed? Arent many of us still as closed-minded and hard-hearted - i.e. prideful and judgmental - as ever? Arent Sadducees similar to the vast majority who pursue materialism and pleasure in today's context? Arent the Essenes similar to those who seek refuge from the secular world and adopt bizzare rituals of "soul-cleansing" and "mind-purification"?

Arent the Pharisees similar to religious conservatives who advocate high standards of moral living and impose them on others like yokes of slavery, yet like hypocrites they occasionally cook up perfectly plausible and believable excuses for their own transgressions ("O, the Devil can outsmart us at our most vulnerable time! It was a moment of weakness that I had sex with your wife when we were praying together. But the Word of God said we should forgive each other...By the way I hope you still remember that you owe me money - you wouldnt want to impoverish a fellow brother, would you")?

Many Christians, including myself, need to "repent" at some point. We need to ask ourselves if we are ever too quick in judging others but always too slow in reprimanding ourselves. We need to examine our behaviour constantly to make sure that we do not apply "double standards" when relating to others. My prayer is for God's mercy and grace to be upon us, as we seek His understanding and patience in guiding us.