DON’T BE A PHARISEE!
Matthew 9:11-13
The Pharisees were an influential religious sect within Judaism in the days of Jesus’ earthy ministry. This group was mostly comprised of middle-class businessmen and leaders of the synagogues. Though the Pharisees were a minority within the Sanhedrin (the Jewish High Court), they possessed great power and influence in Israel because of their popularity and support among the common Jews.
The Pharisees were men who put a great emphasis on the observance of the Mosaic Law. It was their belief that the Jews should faithfully observe all of the Laws written in the Torah (over 600 of them). The word “Pharisee” comes from a Hebrew word that means “separated”. Moral separation and obedience to God’s Law was not a bad thing, the problem was that the Pharisees motives were wrong. Their obedience was not based on sorrow for sin and love for God. Moreover, these men clearly lacked love, compassion and mercy for their fellow man.
The Pharisees also added to the commands of God and put a great focus on certain oral traditions that had been handed down from their ancestors. In many cases, these traditions were not inherently bad, but the Pharisees elevated their traditions to the level of scripture. On one occasion, Jesus said of the Pharisees “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.” (Matthew 15:8-9)
Rather than allowing the Law to expose their sin, reveal the glory of God and to serve as a standard for holy living, the Pharisees did what they did to be seen by others. Commenting on this, Jesus said, “They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4).
In their attempt to impress others with their devotion to God’s commands, the Pharisees lost sight of the Law’s true purpose. Several times in the Gospels, Jesus rebuked the pride, hypocrisy and self-righteousness of the Pharisees. The Lord said in Matthew 23:23, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others”.
As Christians, it is good and pleasing to God when we obey His commands. Such obedience is made possible because we are indwelt with and empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. However, we must guard against becoming modern day Pharisees. Our obedience should not come from a desire to impress others with our righteousness, nor should we obey in a misguided attempt to impress God. Rather, we should obey God because of our love for Him and our genuine appreciation for all that He has done for us.
As we arrive at our selected text, we find a great contrast in personalities. These verses show us the love and compassion that was exhibited by Matthew, (a man who has just been converted and transformed by Christ) and we also see the self-righteousness and condemnation that is exhibited by the Pharisees. There are many important lessons that we can learn from this event that took place in Matthew’s home. We should seek to be like Matthew and guard against acting like the Pharisees. I would like to survey the scene and consider the thought, “Don’t Be A Pharisee!”
In the opening verses of this chapter Jesus forgave and healed a man who was paralyzed. Moving on from there, Jesus saw Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. He invited that despised tax collector to leave everything behind and become one of His Disciples. Without hesitation, Matthew accepted the Savior’s call and began to follow Jesus.
In response to this new and glorious opportunity, Matthew invited many of his friends to his home and hosted a great feast. His friends were comprised of many other tax collectors and people who are simply described as “sinners”. The people who came to this feast were outcasts, men whom the Pharisees considered to be the scum of the earth. When they saw Jesus, Andrew, Peter, James & John fellowshipping with them, the Pharisees were offended and outraged.
It is a natural response for someone who has been transformed by Christ to reach out to their loved ones and attempt to bring them to Jesus. They have experienced the greatest change that one will ever experience in this life and they desire for those closest to them to experience Jesus as well. Tragically, over time many of these zealous converts experience a harmful transition of priorities. Love, mercy, compassion and devotion are replaced with legalism, judgment and condemnation. This is why it is important for us to survey the scriptures and ensure that we don’t become modern day Pharisees.
- Look with me to verse 11 as we consider:
I. THE OBSERVATION OF THE PHARISEES
v11a And when the Pharisees saw it,
Matthew says, “when the Pharisees saw it”, what they saw was Jesus and His Disciples fellowshipping with tax collectors and sinners. One of the major problems with the Pharisees is that it was not by chance that they saw things that they considered to be wrong, sinful, and contrary to God’s Law. Instead, they were on a constant search to find fault in others. Notice that:
A. PHARISEES FIND FAULT IN COMMON PEOPLE
The Pharisees were not just constantly challenging Jesus, they were on a never-ending quest to find fault in His followers and even common Jews who didn’t even profess faith in Christ. Jesus shared a parable that illustrated this fact in Luke 18:10-13, there He said:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’.
This parable reveals a major problem with the Pharisees back then and people who live as Pharisees today. They spend their time observing the actions of others and comparing themselves to them. When they do this, they feel much better about themselves and their own supposed righteousness. The Pharisees saw others as greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, etc. The problem with such a mindset is that the attitudes and actions of others is not the standard; Christ Jesus is the standard of holiness. Our only hope of justification, holiness and true righteousness is to surrender to Jesus and to be found in Him. Thankfully, as our selected text says, Jesus came as the physician for the sick and He came to call sinners unto repentance.
Sadly, Christians are quick to find fault with lost people and slow to tell them that there is a better way. There are times when we are so focused on their sinful lifestyles that we fail to show them mercy and introduce them to Jesus. The Pharisees would never have been successful in reaching the tax collectors and sinners for God. Their self-righteous actions show us that they never would have attempted to minister to them in the first place. They were too busy finding fault to show mercy.
Matthew on the other hand was quick to reach out to the outcast and do what he could to introduce them to the Savior. We should be like that brand new convert to Christ. We should meet people where they are. No matter who they are, what they have done, or where they have been we should seek to do all that we can to introduce them to Jesus.
- Pharisees not only find fault in common people; it is also true that:
B. PHARISEES FIND FAULT IN CHRIST’S FOLLOWERS
In the parallel account of this event, Luke tells us that the Pharisees and the Scribes not only complained against Jesus, they criticized His Disciples as well. They said, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (Luke 5:30).
There were several times when the Pharisees spoke out against the actions of the Lord’s Disciples. On one occasion they indicted them for breaking the Sabbath because they were hungry and began to pick heads of grain. (Reference: Matthew 12:1-2). Then in Matthew 15:1-2, “Jesus was approached by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, who asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat”. The Pharisees desired to expose what they perceived to be sin among the followers of Christ in an effort to discredit them.
Far too often members of the Church spend their time analyzing and criticizing the actions of other genuine disciples of Jesus. These people are devoted to the Savior and walking with Him on a daily basis. Yet they are criticized by other Christians for what they perceive to be flaws in their thinking and actions. We are never justified in being overly critical or condemning others simply because they do not think exactly the way we think or do things the way that we do them. Too often we spend much of our time observing and criticizing the actions of fellow Christians and sister churches when we should be addressing issues within our own lives and local assemblies.
There are times when we are like the Disciples who once saw a man casting out demons in Jesus’ name. They rebuked him because he was not following along with them. When they told Jesus what they had done, the Savior said, “Don’t stop him… because there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name who can soon afterward speak evil of me. For whoever is not against us is for us”. (Mark 9:39-40). This warning applies to us as well; therefore we must resist the urge to condemn our brothers and sisters in Christ in the way that many modern-day Pharisees do.
- Pharisees find fault in the common people; they find fault in Christ’s followers and:
C. PHARISEES FIND FAULT IN CHRIST HIMSELF
When the Pharisees saw Jesus dining with what they considered to be the worst that society had to offer, they found fault in Him. I have no doubt that the Pharisees were opposed to what was going on, but I also think that they were sure glad that they were there to see it. Why? Because it gave them a prime opportunity to challenge and accuse Jesus. From this point until they saw Him crucified, these men were constantly looking for reasons to come against the Savior.
Later in this very chapter, when Jesus cast a demon out of a mute man thus giving him the ability to speak, the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons.” (v34). Then in Matthew 12, Jesus entered the synagogue and there was a man with a withered hand. “And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Matthew tells us that they asked Jesus this “so that they might accuse him”. Jesus restored the man’s hand and as a result “the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him”. (Matthew 12:14).
There were many other instances in the Gospels where the Pharisees observed the works of Jesus and listened to His words, not out of a desire to know the truth, but in an attempt to discredit Him. There were even occasions when they would plant people in the crowds and ask Jesus questions that were specifically designed to entrap Him. The ultimate goal of the Pharisees was to “destroy” Jesus. They were on a constant quest to discredit Jesus, convince the people that His ministry was invalid, and to cause those who were following Him to turn away and prevent others from turning to Him.
Throughout the earthly ministry of Jesus, the Pharisees proved that their main concern was not God’s glory. It is consistently apparent that their focus was not on true righteousness. Furthermore, it is evident that the Pharisees possessed no compassion whatsoever for Matthew and the people who were gathered in his home.
Many of the people in the Church today who live in a manner similar to the Pharisees are not blatantly attempting to discredit or destroy Jesus. But like the Pharisees of old they are living lives that are contradictory to the teachings of our Savior. While He desires for His followers to extend mercy and compassion to others, many of His followers only offer judgement and condemnation. In their attempt to honor the Lord, they are actually dishonoring Him and harming His cause.
- Now that we have seen the observation of the Pharisees, let’s move a little further and examine:
II. THE OBJECTIONS OF THE PHARISEES
v11b they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
The Pharisees wanted to prove that Jesus’ ministry was invalid. When they saw Him reclining at the table with these outcasts of society, the Pharisees were of the opinion that no true prophet would sit and dine with “sinners”.
There was another occasion when a Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him in his own home. As Jesus reclined at the table in his house a woman from the town who is described as “a sinner” came and anointed Jesus feet with expensive perfume and washed His feet with her tears. This is truly one of the most beautiful moments in the life of the Savior. However, that judgmental Pharisee said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—she’s a sinner!” (Luke 7:39).
The Pharisees objected to Jesus and His Disciples dining with the sinners. They would never do such a thing themselves because they were more concerned with optics than they were outcasts. They want to be seen as holy at the expense of helping people. However, the very standard of holiness was right there before them and He helped people immediately and eternally. Furthermore, He was teaching and training His Disciples to do the same.
The sinless Savior possessed and extended compassion for the outcasts, the tax collectors, adulterers, prostitutes and many others who were morally corrupt and sinful. Like Matthew, we must show mercy and compassion to the outcast, to the immoral, and to anyone else that has been neglected and rejected by society and even the “religious crowd”. This reality is made abundantly clear in the following verses.
- So far we have seen the observation and the objections of the Pharisees, now let’s consider:
III. THE OFFENSES OF THE PHARISEES
When Jesus heard the hypocritical nonsense coming from the mouths of the self-righteous Pharisees, He said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick”. The Pharisees were of the opinion that they were spiritually healthy and their lives were pleasing to God because of their devotion to and observance of the Law. In reality, they were blind to the fact that spiritually speaking they were terminally ill.
It is only those who realize their true spiritual condition and their desperate need for salvation that will come to Jesus. Those who do come to Him will be healed spiritually and eternally. Jesus promised in John 6:37 that, “Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out”. Romans 10:13 declares that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”.
The Pharisees could not be healed because they would not acknowledge that they were sick. Untold millions of people in our day will not be saved because they refuse to acknowledge that they are lost. Tragically, many of them are just as religious as the Pharisees, and they are just as spiritually dead!
Jesus instructed the Pharisees to go and learn something very important. He said, “go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice”. This is a quote from God that is recorded in Hosea 6:6; there Yahweh said, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings”. The idea here is that mercy was more important to God than sacrifices or the observance of religious rituals. If the Pharisees were truly right with God, they would have been right there with Jesus and His Disciples ministering to the outcasts and sinners.
Our Lord dined and fellowshipped with sinners on a regular basis. Not once did He ever join in their sin or compromise His message. However, He used these moments to extend love, mercy and compassion. He taught them about truth, holiness and the Kingdom of God. In the process Jesus never shied away from pointing out the devastating consequences of dying without Him. In fact, He concludes His remarks to the Pharisees by saying “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Without fail, every time that Jesus associated with lost men and women He called on them to repent and believe in Him.
If we seek to honor the Lord, it is important for us to obey His commands but in the process we must also be like Matthew and not like the Pharisees. Instead of being self-righteous, legalistic, judgmental and condemning, we must extend love, mercy and compassion to those who are in the world around us.
Many people in the church are focused on rules, rituals and observances but their motives are wrong. They want to be seen as righteous by others, they want to feel good about themselves and they foolishly believe that they can impress God by how they live. They forget that apart from Christ their righteousness is as a filthy rag.
Such people are of the opinion that they are right with God because of the things they have done or are doing. Things such as a profession of faith, baptism, church membership and attendance, tithing, prayer, Bible study and Christian service. All of these things are admirable and they should be seen in the life of every true Christian. But these attributes are fruits of salvation, not the source of it. Our only hope of redemption and righteousness is surrendering to the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are some people in the Church today who are no different than the Pharisees in this passage. This is because they have never truly had an encounter with the Savior. They think that their works and morality will please God so much that He will welcome them into His Kingdom. If this describes you, please hear the words of Jesus in this passage and realize that He came as the Great Physician and the only hope that you have of being cured is to acknowledge that you are spiritually sick and turn to Him for the healing that only He can provide.
There are likely others here today who are in the same situation as the tax collectors and sinners there in Matthew’s house. You are lost and away from God. You may be the black sheep of your family and an outcast in society. Like the people in this passage, you have the opportunity to fellowship with Jesus, to learn from Him and ultimately to be healed by Him. The healing that I refer to is far more important than a physical healing, I am speaking of a healing that is spiritual and eternal. You see, if you have never been saved the Bible says you are worse than sick, it says that you are “dead in trespasses and sins”. The wonderful news is that there is a compassionate and merciful Savior who is willing to sit at the table and fellowship with you. Furthermore, it is His desire for you to repent and believe in Him. If you will, then you can be saved, forgiven of your sins, welcomed into the family of God and assured of eternal life and a home in Heaven.
Finally, there are others here today who are like Matthew. You have been called by Jesus and given the opportunity to follow Him and to be His disciple. Let me encourage you to do what Matthew did, reach out to your loved ones, reach out to the outcast, reach out to those whom this world sees as the scum of the earth and invite them to come to Jesus. Once they are in His presence, He will do the rest. Resist the temptation to be legalistic, judgmental and condemning. Like Matthew, follow the example of your Savior and offer people love, grace, mercy and compassion; and by all means DON’T BE A PHARISEE!!
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