Unrighteous Wealth (14) Pharisee and the Tax Collector

We think of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector is parable about hypocrisy, but this not quite right. Hypocrisy is pretending that you are better than you are. The Pharisee was not pretending. He thought he was better, but he was wrong about righteousness.

This parable is part of a series of parables about unrighteous wealth. Jesus directed it towards people who “trusted in themselves that they are righteous”. The Pharisee explains the basis for his righteousness. He tithed a tenth of “everything that he acquired”. Jesus said that he did not go home justified as righteous before God.

The reason is that tithing on wealth does not make it righteous. The righteousness of wealth depends on how it is acquired, not on how much is tithed. Acquisition of wealth must be consistent with God’s Instructions for Economic Life. The Pharisee failed to meet that standard, so he was benefiting from unrighteous wealth. It looked fine on the outside, but he was actually no better than a tax collector.

The tax collector was not an innocent bureaucrat. Tax collectors were instruments of the Roman Empire. They extracted as much wealth from the people as they could get. They paid what the owed to the Romans, and kept the rest for themselves. Being a tax collector was a good way to becomes rich, but it was unrighteous wealth. The tax collector in the parable know that and asked God for mercy.

The message of the parable is that the person who acquires unrighteous wealth is no better than the tax collector. They might do good things with their wealth, but that does not change their character.

This is a serious warning for modern Christians. They are easy about how the obtain their wealth, but they assume that tithing and other Christian activities makes it right. It does not.

International Pharisaism

Classic pharisaism was clearly demonstrated by Jesus’ parable of the pharisee and the tax collector.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted (Luke 18:9-14)

The Pharisee trivialised his own sin, by pointing up at the sin of someone who seemed to be worse. This is a common method for dealing with sin. Point the finger at someone who is worse than you, and your own sins suddenly seem less serious. Find someone bad enough and you can feel almost good.

This Pharisee method is popular in international politics.

Their problem is that deep down, most national leaders know that they are guilty of misusing their power. They take actions that are morally dubious to advance their nations interest. They deal with this ambiguity using the Pharisee method. They justify their actions by shifting attention to some other president or king who is far worse. It does not matter which nation is picked on, as long as there is a general consensus that it is really evil.

International Pharisaism is shaping the international response to events in Syria.

Bashar al-Assad of Syria is not very nice. The business and military powerbrokers behind his him could be even worse. However, the nations who are making the greatest fuss about him all have records that are embarrassing too.

• The United States, the United Kingdom, France and Israel are the nations most stirred up about the possible use of chemical weapons. They each have a significant stock of nuclear weapons, and claim the right to use them. These weapons kill indiscriminately. If used they would kill millions of children.

• These four nations are amongst the world’s leading exporters of military weapons. These weapons are wreaking havoc on human lives all over the world.

• The United Kingdom probably used chemical weapons in Mesopotamia, but it has refused to acknowledge it. The British hero Winston Churchill advocated the use of chemical weapons to control colonial rebellions, saying:
  

  I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes.

• The United Kingdom has supplied chemicals that can be used to produce weapons to various countries. In the past it provided technical advice on how to produce them.

• The United States used depleted-uranium shells in Iraq. These cause indiscriminate deformation of human lives.

• The coalition of the will killed thousands of children in Iraq, first by sanctions, and then by military force. Can anyone remember what good that achieved?

• Israel used white phosphorous bombs in Gaza in 2008, although the weapons seem to be banned by international conventions.

• Saudi Arabia is grandstanding against Syria, but it funds and organises terrorist activity all over the world.

• After 9/11 numerous prisoners were “rendition” to Syria, so they could be interrogated/tortured by the CIA outside US legal jurisdiction. The United States has encouraged Syrian nastiness

I could go on....

Bogeyman Politics

The political world always seems to have a bogeyman that everyone picks on. Political leaders love to beat their chests and point the figure at the evil dictator.

Once it was Idi Amin. Then Muammar Gaddafi filled the bill. When Tony Blair brought him in from the cold, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia stepped up to take his place. Once he had been deposed, Saddam Hussein became the leader that the world hates, although he had been an ally of the United States. Once he was gone, the politicians of the world needed a new bogeyman to ostracise. They tried President Ahmadinejad of Iran, but once they realised that his power is limited and that he will step down after the next election, they realised he could not fulfil the role, so Muammar Gaddafi was bought back in for another innings, but he did not last for long. Now President Bashar al-Assad of Syria is the evilest man in the world.

None of these guys were very nice, and the world is better off without them all, but I am struck by the hypocrisy of it all. Hillary Clinton rants to the United Nations about the evil President Assad attacking his own citizens, but when the King of Bahrain attacks his citizens, she is strangely silent, because he provides America with a military base.

A dozen other American “allies” are no better, and many are worse than Bashar al-Assad. The Saudi Arabian kings and princes have never been elected. They are suppressing their own citizens and funding violent activity all over the world, but they are okay, because the West needs their oil. Many of the dictators of central Asia are worse, but the West does not want them slipping into the Chinese orbit.

William Haig, the British Foreign Secretary berates Bashar al-Assad of Syria in a voice that is a bizarre mixture of whining and pompous, but he ignores the fact that many of the problems in the Middle East arise the way that the British and the French chopped up the region after the first world war.

Presidents and Prime Ministers line up to point the finger at the evil dictator that the world has chosen to hate during the current season. This is just like Jesus’ parable of the pharisee and the tax collector.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted (Luke 18:9-14)

The Pharisee trivialised his own sin, by pointing up at the sin of someone who appeared to be worse. This is a common method for dealing with sin. Point the finger at someone who is worse than you, and your own sins suddenly seem less serious. Find someone bad enough and you will feel almost good.

This Pharisee method is popular with politicians, too.

Their problem is that deep down, most political leaders know that they are guilt of misusing power that does not truly belong to them. They make decision that they do not have a mandate to make. They have used their power for personal benefit. Without the cross of Jesus, they have no alternative but to use the Pharisee method. They make themselves feel better, by shifting the attention to someone who is much worse. That is why they always need a political bogeyman to point their fingers at. It does not matter who this person is, as long as there is a general consensus that they are really evil. This is why they politicians always agree on who is the bogeyman, even though they could not agree on many other things.

The more evil the bogeyman can be painted, the more justified the politicians feel.

As an aside, politicians have been able to take on the role of exposing evil, because prophets to the nations have been missing in church, or silent. Confusing prophetic and political roles dangerous. Prophets, judges and military leaders have different roles that must be kept separate. See Prophetic Ministry.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (12) - Different Kingdom

The Kingdom of God is totally different from the kingdoms of man.

Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that” (Luke 22:25-26).

We do not get this. In the Kingdom of man, the political rulers lord it over other people while claiming to be their benefactors.

Most Christians find the modern political system acceptable, but they believe that it would work better, if Christians controlled it. They assume that in the Kingdom of God, Christians will lord it over other people and be their benefactors. This implies that the Kingdom can come if Christians gain a majority in Parliament or Congress.

If we believe this, we have missed the point of Jesus statement. When the Kingdom of God comes, the reins of power will not change hands, but will disappear. The kingdom of God means freedom. There will be no “lording over” by anyone, and especially not by Christians. Christians should not seek to control the political system, because the political system is part of what is wrong with the modern world.

In the kingdom of God, we will not need parliaments to make laws, because we will use God’s law. People will be led by the Spirit, so they will not need politicians to make them do good. If Jesus is Lord, then the political powers are not. As the Kingdom of God grows, the power of the political system must decline and disappear.

This is the final post in this series. The full series can be found here.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (11) - Worst Woe

The worst woe is the final warning that Jesus gave to the leaders of Jerusalem.

Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Matt 23:38,39).

This solemn warning was fulfilled in AD 70. Jerusalem was besieged by the Roman armies and destroyed. All the residents of the city were slaughtered, including the Pharisees and Teachers who had challenged Jesus.

The seats where the Pharisees and Teachers sat were destroyed. Moses seat is not a safe place to be sitting. The seat from which law is given is God’s seat. He will not let anyone sit on it; not even Moses.

Politicians and rulers who pretend to sit on Moses seat today are also sitting in a dangerous place. Before the Kingdom of God can come, human kingdoms will have to be swept away. The time will come when the human parliaments and congresses are also left desolate.

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty… hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne (Rev 6:15-16).

Human legislators are not needed in the Kingdom of God, so parliaments and congresses will empty out as the kingdom comes. They will be left desolate and empty. Those who will not submit to the Spirit will be swept away by the evil they have created.

The people of Jerusalem were so shocked by the suggestion that the temple would be destroyed, that they just could not even understand what Jesus was saying. We feel the same way about the British Houses of Parliament and the American Capitol building. Nevertheless, they will not be needed in the Kingdom of God.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (10) - Attacking the Prophets

The Pharisees and teachers are the descendents of those who killed the prophets. Jesus was a prophet, but even while he was speaking, they had resolved to kill him (Luke 11:53).

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! (Matt 23:29-32).

The prophets were killed by kings and politicians, who then attempted to rewrite history and make it seem that they were on the side of the good. The truth is very different.

We do not have many staunch prophets in our time. We lack men of courage to challenge the evils of the age. However, we can be certain of one thing. If prophetic voices do arise, they will be attacked by the politicians and powers. Nothing has changed.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (9) - Making Things Worse

The Pharisees and Teachers were experts at making bad things worse.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are (Matt 23:15).

Politicians are also experts at creating hell on earth. The twentieth century was a season of democracy and human government. The power of politicians increased enormously. More laws were passed during the century than had been passed in the previous millennium.

The impact of all this government was to make things worse. The world experience two terrible world wars and many smaller wars. The economy went down as often as it went up. Billions of dollars was spent on social policy, but social problems are now worse than ever. Democracy and government have made millions of converts, but they have not made the world a better place. Instead, they have created many minor hells.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (8) - External Behaviour

The Pharisees and Teachers were with obsessed with external behaviour.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean (Matt 23:25,26).

They concentrated on behaving well. The problem was that they were full of greed and self indulgence on the inside.

Politicians have the same problem, because their only tool for changing the world is new laws. However, laws are limited, because they only affect external behaviour. Laws cannot change people’s hearts.

Christians know that most evil comes out of human hearts, so the only way to get rid of evil is to change hearts. The Holy Spirit can change hearts; the law cannot. Politicians cannot change hearts, so they have to focus on changing external behaviour. This may resolve some problems, but it does not get to the heart of the issue.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness (Matt 23:27,28).

This sounds like a good description of modern politicians. They look great on television, but when their hearts are revealed, the picture is not so nice.

This is the last post on this topic for a while. I will give the Politicians and Pharisees a break until after the season of good will is over.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (7) - Shutting up the Kingdom

Jesus criticised the Pharisees and Teachers for preventing the people from entering the Kingdom of God.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to (Matt 23:13).

Politicians create human kingdoms. They offer salvation to everyone who joins their kingdom, but there promises always fail, just as human salvation always fails. The kingdom of man always fall short of what it promises.

The worst thing about these human political kingdoms is that they blind people to the kingdom of God. Not only do politicians refuse to enter into the Kingdom of God themselves, but they shut the door in the face of others as well.

Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering (Luke 11:52).

Poltiticians and Pharisees (6) - Obssession with Detail

The Pharisees and Teachers had an obsession with detail.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel (Matt 23:23-24)

This always happens to those who believe in salvation by law. Some behaviour always escapes their rules, so they have to bring in more and detail in attempt to pin everything down. They always fail, and eventually the law gets so complex and detailed that even those who made it do not understand what it means.

Modern politicians have this same obsession with detail. They produce dozens of new laws every year. Every few years they go back to older laws and add more detail about issues that are not clear. This additional detail just adds to confusion. In most Western nations the volume of law is so great than even a lawyer cannot understand the law in its entirety. They specialise in understanding a small area of law. Pity the poor citizen who is expected to understand and obey every law.

God’s law has a beautiful simplicity. It could be written on two tablets of stone. God knew that it is impossible to cover every possible situation. He simply gave the general principles and left the people to apply these to their own situation. Anyone can understand the concept of theft. We do not need hundreds of laws and regulations to explain it to us.

Politicians have a marvellous ability to make trivia seem important, but almost no ability to establish justice, mercy and faithfulness. While they pass laws to foster sport and purify speech, injustice continues to flow down like a river.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (5) - Pride

Jesus accused the Pharisees and Teachers of being motivated by pride.

Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi’ (Matt 23:5-7).

Politicians also need a fair dose of pride, or they would not take on the job of telling other people how to live. Why would they know better than God or other men, how people should live?

Politicians claim to be humble servants, but they always end up meeting in a lush parliament building, with high salaries, the best cars, and good titles.
Telling other people how they should live is quite arrogant. Being a bible teacher or blogger is fairly arrogant. The teacher claims to understand the Bible better than other people do. The only mitigation is that other people can choose to ignore the Bible teacher or blogger; and they frequently do.

Politicians take this arrogance to another level. Not only do they claim to no better than other people how they should live, they also want to force other people to live their way. Politicians pass laws that force other people to live by the politicians’ standards. That is the ultimate arrogance.

The serpent promised Adam and Eve that they would be able to decide the difference between good an evil. This was a lie, as the only way to know the difference between good and evil is to listen to God. Politicians are part of a long line of people who believe they can legislate the difference between good and evil. Their father is the father of lies.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (4) - Hypocrisy

The Pharisees and Teachers loved to tell other people what to do, but they did not do what they said that people should do.

do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them (Matt 23:3,4).

Stories about politicians falling into immorality are so common that we hardly notice them any more. They are human, so we cannot condemn them for sinning. However, the frailty of the politicians becomes a problem when they think that the can tell other people how they should live. It becomes an even greater problem, because they can force us to obey their laws and regulations.

Most politicians seem to lead fairly dysfunctional lives. If they cannot manage their own lives, how can the make laws that will determine the way the rest of the people should live. We are all capable of making our own mistakes. We do not need politicians forcing us to make their mistakes.

Our government recently passed a law making illegal election over-spending legal. This is normal political behaviour. Here we have politicians who could not keep their own law making laws for the rest of us to obey. Hypocrisy is the only word for it.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (3) - Heavy Load

Some Christian politicians will claim that they are just explaining God’s law and applying it to modern situations. The problem with this is that they are using the same method as the Pharisees. They would also have said that their regulations updated God’s law to the situation of their time. Unfortunately, Jesus was opposed to this method.

They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them (Matt 23:4).

The Pharisees approach does not help people obey the law, it actually makes it harder. The heavy burden makes them hostile to the law. God prefers that people think about what the law means and work out for themselves how to live under it. This is more effective than a whole lot of confusing and burdensome regulations.

Jesus critique of the Pharisees applies to all people claiming to sit on Moses seat. His critique is particularly relevant to modern members of parliament and congress.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (2) - Not Moses Seat

Jesus attacked the Pharisees and Teachers, showing that they did not and could not sit on Moses seat, but were hypocrites and impostors. Jesus had no problem with people teaching the law, he actually blessed those who do.

… whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:19).

Teaching the law brings great blessings. What Jesus objected to was those who added to God’s law.

God has given his law and it is complete. No one can sit on Moses seat, because no one can add to God’s law. Moses seat does not exist, because there is no ministry of law-giving for modern people to fulfil. That task was completed when God gave his law to Moses. There is a need for people to teach the law. There is a need for prophets to urge people to obey and fulfil the law through faith, but there is no ministry of law-giving. Moses seat does not exist in the scriptures.

All members of parliament, congress or law-making assemblies are claiming to “sit on Moses Seat”. They are claiming to be law-makers like Moses. Their problem is that God has already given his law through Moses his prophet, and he does not need anyone to add to it.

Poltiticians and Pharisees (1) - Moses Seat

Jesus spoke seven woes against the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law. Matthew 23 records the harshest criticism that he made of any group of people. This should disturb modern politicians, as there are strong parallels between their activities and style and those attacked so strongly by Jesus.

The cornerstone of Jesus criticism is that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law claim to sit on “Moses seat”.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat (Matt 23:2).

Sitting on Moses seat was a strange expression. I presume that it was a title that the Pharisees and teachers of the law had given to themselves. The problem is that this role does not exist. It is not a legitimate ministry. (When Jesus told the people to obey what they say and not what they do, he must have been kidding to make a point, because he clearly did not intend the people to obey the Pharisees.)

Moses did not have a seat from which he gave out laws. In fact, Moses did not give laws. His was a prophetic role. He stood before God and then spoke and wrote the law that had been revealed to him. Responsibility for defending the law rested with the prophets. They were the ones who challenged Israel for not obeying the law.

The Pharisees and Teachers were not prophets. They claimed an ability to explain and interpret the law. They introduced hundreds of detailed rules and regulation to help people keep the law. They considered that the law on its own did not give enough guidance to ordinary people. They added extra rules and regulations to help them understand how they should live. This is why they claimed to sit on Moses seat. They were giving extra rules and laws to expand what Moses had given. Their underlying position was that God’s law was not enough.

Rich People

Many Christians are concerned about inequality and worry about rich people becoming richer. There are six ways that a person can become rich.

1. Discover a new technique or product that everyone wants.
2. Work hard and saving everything for a lifetime.
3. Be born into a rich family.
4. Win a lottery.
5. Steal money from someone.
6. Get the government to take actions that creates a monopoly or favourable situation for a business.

The first three ways seem to be legitimate. Henry Ford became rich because he made cars available to ordinary people. He did not force anyone to work for him or buy his cars.

No 2 might be stupid. Most Christians would say four is wrong. 5 and 6 are definitely wrong.

When criticising the rich we need to be careful that we do not drop into thinking like the Pharisees. I find it ironic that when people rail against the rich getting richer, they are ususally referring to people that are a little richer than they are. The hard truth is that anyone reading this is among the richest group of people who have ever lived on earth. There is nothing to stop us from selling everything and giving it to the poor. Certainly the economic system does not stop us from doing this.

The problem is that being generous is never enough for Pharisees. They always want to make other people generous too. This is where progressive taxation comes in. The implicit argument goes like this. If I were rich, I would be generous. The rich people are not as good as me, so they cannot be trusted to be generous of their own accord. They should be forced to be generous. We should tax the rich more, so the money can be used for the poor.

My problem is that I cannot see Jesus forcing other people to be generous.