Sympathy for the Pharisee

This is a sermon about the most popular

religious group in the Bible, 

how the good go bad, 

and the heart of Jesus.

Scripture: Matthew 23.1-12

(Additional Reading: Matthew 23.13-39; Deuteronomy 27.15-26; Leviticus 26; Numbers 25.1-18; Acts 15.5, 23.6; Numbers 15.38-39)

are we reading the right tone?

what was a Pharisee?

where did they go wrong?

“There are seven kinds of Pharisees: the "shoulder" Pharisee, who ostentatiously carries his good deeds on his shoulder so all can see them; the "wait-a-moment" Pharisee, who wants you to wait while he performs a mitzvah; the bruised Pharisee, who runs into a wall while looking at the ground to avoid seeing a woman; the "reckoning" Pharisee, who commits a sin, then does a good deed and balances the one against the other; the "pestle" Pharisee, whose head is bowed in false humility, like a pestle in a mortar, the Pharisee who asks, "What is my duty, so that I may do it?" as if he thought he had fulfilled every obligation already; and the Pharisee from love - either love of the rewards God promises for performing the commandments, or love of Torah itself.”

- The Talmud -