Then they hurled insults at him and said, ”You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! ”
The Pharisees claimed to be disciples of Moses. This is interesting because the function of a disciple is to be like their teacher. According to the Old Testament (Numbers 12: 3), Moses was humble. In fact, the Bible says he was the most humble person on the planet. In addition, as I read the books of Moses in the Old Testament, what seems to leap off of the page is that Moses did whatever God instructed him to do. He only improvised one time, that that one mistake kept him from entering the Promised Land. Even so, Moses trusted God and was faithful to follow his instructions.
If the Pharisees are trying to be humble, they are doing a horrible job of it. It seems like every page of the Gospels portrays most of the Pharisees (not all!) as thumbing their nose at almost everyone who isn’t a Pharisee. Jesus, in particular, comes in for a ration of their wrath again and again. Do humble people act like Jesus or like the Pharisees? Do humble people hurl insults at the very people that they are supposed to be shepherding?
Do the Pharisees reflect the goodness of God or the opposite? You decide!
Jesus calls them out as fake followers of Moses. If they would have followed Moses then they would have listened to Jesus.
The Pharisees do not seem to reflect God’s goodness.
The convicting part of this is that I can play the role of the Pharisee in my own church body. We just had a business meeting in which I disagreed with several statements, and felt that I was”righteousnessly” holding my tongue. The truth is I wasn’t seeing things being done my way. My concern should be over whether things are being done God’s way.
Happy Monday to you all.
Robster,
Kudos to you for striving to live “God’s way.” “Way” to go!