CHAPTER VI. JESUS REBUKES THE FORMALISM OF THE PHARISEES. IMPORTANCE OF A JUST IDEA OF THE SECT OF THE PHARISEES-HUMAN FORMALISM. DURING our Lord's residence at Capernaum, several incidents occurred which brought Him more directly than ever before, into collision with the Pharisees. As we shall find them especially referred to in our Lord's teachings, and largely concerned in the hostile movements which resulted in the violent termination of His career, it becomes almost necessary to a right understanding of His life, that we attain just views of this remarkable sect. Human nature, under whatever form of religion, universally tends to formalism. After a positive religion has outlived the fervor and freedom of its youth, unless counteracting forces come into play, it will crystallize into a system of frigid dogmas and prescribed ceremonies. There is the clearest evidence that Judaism was, for many ages, full of vitality and power. Faith in a personal Jehovah, the living, almighty, holy, faithful God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob made the worship of the Hebrews spiritual and earnest. That faith, produced a deep sense of inward discord and wretchedness, such as is described in Paul's epistle to the Romans.* This awakened a longing for some divine deliverance, so that the Jewish mind was prepared to give credence to the choral voices of prophecy, singing from age to age the coming Redeemer. But it was not only the mission of the Jewish system to awaken this expectation of deliverance, but also to demonstrate its own utter impotence. Hence, it was permitted to become old and effete; to harden into a rigid formalism, which had just vitality enough to serve as a point of connection between the more devout and susceptible minds in the Jewish nation and the doctrines of Jesus. One fact sufficiently demonstrates that Judaism had entered upon this final stage, when, both without and within, it was well-nigh ossified. We refer to the fact that the sect of the Pharisees had come to be almost absolutely predominant throughout the nation. Indeed, it was indebted for its very existence, to a national consciousness of decay and incipient dissolution. Out of that consciousness arose a fond looking back towards the golden age of the theocracy, an eager catching at every gleam of tradition, an anxious preservation of every vestige of an idolized antiquity. Hence, both in respect to doctrine and rites of worship, the Pharisees conformed to the traditions of the fathers. They attached less and less importance to the spiritual, and even to the moral part of religion, but were exact and ostentatious in the observance of mere external ceremonies. They were ingenious and unwearied in finding * See Romans vii., passim. grounds for excusing, and even justifying the most flagrant. moral delinquencies; while they were intolerant and vindictive towards all who were chargeable with the least infraction of their traditions, and the least departure from their ceremonial observances. Their ablutions, their fastings and their prayers; their tithings and their alms-givings were all according to rule, and were regarded as meritorious in themselves, aside from the state of the heart. They affected an intense asceticism, altogether alien to the spirit of the Mosaic institutions, and to the earlier worship of Jehovah. The people regarded their reverence for tradition as evincing a purer nationality of feeling; they accepted their rigorous asceticism as a more perfect holiness. These came to be regarded as the peculiar, the distinguishing characteristics of the sect, and drew about them the wealth, the learning, and the piety of the nation. They thus came to be an organized, numerous and powerful sect. The majority of the priests and rulers belonged to their number; and hence, the affairs of the nation, both ecclesiastical and civil, came under their almost supreme control. Their schools were so famous that the most intelligent young men of the nation resorted to them; many, even, like Saul of Tarsus, from distant lands. The heads of the sect, among whom in the time of Christ was Gamaliel (for more than thirty years president of the Sanhedrim), resided in Jerusalem; but a multitude of adherents were scattered through all the cities and villages of the. Holy Land. These were everywhere held in the highest veneration, and were, in fact, the religious teachers and governors of the people. We are now prepared to understand the position assumed by the Pharisees with regard to the new religion and its teachers. Two years had elapsed since John the Baptist began to preach among the hills of Judea, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” A large number of the sect, carried away by the general enthusiasm, had come to his baptism. They did not at first oppose him; they never did so openly. Possibly, many were willing to believe that he was really commissioned to proclaim the advent of the expected Messiah. Hence, when Jesus was baptized by John; and when afterwards He was publicly pointed out as the Messiah, they maintained a cautious reserve. They neither acknowledged nor denounced Him. Events had not yet so far developed His true character or claims, as to render either course politic or necessary. Hence, they took precisely the ground which we should have expected from a sect so intelligent, respectable and conservative: they treated Jesus with distant courtesy, listened closely to His discourses, witnessed His miracles with cold curiosity, and said nothing. As events progressed, however, and it became evident that Jesus was not a person likely to sympathize with them, or to contribute to their prestige and power, their suspicions were awakened, and they became really hostile to His movements. Yet, as He seemed to be a strict observer of the law, and was evidently possessed of supernatural powers, they were unable to obtain any plausible hold upon Him, and were therefore deterred from evincing their hostility openly. Hence for more than a year they permitted Him to prosecute His mission unmolested, although they kept close watch upon all His movements. Their first open rupture with Him occurred in connection with the healing of the impotent man on the Sabbath day, an account of which has already been given. They then became satisfied that He was at heart hostile to them. They assumed that He was opposed to the law, and charged Him with blasphemous assumption in calling Himself the Son of God, a title which they held could be claimed by none but the Messiah Himself. Against His Messiahship they at once arrayed themselves, and so-there being no alternative-settled it that He was a heretic, a blasphemer, and a seditious leader. They, therefore, at once took measures which looked ultimately to the destruction of His influence with the people and to His judicial murder. At this we shall be less surprised when we reflect that as a powerful hierarchy becomes hollow and hypocritical, it magnifies the importance of formal orthodoxy. A departure from the established creed and the prevailing forms comes to be regarded by them with greater horror than open profligacy. In process of time, these self-constituted guardians of orthodoxy lose their power to discriminate between error and mere innovation-between reformation and heresy. Every one who refuses to submit with implicit faith to their decisions will, therefore, be condemned by them as a criminal, and, provided the power is not wanting, will be punished as such. Hence, every old and corrupt sect has always been ready to start the hue and cry of heresy and blasphemy, whenever a bold and zealous reformer has risen to expose and rebuke its corruption. Witness the anathematizing Church of Rome, drunk with the blood of the saints. Witness the treatment received at its hands by Luther, Melancthon, Zwingle, Cranmer, and even Arnauld, Pascal and Savonarola, to say nothing of hundreds of others of her own communion whose complaint and outcries were summarily stifled amidst the darkness and the damps of her inquisitorial dungeons. It matters not whether it be a Papal or a Pharisaical hierarchy; human nature is the same. Hence, Jesus was marked out for persecution and martyrdom. Such was the posture of the Pharisees at the time when this part of our narrative opens. There was imposed upon Jesus the necessity of asserting His entire independence |