BREAD OF THE PHARISEES
Two thousand years ago the Pharisees were the most religious men of their day. They radically adhered to the Mosaic Law (though in some cases they had watered down the law to make it somewhat possible to keep). By all outward indication, they were the men closest to God, closest to the mind and heart of God. Thus, when the Messiah came, they would no doubt be the first people whom he would seek out. He did, of course, seek them out, but not to heap glory and praise upon them for their rigid adherence to the law. No, he saved his sharpest rebukes for them. Indeed, he even told his own disciples, his own followers which included prostitutes, thieves, reprobates and other unsavory characters whom had been excommunicated from the congregation….he warned his own followers NOT to be like the Pharisees. “Do not eat the bread of the Pharisees”, he put it.
Jesus compared the Pharisees to “whitewashed tombs”, outwardly, very righteous, but inwardly filled with murder, and pride and envy. Indeed, the Pharisees themselves proved how right Christ was about them when, after he rebuked them, their first reaction was to conspire to kill him!
God does not want people who are dead inside. God wants us all to be alive inside. Rigidly following dogma or a set of do’s and don’ts can make you appear righteous, but it will not change your heart, which is what is most important. Only Jesus Christ can change the heart of a person.
God ultimately wants people who need no law, not people whom are bound by a law. If you only do what’s right because a set of stone tablets tell you to, then you really are not moral. Real morality is only found in Jesus Christ, for the believer is under the grace of God and no longer under the law, such a person can therefore do anything and be forgiven. As Paul put it, “all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.” This is a higher form of morality than that demonstrated by the Pharisees. The knowledge that you can do anything you want, but don’t because you do not desire to, because your heart has been changed by the grace of Jesus Christ. Indeed, if there are things you don’t do simply because you think you wouldn’t be forgiven, abstaining from them doesn’t make you moral or righteous in the least, it simply means your fear outweighs your desire.
Bread is that which sustains, thus the bread of the Pharisees was that which sustained them, that upon which they built their lives upon, their piety and self-righteousness. It is a sad commentary that many modern Christians probably identify more with the Pharisees who rejected Christ than the sinners who followed him. The bread which Jesus Christ gives to believers is Christ himself, his love, his grace, his redemption. These things, when taken into the heart will utterly change a person – a lifelong transformative process, the end result being a person who is not bound by a law, but lives accordingly without one.
We were created in an imperfect state so that we could come to know the love of God in this state, and could understand his perfect love, which is perfected in our imperfection. But once so enlightened, Jesus Christ begins the work of perfecting the believer into an individual who does the right thing because they are right, not because a set of laws orders them to do right. To begin this life changing process simply pray something like the below:
Dear Jesus,
I know that I am imperfect and have broken many laws, but I believe you love me and died for me just as I am. I know that I cannot change myself nor change my imperfections, but I believe that you can. I repent of my sins and ask you to please forgive me of my sins. I accept you as my lord and savior. I ask you Jesus to come into my life and to change me and to make me the person you created me to be. Thank you lord Jesus, in your name I pray, Amen.
First Church of the Progressive 