Jesus Was a Pharisee

Mark 2:23-28 (CEB)

Jesus went through the wheat fields on the Sabbath. As the disciples made their way, they were picking the heads of the wheat. The Pharisees said to Jesus, "Look! Why are they breaking the Sabbath law?"

He said to them, "Haven't you ever read what David did when he was in need, when he and those with him were hungry? During the time when Abiathar was high priest, David went into God's house and ate the bread of the presence, which only priests were allowed to eat. He also gave bread to those who were with him."

Then he said, "The Sabbath was created for humans; humans weren't created for the Sabbath. This is why the Human One is Lord even over the Sabbath."

7th August 2020 - Harvest time (fruit, vegetable or flower) - Day 6 - wheat ready for harvesting via photopin (license)

Pharisees

Ah, the poor Pharisees. They often have a bad reputation in Christian Scriptures. Some of it is deserved, but most of it is undeserved. The Pharisees were a religious order that sought to open up religion to all Jews. There were the Sadducees, who were mainly a priestly order. They were very strict and only followed the Torah, what Christians would call Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Then there were the Essenes:  a Jewish monastic order that sought to purify themselves from the rest of society, living by themselves. Some people speculate that even John the Baptist might at one time have been a part of this order.

The Pharisees, however, wanted to have God for all the people. As with any religious group, with their size, they developed into factions. There was one faction that wanted to be precise in their worship of following God. They wanted to be so certain that God's commandments were followed that they gave commentary on how the instructions were to be followed. In this instance, the disciples of Jesus were eating grains of wheat. Eating wheat on the Sabbath was not breaking the law for these Pharisees. What was breaking the law was that they were actually husking the wheat to eat the kernels.

The scandal! [I keep misplacing the sarcastic font.]

There was another branch of Pharisees that were more generous in their understanding of Scripture:  the heart of the Instructions needed to be followed, not the letter of the Law.

In this sense, Jesus was a Pharisee.

Jesus wasn't a Pharisee that was a strict interpreter of the Law. Just the opposite. He continuously stated he did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. What was the fulfillment of the Law? Jesus stated that it was to love God and love others. (See Matthew 22:35-40; Mark 12:28-34; and Luke 10:27.) All of the other instructions we see in the Scripture, especially the ones that contradict each other, should fall under the guidelines of "loving God and loving others."

Religion changes over the decades. This is why we see at one point slavery being condoned and regulated with Scriptural support. This is why we see women being oppressed and demeaned and not allowed to have any voice in the Church with Biblical support. This is why we people in the LGBT Community being condemned and murdered with Christian support.

We miss the point.

The Bible is not God. Fallible human beings wrote the Bible. They contradicted each other. They made mistakes. The Bible is still useful to us as a guide, but we must keep in mind what the Christ desires from us:

Love God. Love others.

The rest is just theology.