Who Are The Modern Day Pharisees?

by Matt Hand

Note: This article was originally posted by Matt Hand here.

Who Are the Modern-Day Pharisees?Jesus blasted them as “blind guides,” “hypocrites,” “whitewashed tombs,” “fools,” and even “a brood of vipers.” Who were these people? A left-wing activist group? The overtly rebellious and immoral? Hardly. They were the mainstream religious leaders of Jesus’ day.

Origins of the Pharisees At the outset, the Pharisees were national heroes. They stood up to the Sadducees, who were compromising with the Greeks, and said in affect, “We will not allow this emerging mainstream culture to displace Judaism. We are God’s people. We must remain distinct. Your paganism and secularization is not welcome here.” So early on they were labeled the Hasidim (“pious ones”). Later they took the more familiar name Pharisees (parushim – “separated ones”).

Evolution of the Pharisees

As the Pharisees continued to enjoy popular support, they began to morph into an increasingly separatist and legalist entity. They determined to win God’s favor and hasten the coming of the Messiah by demonstrating their radical obedience to God’s Law. So they preached as if all God’s promises of blessing were conditioned upon His people’s perfect obedience. Alongside the Torah, they rapidly multiplied regulations based on their own personal interpretations and applications of God’s Law. They became experts at externally conforming their lives to every letter of the Law. But all the while their hearts grew colder and further removed from God’s unconditional, free gift of grace.

Righteousness of the Pharisees

The Pharisees were good people in the worst sort of way. Self-righteousness and self-exaltation motivated everything they did. They weren’t content with thinking they were righteous. They needed to know that you thought they were righteous.

They memorized the Law and the handbook (Mishnah) right along with it. If you had a question about the Law, these were the guys to ask. They could tell you what it said. Never mind what it meant. Never mind how it was connected to Jesus Christ. They couldn’t tell you that. Consequently, they were happy to hand another brick to a drowning man; but bearing his burden wasn’t their thing.

There was no spirit or heart to the righteousness of the Pharisees. It was all external. It was just a routine. They tithed on their herbs while neglecting the justice, mercy, faithfulness, and love of God. Tithing, fasting, and praying were all easy. There were specific rules and regulations for these things. They were black and white. The grace and love of God? Those are pretty messy and confusing, so they didn’t bother with them.

The Pharisees loved the Law far more than the Gospel. Righteous is what they tried to be for God. It was not something they looked to God to be for them. Righteousness had little to do with faith and everything to do with personal performance. Give them something to do. Give them something to say. Don’t give them someone to believe in.

Sin, Sinners & Pharisees

To the Pharisee, sin was “out there,” not “in here.” Sin had little to do with a person’s heart attitude or lack of faith. Sin, rather, was “the bad stuff that other people do.” Sinners were “those who do the bad things we don’t do.”

So naturally, the posture of the Pharisees was separatist. They didn’t want to be tainted by or associated with sinners. So they didn’t hang with sinners like Jesus did. They were too good for that. Instead, they hung out in their own ghettos where they congratulated each other for being good people. They might as well hung a sign on the door that read, “Sinners Not Welcome.”

The only thing the Pharisees excelled at was condemnation. They were hypercritical, judgmental people. Virtually everything that other camps did was wrong, no matter how clearly God was at work through them. Casting out demons? Wicked! Healing a blind man? Vile! Forgiving sins? Blasphemy! For the Pharisee, self-righteous moralism and judgmentalism went hand-in-hand. The more they judged others’ sin, the better they felt about their own piety. And the more they focused on self-piety, the more natural it became to critique and condemn others who did not hold to the same traditions.

The Heart of Pharisees

The heart of the Pharisee was blinded by his own self-justifying pride. He could not admit his own sin because failure would chip away the thin veneer of his pristine reputation. That could not be allowed. If you tried to point out a Pharisee’s sin to him, he would blow you off, question your motives, and find something in your life to condemn. He didn’t see his sin. He couldn’t. This foolish blindness produced in the heart of the Pharisees every form of greed, jealousy, and hypocrisy.

Modern Day Pharisees

Phariseeism is not just a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the moralist and judgmentalist are alive and well in the Church today. Pews and pulpits are full of people who nitpick every letter of the law (including innumerable rules and regulations that aren’t even in God’s Law) while virtually ignoring the heart of Jesus’ mission. They want to know when we’re going to get past this “Christ-centeredness thing” and start preaching against going to the movies, social drinking, and pop music. In Jesus’ own words, “They strain at gnats and swallow camels.”

They may diligently put 10% of their net income in the offering plate, but they don’t give a second thought to what Jesus meant when he said, “Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy rather than sacrifice.”

The modern-day Pharisees continue to believe that sin is essentially something that’s “out there” that other people do. Consequently, they have elevated a sick and twisted form of separation as the preeminent virtue. They live in virtual ghettos where their kids are protected from the evils of culture. Once in a while, maybe, they’ll do some kind of “outreach” to invite others to jump the fence and conform to live just like them.

Me, a Pharisee?

I was a Pharisee. No, I didn’t literally believe in my own good works to save me; but I certainly relied on them to maintain my good standing with God and with other Christians. Technically, I may not have been a legalist; but I was most assuredly a moralist. I judged people, not on the basis of what the Bible explicitly said, but on the basis of how my particular subculture applied what the Bible said.

God was merciful to me. God took the blinders off and allowed me to see the self-righteous and condemning spirit of my own foolish heart. God made me see I could quote a lot of the Bible without having a clue what the Bible was all about. And God is giving me the ability and desire to focus on the justice, mercy, and love of Christ without neglecting the less weighty things altogether.

Many of us are willing to walk away from heartaches and failures to follow Christ. But how many of us are willing to leave behind what looks to us like success in order to pursue Christ? How many of us would say with the apostle Paul:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

We ought to consider our own lives and ask God to be merciful to show us how we are modern-day Pharisees at heart. The reality is that it’s all too easy to replace a walk of repentance and faith with a walk of self-righteousness and judgmentalism. My prayer is that God will open the eyes of our hearts to see how there is a form of righteousness that is every bit as damning as any wickedness. And I pray God will grant the gifts of forgiveness and grace that are so vital to each of us.

*Matt Hand is the head pastor of NorthField Church in Denver, CO where I serve as the corporate worship leader.