What Did Jesus Say about the Rabbis' Predecessors? Part Four: The Tyranny of the Pharisees

[Previous parts of this topic may be found:

Part One: Why Did Jesus Appear

Part Two: The Sermon on the Mount

Part Three: Matthew 23]

As the Israelite society developed over the centuries before Christ's appearance, the influence of heretical Phariseic concepts became more and more prevalent.  By Christ’s time the Pharisees were firmly in control exercising a tyrannical restraint based on enforcement of the Pharisees' laws and rules. Their system was rigid and allowed no exceptions.  Compassion and mercy were not active ingredients.  The Pharisees and scribes kept a constant watch for deviations from the traditions.  They punished offenders mercilessly. The joy of living God’s creation and living in His company were absent.

A law-bound society led by a legalistic and oppressive 'priesthood' was certainly not what God intended. 

Phariseic or Talmud-influenced societal organization follows a pattern of egregious oppression where a privileged elite terrorizes the majority. Two examples exist in the modern world: the Soviet Union and the Israeli rule of the Palestinians.  In the first case the Russian Revolution and the subsequent developments were led primarily (and way out of proportion to their percent of the population) by individuals who had matured and been educated in the Pharisee's Talmudic world outlook, just as Karl Marx had been. In Palestine, the Talmud-based Israeli government directly controls the Palestinian population.  In both cases, as in Jesus' time, the subjects were under a strict and severe rule that knew no compassion. Those who did not toe the line were quickly punished and ostracized. Even the show trials in the Soviet Union and the frame-up style trials in Palestine were foreshadowed in Jesus' trial where procedures based on objective evidence, justice and rights of the accused were non-existent.

Jesus incarnated into the Israelites' society with a mission to offer himself in sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. He had two goals to accomplish:  to terminate the Phariseic claim to be representing God, and to set in motion the new Church that could being humanity to God.  To accomplish these aims He had to:

• Expose the Pharisees' hypocrisy, 
• Bring authentic teaching to the Israelites and others, 
• Gather a cadre who would be the leadership of His church, 
• Teach and train this cadre in God’s ways, 
• Set an example of what a man of God is like, 
• Ensure that the concept of a priesthood to humanity is understood, 
• Show concretely how compassion, mercy, and love are inseparable from being Godly, and
• Demonstrate one hundred per cent fidelity to doing God’s will without exception, if necessary unto death.
  

Thus Jesus meant to accomplish a revolution in the context of and against the Pharisee's dictatorial society described here.  This attitude was expressed when He said, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth:  I have not come to bring peace, but a sword."  (Matthew 10:34) 

He was both audacious and cautious.  He taught with authority bringing the full message of God to His hearers, which caused a direct conflict with the Pharisees.  At the same time, He was cautious, never giving the Pharisees gratuitous ammunition. He was reluctant to perform miracles because it would have given the Pharisees an opportunity to accuse Him of being possessed by Beezebub. He did not reveal that He was the Son of God until the end of His ministry because He knew the Pharisees would have considered His claim as blasphemy and would have sought to kill Him. He spoke in parables so that He could make His case against the Pharisees without confronting them directly prematurely.  When He cured people, He asked them to tell no one, to go to the priests and to make the appropriate offering, again to prevent the Pharisees from making accusations and seeking to kill Him.  When the Pharisees became too threatening, Jesus withdrew into remote areas. 

Everything Jesus did and said was conditioned by the tyrannical Phariseic society and by the threatening presence of the Phariseic enforcers.  

Jesus chose His battles with the Pharisees carefully for maximum effectiveness when He could protect Himself and His devotees. A consideration was always how to handle a situation without provoking the Pharisees prematurely. 

Such was the situation that the Son of God found Himself in – an extremely hostile environment where everything that was done and said had to be carefully regarded. It was all necessary in order to stay alive long enough to found His Church.  Jesus showed His ever-present awareness of His situation when in Mathew 10:26 He said to his disciples, “Behold I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” 

[Part five will discuss Jesus' parables.]