1 Encounters Along the WayChrist’s Encounter with the Pharisees Mark 2:13-17, 7:1-8, and 11:18

2 The Pharisees: were men largely from the scribes and sages of the people of Israel. had a strict desire to experience separation from Gentiles, sources of ritual impurity or from irreligious Jews. strongly held to the laws and traditions of the Jewish people in the face of assimilation. were also known for their careful and exact interpretation of the Law and argued for a form of Judaism that extended beyond the Temple, maintaining that even ordinary activities in the everyday world could be sanctified and holy.

3 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:6-7) Blasphemy simply indicates that someone has engaged in an act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God. Blasphemy is a deeply and foundationally offensive act to the Jew; it is a direct offence against God. Christ’s first encounter with the Pharisees reveals to us a significant attitude of the Pharisees; they saw Jesus as irreligious and profane; a man who was through sacrilegious acts leading the people of Israel astray.

4 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Mark 2:16) The Pharisees “discontentedly complained” about Christ’s behaviour. Seeing Jesus with just the people they were dutifully bound to ignore caused the Pharisees to grumble in outright defiance against the actions of Jesus.

5 There was a growing dissatisfaction and opposition to Jesus amongst the Pharisees.The Pharisees “came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons” (Mark 3:22). Not only were the Pharisees complaining about Christ’s actions, nor were they only commenting on what they viewed as sketchy theology, they were now at a point where they were attributing His activities to Satan and labelling Him demonic. In the eyes of the Pharisees, Jesus was a condemnable individual.

6 “The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

7 “He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” In “washing his hands”, the Pharisees was ritually cleaning away any impurity or possible residue of contact with something profane. Jesus discerns that though they were outwardly pure, inwardly something was seriously off. Their separation from sin had somehow completely missed the mark.

8 The Pharisees loved to create an “us vs. them” duality.Because Jesus refused to separate Himself from “sinners and tax collectors”, the Pharisees sought ways to discredit Him. When they could not discredit Him, they judged that He was worthy of death “The chief priests and the teachers of the law .. began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching”. (Mark 11:18) The eventual outcome of judgment is always condemnation.

9 As followers of Jesus, we are called to discern sin and not to judge sinners.There is a separation from sin for the follower of Jesus that is helpful and fitting. In a distinct way, the follower of Jesus is to be set apart, separate from the world, but we are to be separate by our behaviour and attitudes rather than separate in proximity to sin or “sinners”. We are to practice discernment and not judgment. The journey from discernment to judgement can be a short trip; we can quickly and nearly unperceptively slip into judgment.

10 Discernment is the practice of “perceiving clearly or mentally separating something”.Central in the practice of discernment is a willingness to see sin corrected, to see restoration to community occur. We discern sin, so that we can identify it, address it and see restoration occur. Discernment is helpful and restorative.  Judgment on the other hand describes “an opinion or estimate, criticism or censure, power of comparing or deciding”. Judgment assumes power and the right to exercise power and at the core of judgment is a desire to see the other person condemned or excluded from community. Judgement is foundationally distorted because none of us can fully see what God sees, and judgment belongs to Him.

11 Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery (John 8)Far from an isolated incident, Jesus himself in John 12:47 revealed that He “did not come to judge the world, but to save the world” and in Luke 6:37, urges his followers with these words: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven”. If, as we’ve seen, the Pharisees tended to lean heavily toward judgment, while Jesus in both action and teaching leaned heavily toward the uses of discernment, how ought we as followers of Jesus orient ourselves; toward judgment and condemnation or toward discernment and restoration? When tension exists with another person, do you write them off or do you embrace them seeking restoration?

12 Christ instituted a very powerful sacrament for us in communion.It’s hard to eat a meal with someone while you’re actively condemning them, isn’t it? “I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval … Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.” (1 Corinthians 11:18,19, 28, 29) The Corinthians had slipped into patterns of judgement rather than the discerning of the body of Christ inherent in the meal. Do you embody the judgment of the Pharisees or do you embody the discernment and bent toward restoration lauded in Scripture?