The Perfect Sage vs. the Religious Fools

The Perfect Sage vs. the Religious Fools.

The Sage: A person known for wisdom, understanding and discernment; for developing the practical art of living skillfully; for growing in moral intelligence; for being able to practice the truth in daily life; for expressing astute insight and shrewd street smarts; for applying knowledge to make thoughtful decisions and healthy choices; for knowing the difference between wise and foolish, right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, good and evil, true and false; for effectively demonstrating a practical spirituality; for choosing to live into Wisdom itself, the Person of Jesus the Anointed One.

The Fool According to Scripture: A person who doesn’t know what is best for himself; who doesn’t learn from mistakes; who is habitually rebellious; who does not consider the consequences of his behavior; who stubbornly remains unteachable; who is content with self-satisfied ignorance; who ignores counsel and discipline; who pridefully rejects a reverence for God; who has access to the truth but rejects it; who is impulsive and unable to control emotions; who is not concerned about moral blindness; who is unaware of his self-destructive lifestyle; who does not recognize the need to change his thinking and behavior; who is gullible, naïve and dim-witted.

“While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked Him to dine with him, so Jesus went in and reclined at his table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that He did not first perform the ritual washing before dinner. And the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also?” (Luke 11:37-40).

The Ongoing Duel. When Jesus was confronted by the religious authorities during His day, He definitely did not suffer fools gladly. Jesus called them just about every name in the book… from hypocrites to fools, from phonies to imposters, from blind guides to self-righteous pretenders to deceptive play-actors. The classic “come-to-Jesus” moment for the Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees is found in Matthew 23, known as the “Seven Woes.” The number seven seemed to be God’s favorite number since it used over 700 times in Scripture, and signifies perfection, wholeness, completeness, finished. So these Seven Woes form the complete rejection of all this religiousness foolishness that Jesus hated so much.

Jesus believed that the teaching and the example of the Pharisees and Sadducees had a corrupting influence on Jewish life, and so He considered them religious fools:

1. The Pharisees were a popular religious party operating in 1st century Israel. They were respected for their scholarly knowledge of Scripture and for their interpretation of the written word and oral law. They were highly influential in the local synagogues. They were laymen, not priests, and came from all classes of people. They considered themselves separatists for God, and so they were separate from the common people, the Jewish people. They were religious zealots who considered themselves the final authority on the keeping of the Mosaic Law. There were roughly 6,000 Pharisees during Jesus’ day, and thus had a lot of potential to impact religious life in Israel. The yeast of the Pharisees, what Jesus warned others about, was their puffed-up self-righteousness, their hypocrisy. Jesus had little patience with their love of money and attention, their focus on external legalisms while their hearts were actually far from God. He hated that they would care  more about the details of the Law than the spiritual needs of people in their midst. Jesus saw the Pharisees as more concerned with their veneer of respectability and holiness than with their love for Yahweh and His people. They were called religious frauds by Jesus, and thus a real danger to the Jews in their quest to follow Scripture.
2. The Sadducees were an unpopular group of aloof aristocrats and ruling priests who headed up the Temple finance system. They were politically connected to Rome and they loved Greek culture instead of the Jewish faith. The common Jew on the street did not like the Sadducees because they were wealthy, disconnected from the common folk, and they considered themselves above it all. The high priest Caiaphas was a Sadducee, for example. The Sadducees were known as Roman sympathizers so that they could retain their financial control of Temple operations. They believed that only the first five books of the Torah were divinely inspired, and ignored the rest of Hebrew Scriptures. They were hardline skeptics, and so rejected anything that was considered miraculous or supernatural. Since the notion of the resurrection of the dead gradually unfolded in the later writings in Scripture, the Sadducees refused to admit that the resurrection was even a possibility. Their corrupting influence led people away from the God of Scripture,  and thus away from Jesus and His ministry.
3. The Scribes were known as “Men of Letters,” since the Greek word for scribe is “gramma,” the source for our word “grammar.” The scribe was a respected religious scholar as well as a teacher of religious law who could interpret its meaning. Scribes were the official lawyers of that day, interpreters of Torah who were intimately familiar with all the Sacred Writings. As members of Temple leadership, most of the scribes belonged to the Pharisee party and so were fully associated with the Pharisees in the minds of the common people. Scribes were known for being ardent students of the Hebrew Bible as well as authoritative teachers of all things scriptural.

“The Grand Critique.” With this most famous verbal tirade against the religious authorities recorded in Matthew 23, Jesus was living into His OT prophetic style of communication. And He enjoyed the perfect backdrop for the Woes… the Temple. Isaiah was the best-known prophet in the Hebrew Bible who employed a “woe unto you” confrontation. In Isaiah’s case, he was calling the people of Judah to task for their exploiting of others, their drunkenness, their pride and arrogance, their confusing of moral standards, and their perverting of justice. Jesus used this “woeful” prophetic formula to critique not the people of Israel but the Temple leadership for their mean-spirited hypocrisy and their superficial, self-righteous ambition. There are actually eight woes technically in this Matthew passage, but one of them wasn’t in the original manuscripts, and so scholars say it was added to the gospel after first being written. So this eighth woe (“you devour widows’ houses“) is not considered an official woe of Jesus. He proclaimed seven woes, the perfect number, the complete number. He didn’t mince words, He didn’t hold back in His stinging accusations of the Temple leadership. He basically excoriated them, and straightforwardly told them, I’ve had it with you! I’ve lost my patience with you! You are headed for disaster if you keep leading my people astray!

“Woe Unto You.” When Jesus pronounces his official woes onto the Temple leaders, He is basically saying… What sorrow awaits you; alas for you; distress is headed your way; you’re asking for trouble; grief is coming for you; how unfortunate you are; your destiny will involve nothing but suffering; you’re hopeless.

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ throne as the authorized interpreters of the Law. So listen and follow what they teach, but don’t do what they do, for they tell you one thing and do another. They tie on your backs an oppressive burden of religious obligations and insist that you carry it, but will never lift a finger to help ease your load.” (Matthew 23:1-4).

The Opening Salvo. If you want to know what makes God angry, read on. Jesus is all fired up after a series of confrontations with the Temple leadership… the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. He knows they are plotting to entrap Him, and are trying to figure out ways to stop His ministry dead in its tracks. In Matthrew 23 we find Jesus verbally cleansing the Temple. He did verbally what He had just done physically, clearing the Temple of unworthy riffraff and a host of impurities. Jesus had several pointed criticisms of them here at the start in the first few verses. And He was only getting warmed up! He threw in these zingers even before moving on to His prophetic woes. He accused them of not bothering to practice what they preach, of knowing the Scriptures but not living by them. He accused them of being pretentious, of being impressive at the expense of being spiritual. He accused them of living in a “religious fashion show” (Peterson), of seeking the attention of the people and looking good religiously. Jesus accused them of seeking honor and privilege, of welcoming impressive titles like father, master, and rabbi, titles that are intended to be used for God and not them. He accused them of seeking the admiration of the people instead of directing all the praise to God. Jesus closes this stinging warm-up with accusations of haughtiness, of being vainglorious, of exalting themselves over those who are not as “holy.” Jesus essentially said that, because their eyes are only on themselves, they have lost sight of God. Jesus was worried about the spiritual welfare of the people as well, afraid that the leaders’ spiritual pride and unfruitfulness might spread to the people of Israel. Can anyone dare claim that these accusations are irrelevant to us today? If we are honest with ourselves, we all have at least a little of the pharisee in us.

The Seven Woes.

First Woe: (Matthew 23:13). Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites and frauds! Your whole religious system doesn’t open the door to God’s Kingdom, it shuts the door in people’s faces. Your faulty reasoning of the Law has actually ended up making it impossible to obey. Your legalistic view of the Faith keeps you from entering the kingdom of heaven, and you have kept others from entering as well. The end result of your religious program is that no one is able to enter the kingdom, you or anyone else! Your religious system builds walls, not bridges, and you will be judged for this. 

Second Woe: (Matthew 23:15). Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites and phonies! Here you are, traveling all over the Roman Empire to persuade even one Gentile to join you in your Faith, but all you’re doing is convincing someone to join a dead religion. When you convert someone to your system, you are drawing them into a religious program in which this convert will focus on the unimportant details like your man-made additional laws and traditions. And your proselyte will miss God, the whole point of Faith! In your propaganda, you will be creating even more hypocrites who don’t make it into the kingdom of God. Your new converts will be fit for the garbage dump outside town, just like you! 

Third Woe: (Matthew 23:16-22). Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, blind fools (“moroi”)! How can you blindly get all caught up in your own little traditions instead of the Law of the great Moses? Certainly you’re not saying the two are equal! You have added the law about giving an oath that swears by the gold of the Temple. And you have told everyone to swear a promise by the gift at the altar. You blind fools! Make your promises by that which is truly sacred in God’s eyes, not man’s eyes… the Temple, the altar, your own conscience. Obviously, God will hold you to your promise, no matter how it comes about. Don’t do this stupid hairsplitting. It’s laws like this that distract people from God and frustrates their tender faith.

[Note on “Moroi” as the Greek term here for fool: where we get the term “moron;” unwise; foolish; senseless; lack of spiritual understanding; intellectual blindness; morally ignorant; heedless.]

Fourth Woe: (Matthew 23:23-24). Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites and imposters! Here you go again, playing Temple trivia instead of focusing on the major issues of religion, things like justice, mercy, and faith. You want to make sure everyone pays a tithe on little garden herbs, but then miss the giant matters of the Faith. Go ahead, pay your tithes, big deal, but don’t let them distract you from what’s of more spiritual importance. Once again you are being blind guides for the people, more concerned about minor laws than major religious issues. Do you honestly think you can gain spiritual muscle by lifting these light weights and ignoring the heavy weights? 

Fifth Woe: (Matthew 23:25-26). Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites and play-actors! You have become so pretentious in your hypocrisy. You are proving yourselves blind once again by being more concerned about ceremonial cleanliness than inner purity. It’s as if you think your job is done when you wash the outside of yourself, ignoring your filthy inside self. You just care about appearances, forgetting that God can peer inside you with perfect vision. And He won’t like what He sees! You want a religion that helps you look good at a superficial level but is unconcerned about things like greed and gluttony at a deeper level. Learn to scrub your insides, purify yourselves, so that it matches the spotless outside, and your religion will really mean something.

Sixth Woe: (Matthew 23:27-28). Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites and pretenders! You are acting holier than thou so you can hide your sinfulness. You look like saints to the people, but you are corrupted when God scratches beneath the surface. You appear to be law-abiding, but your inner character is committed to lawlessness at the heart of your Faith. You’re like a tomb that is whitewashed so it looks pretty, but walk into that tomb and all you see is a dead man’s bones and the worms eating rotten flesh. You pretend to be pious and full of religious life, but instead you’re self-righteous, dead to God. You holy ones are merely the Great Pretenders. 

Seventh Woe: (Matthew 23:29-35). Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites and frauds! You impudently declare that you would never harm a prophet or a righteous one like your ancestors did, so you proudly decorate the monuments and tombs of those who have had their blood shed in the past. But the truth is that you would have done the same thing as your fathers, and that you will indeed shed the blood of the prophets and righteous believers in your midst. Don’t fool yourselves. You will indeed turn your self-righteous indignation on those sent by God to speak His Word. You claim to have learned from history, but the fact is that, judging by your current behavior, you haven’t learned anything! You’re one big family of poisonous snakes, and you will not escape God’s judgment. 

The Closing Lament. Jesus finally managed to catch His breath after His seven woes to the scribes and Pharisees. He was speaking all this time in the Temple, and so His mind turned to the lost city of Jerusalem, spiritually lost. Jesus admonished the Holy City at this point for its persecution of the earlier prophets. Jesus sorrowfully noted that the messengers of God were badly mistreated in Jerusalem, even stoned and otherwise murdered. What Jesus most feared had happened… the spiritually unfruitful Temple leadership has unfortunately spread to the people. And the result is that the whole city will soon be abandoned by God and emptied of spiritual life. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” Jesus laments. “I see your plight, I see your lost and confused children, and I want to gather you under my wings like a mother hen. But you wouldn’t let me! And soon I will be another Prophet killed by the Temple authorities, another example of how you have treated your prophets in the past. You won’t see me again until I return at the Last Day, and you will all surely declare, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Matthew 23:37-39).

Questions for Self-Examination. Do we Christ-followers have some Pharisee in us? Are we in any way religiously foolish? Are we self-righteously declaring that we are not self-righteous? Can we honestly say that we are nobody’s fools? Here are some questions based on the Seven Woes that all of us need to be asking ourselves as we imperfectly pursue the Christian life:

First Woe: Do I mentally make a long list of rules not found in Scripture, for everyone who wants to be a part of God’s kingdom? Do I think that these rules must be obeyed if we want to follow Jesus? Do I give other believers the impression that they won’t make it to heaven if they fail to obey this long list? Do some believers simply give up trying after they attempt to follow this list?

Second Woe: When I try to invite new members to my church, do I just use propaganda to bring them into a religious system, or do I engage in a persuasive conversation to help usher them into the Kingdom? Which comes first when I spread the Word, my church program or the Gospel? Am I more concerned about my church’s membership or the Kingdom’s? Am I aware of potential problems with my own theology when I share the Good News?

Third Woe: Do I tend to give undue importance to church expectations? Have I become nitpicky with principles that aren’t even in Scripture? Have I begun to equate some of our church policies with what is found in the Bible? Do I invest too much emotional energy into church politics, or too much spiritual focus on that which is not of spiritual importance?

Fourth Woe: Am I forgetting what is really important in my Christian faith? Have I started missing the forest for the trees, being more concerned with minor matters than things like showing mercy, doing justice, and walking humbly with God? Am I using good judgment with regard to putting first things first? Am I able to discern what God thinks is must important and top priority in following Jesus?

Fifth Woe: Do I care too much about appearing squeaky clean to others, and not giving enough attention to my inner character? Is my clean image, my spotless reputation, more important than the status of my heart? Why do I focus so much on appearances, on being impressive, and not on how God sees me? Am I more concerned with outer purity than inner purity? Do I deep down believe that I am earning my salvation with good behavior?

Sixth Woe: Am I a holy-roller, someone who wants everybody to think of me as some kind of saint? Do I make myself sound holier when I pray in public? Is it important for me to appear pious at church, at public gatherings? Do I go to prayer meetings to pray, or to be seen as a holy prayer warrior? Does my private devotional life match up with my public persona?

Seventh Woe: Do I delude myself into thinking that I won’t make the same mistakes as earlier believers? Am I somehow made of purer stuff than Christians in the past? Do I actually think I am above it all? Do I subtly take pride in my own righteousness? Do I dare pretend to be invulnerable to the temptations common to everyone else? Do I honestly think I am better than everyone else, all the while knowing that I can make the same mistakes in weak moments?