In this section of Luke, Jesus is warned by some Pharisees of Herod's plan to kill him. Until going through Luke bit by bit I never noticed this part. It is surprising to see that not all the Pharisees hated Jesus. Except for Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea we always get a very one dimensional picture of the Pharisees. There were both good and bad among the Pharisees in Jesus' time ... and the people knew it well. William Barclay tells us more.
The Jews themselves knew very well that there were good and bad Pharisees. They divided them into seven different classes.
The Shoulder Pharisees. These wore their good deeds on their shoulder and performed them to be seen of men.
The Wait-a-little Pharisees. They could always find a good excuse for putting off a good deed until tomorrow.
The Bruised or Bleeding Pharisees. No Jewish rabbi could be seen talking to any woman on the street, not even his wife or mother or sister. But certain of the Pharisees went further. They would not even look at a woman on the street; they even shut their eyes to avoid seeing a woman; they, therefore, knocked into walls and houses and bruised themselves; and then exhibited their bruises as special badges of extraordinary piety.
The Pestle-and-Mortar or Hump-backed Pharisees. They were ever reckoning up their good deeds and, as it were, striking a balance-sheet of profit and loss with God.
The Timid or Fearing Pharisees. They went ever in fear of the wrath of God. They were ... not helped but haunted by their religion.
The God-loving Pharisees. They were copies of Abraham and lived in faith and charity.
There may have been six bad Pharisees for every good one; but this passage shows that even amongst the Pharisees there were those who admired and respected Jesus.
Once again I am reminded that people are much the same no matter what day and age they live in. There always are the nitpickers, the hypocrites, the judgmental, the bad ... the people who drive us crazy. In most cases, they're not fooling anyone but themselves. We can see what's going on just like the people who came up with those great nicknames for the types of Pharisees. That just makes me all the more grateful when I see the many priests who are God-loving and good.
No comments:
Post a Comment