Tag: Jesus and the Pharisees

Digging in Deeper: Mark 12:15-17

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“But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, ‘Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.’ They brought a coin. ‘Whose image and inscription is this?’ he asked them. ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. Jesus told them, ‘Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ And they were utterly amazed at him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

During it’s seven-season run, I loved the show West Wing. Now, I know its cultural and political positions are pretty decidedly different from those I personally hold now, but the writing and acting were both terrific. When Aaron Sorkin wasn’t trying to be preachy (which wasn’t much, but still…), he was a master of witty dialogue and developing solid relationships among a whole cast of characters. All the same, the show was designed to highlight a certain political and cultural worldview (which, interestingly, would find no quarter in today’s political scene with its ever-shrinking center), and Sorkin’s preferred method of doing so was to have one character deliver a perfectly-timed monologue in such a way to make the other side look absolutely silly and defeated and to render all counterarguments moot. Well, I’m not sure how much time Sorkin has spent reading the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, but if he has, he must have been pretty impressed as Jesus did the same kind of thing with a remarkable frequency. Let’s take a look this morning at one of the more well-known of Jesus’ “Sorkin moments.”

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 3:22-24

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“The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul,’ and, ‘He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons.’ So he summoned them and spoke to them in parables: ‘How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.’” (CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been so upset that you didn’t realize what you were saying? You said things and made charges and didn’t give the first consideration to how little sense you were making. It’s a little scary to see someone get that angry, let alone actually hit the mark yourself. It’s also a little funny when you get to watch from afar. In this case it was a lot sad too. Jesus had so gotten under the skin of the Pharisees they were resorting to making wild, offensive charges that didn’t even make sense. And Jesus called them on it.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 2:16-17

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“When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard this, he told them, ‘It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever joined a club? Most people have at some point in their lives. Whether it was a school club or a civic club or a sports club, the options are nearly limitless. The thing about a club, though, is that it is a necessarily exclusionary organization. If you have a club in which literally anyone can claim membership, you don’t really have a club at all. You have the human race. Now, a club may have an open membership wherein anyone can join versus a closed, invitation-only membership, but even in the case of an open membership, you can only join if you are willing to abide by the rules of membership. In this story both the Pharisees and Jesus thought about the kingdom of God in terms of being a club. Their approach to membership, though, is where they differed.

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