Tag Archives: Pharisee

Amidst the Conflict

April 11, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
Matthew 12:32 (NIV)

My heart is heavy and sad this morning. I have recently found myself in the midst of many conflicts. I don’t like conflict. I confess that I don’t do it particularly well. I happen to be married to an Enneagram Type 8 for whom conflict is a form of intimacy. I, as an Enneagram Type 4, find that conflict triggers my deep sense of shame. It means we’ve had to learn some creative dance moves when it comes to conflict.

The conflict I’ve been experiencing lately is not with Wendy, however. It’s not really even with me. It’s within a human system of which I’m a part. Members of that system are drowning in negativity toward others. When I have to be around it I’m left feeling like my soul is soiled. It’s like I crave a spiritual and emotional shower. Even if I take one, I’m left with an acute sense of sadness as I’m drying off.

Perhaps it’s a bit of synchronicity that today’s chapter is focused on the conflict between Jesus and his most caustic critics. Ironically, it was the institutional religious establishment who led the opposition to Jesus. The Pharisees, in particular, were a powerful political constituency in the leadership of the Hebrew religious system of that day. Matthew offers a trinity (there’s that number three again from Matthew the Quirk) of episodes highlighting the conflict. Matthew focuses on the religious leaders motives:

“But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.”

“But when the Pharisees heard [that Jesus healed a demon possessed man], they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”

“Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.'”

What Matthew makes obvious is that there was zero openness to Jesus’ teaching. They viewed Jesus as a threat. He was a wrench in the human religious system they controlled; A system that was the source of their personal power. Everything they did was motivated by a self-centered desire to maintain personal control of the system that fed their ego, social status, and religious self-righteousness. Theirs was a system of exclusivity and strict adherence to social, cultural, and traditional norms. Jesus was an outsider. He didn’t fit any of the norms, and He possessed both power and authority that threatened them. Whenever a fundamentalist system built on exclusivity encounters such as threat, it will always circle the wagons and declare the threat evil.

What struck me this morning as I read these three episodes is the contrast between Jesus’ actions and teachings and the reactions of his enemies. His disciples, hungry, simply and casually slid their hands over heads of grain as they walked through the field in order to have a snack. A man with a hand shriveled and disfigured is miraculously healed. A demon-possessed man is freed from the evil that had captured and kidnapped his body and soul.

These are all good things.

Jesus’ enemies declares them all evil.

In the midst of Jesus’ response, He famously mentions that there is one sin that is unforgivable, and that is to “speak against” the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? It means exactly what His opponents are doing. To look at something good and call it evil. To oppose what God is doing with selfish motives. To exclude those whom God loves and in whom God is working for personal gain and self-satisfaction.

Which brings me back to my sadness. The personal attacks. The whispered, salacious accusations. The threats used as systemic leverage. I’m reminded this morning that Jesus’ death and resurrection did not change evil. For now, evil remains and perpetuates the same systemic paradigms that Jesus faced in today’s chapter. What Jesus’ death and resurrection did change is me. As a disciple of Jesus, I am called to navigate, be present, and participate in broken human systems and the evil I find within them in order to bring the power and presence of God’s love and shalom as I best as I am able.

I confess that most of the time I don’t want to do so.

Did I mention that I hate conflict?

In the quiet this morning, God’s Spirit whispers to my spirit: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” I guess that means following Him into unhealthy human systems in which evil wreaks havoc and perpetuates conflict.

The words of an old hymn rise from the memory banks in reply as I contemplate Holy Week next week, and as I think about Good Friday in seven days:

King of my life, I crown thee now.
Thine shall the glory be.
Lest I forget thy thorn-crowned brow
Lead me to Calvary.
Lest I forget Gethsemane.
Lest I forget Thine agony.
Lest I forget thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary.

Speaking of Holy Week, I’m going to take next week off. I’ll be back after Resurrection Day. Cheers!

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

Opposition!

December 3, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”
Mark 2:18 (NIV)

One of the things that I have learned along my life journey and in my career is that when you step up into the spotlight in front of a group of people, and you have something to say, you make yourself an easy target. When the something you have to say pushes against the orthodoxy of whatever group you’re addressing, then you’re an easy target stirring a hornet’s nest.

Mark’s biography of Jesus is the shortest of the four biographies of Jesus known as the “gospels” (Gospel means “good news”). In fact it’s 3700 words shorter than the next one on the list as far as word count (John) and almost 10,700 words shorter than Luke’s account.

What that means is that Mark is moving fast through the story and he’s only sharing the essentials. John wrote at the end of his biography that if all the stories were told about Jesus that could be told then all the libraries in the world could not contain them all. So, it begs the question of me as a reader, what can I learn from the choices Mark is making?

In today’s chapter, Mark shares four quick scenes from the early days of Jesus’ ministry. In each of the four, Jesus’ words or actions are challenged by others. Three of the four challenges come from different constituencies.

Jesus tells a man that his sins are forgiven, and “teachers of the law” told him he’d committed blasphemy. “Teachers of the law” refers to Scribes, which can be considered vocational lawyers who spent their lives interpreting the Law of Moses (the first five books of the Bible).

In the next scene, Jesus is having dinner with His new disciple, Levi (Matthew). Matthew was a tax collector, which meant he was seen as a Roman collaborator, he had money, and he didn’t hang out with good, religious Jews. Jesus is challenged by “teachers of the law who were Pharisees.” The Pharisees were a quasi-political party who held sway over the Jewish religion in Jesus’ day. So these challengers were not only vocational lawyers, but they were members of the most powerful political party within the rulers of Judaism. They challenged Jesus for mingling with socially and religiously unacceptable people.

As Jesus is beginning His ministry, His cousin John the Baptist, is at the height of his own popularity. John was rogue preacher. The same religious and political establishment who challenged Jesus, challenged John as well. John had a huge following with a lot of his own disciples. So in this next scene, it becomes clear that John has his disciples fasting and they notice that Jesus’ disciples are not. I love that Mark mentions “some people” who questioned this because along my life journey I’ve had many experiences with being told that “some people” have taken issue with something I’ve said or done. Even Jesus is getting the “some people” challenges from within the constituency of people who would naturally be His likely supporters and followers.

The final scene Mark shares has to do with rule-keeping. This time it is the straight-out members of the Pharisees who challenge the fact that Jesus’ disciples were picking off grain in a field for an afternoon snack. It happened to be the Sabbath, a religious day of rest that Pharisees policed to a fault.

In these four scenes, mark is telling us:

Jesus claimed to have the divine authority to forgive sins, and did a miracle to prove it. The religious establishment called it blasphemy.

Jesus socialized with people who were socially unacceptable to the fundamentalist and orthodox religious set.

Even the anti-establishment, populist types who were followers of John and were keenly interested in what Jesus was doing challenged the fact that He didn’t demand the same rigorous spiritual disciplines that John did.

And Jesus taught His disciples to follow the Spirit of the law of the Sabbath and not worry so much about the rule-keeping bureaucrats who took it upon themselves to police such things and punish the rule-breakers. Those rule-keeping bureaucrats got stirred up like hornets when Jesus claimed that His authority as “Lord of the Sabbath” trumped their authority as bureaucratic, establishment minions.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded of a quote by Albert Einstein who said that “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” I can’t help but be reminded that life is not only full of challenges, but also challengers. Mark seems to be telling me that Jesus Himself was challenged and opposed on all sides by both His supporters and His detractors. In the same way, I can expect to be challenged when I am being who God calls me to be, doing what God calls me do to, just like Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus, I already know what He expects of me when challenged. It starts in my spirit which He tells me should be love, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. It then comes out in the form of blessing and praying for those who challenge me, hate me, and say all sorts of bad things about me. Jesus said,

“Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”
Matthew 5:11-12 (MSG)

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

False Fronts

March 3, 2020 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing;
another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
Proverbs 13:7 (NIV)

Looks can be deceiving.

It’s one of those basic truths that I find myself conveniently forgetting time and time and time again. That perfect image being broadcast for everyone to see on Facebook and Instagram hides the inner shambles of life. The billionaire turns out to be bankrupt. A child buries his poor, elderly parents and is shocked to find out from the estate attorney that they’ve had millions all along.

The amazing little town where we live in Iowa was founded by Dutch settlers. We celebrate the Dutch heritage to the point that visitors from the Netherlands regularly comment that we are “more Dutch than the Dutch.” If you do business in our town your building (even the fast food places and national retail chains) has to have what we call a “Dutch front” with decorative flourishes that fit in with the town’s Hollander motif. In some of the old buildings downtown, the cute Dutch front you see from the street might easily hide a ramshackle, interior mess desperately in need of updating and renovation. It’s not unlike a set on a stage that looks amazing from the audience but actually hides bare lumber on a hollow, dark backstage.

Over the years, the concept of “Dutch front” has taken on a deeper metaphorical meaning for me. Religion regularly puts forth a false exterior of purity, piety, and self-righteousness for the world to see, while the interior life hides all sorts of dark desires, appetites, thoughts, and deeds. It is the same thing Jesus addressed with the religious leaders and teachers (part of a religious faction called the Pharisees):

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.
Matthew 23:25-28 (MSG)

In the quiet this morning, I’m finding it hard to look at the spec of dust in the Pharisee’s eye and ignore the log in my own. The truth is that I can be just as guilty of wanting to be seen by others in the best light while keeping my flaws, faults, failures, and foibles conspicuously hidden.

As I walk the spiritual path of the season of Lent, one of the key practices to which I’m called is honest introspection. For non-believers or the non-religious, it’s basically the same thing as Step Four of the Twelve Steps: made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

And so, I find myself desiring this morning to be authentic in how I present myself to the world. I don’t want to hide behind a facade of piety (projecting false spiritual wealth to the world while I’m actually struggling because my spiritual reserve account is overdrawn), nor do I want to hide behind a facade of false humility (projecting to the world that I’m spiritually destitute while having a spiritual inheritance as a child of the Creator). To be honest, I’m not always sure where that balance is, but I know it starts with me being authentic in how I present myself whether it be in my work, my neighborhood, my relationships, my social media posts, these blog posts, or among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers.

The prayer that is welling up in my spirit this morning is actually a show tune. Here’s the YouTube for you. (Shout out to our friend Brystal for inspiring us with this. Your message that morning still resonates!)

Todays featured photo courtesy of ucffool via Flickr.

Chapter-a-Day

Jesus Goes “All In”; Seals Deal

April 12, 2017 Tom Vander Well 3 Comments

Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
Matthew 23:32 (NIV)

There are times when focusing on one chapter each day risks losing continuity of the story that is important for the sake of context. Today is one of those days.

When we left yesterday’s chapter, Jesus had been teaching in the public courts of the Temple in Jerusalem during His final, climactic week of earthly life. The leaders of the institutional Hebrew religion had sent waves of envoys to test Jesus with hot political and religious questions of their day. They wanted to get a sound byte they could use to discredit Jesus, who was a threat to their power and religious racket. Jesus deftly answered each question then went on the offensive and stumped them with a question of their own.

This is a high stakes game being played between Jesus and the religious leadership. They want Jesus dead and out of the way so that they can carry on with their lives of localized power and greedy luxury. Jesus knows this, and having successfully played the cards in His hand He now doubles down and goes all in.

Jesus turns to His listeners and begins to publicly criticize the leaders of religion, and many of them are standing there listening. He acknowledges their systemic authority and tells His followers to honor that authority while refusing to follow their example. Jesus then turns to face the religious leaders and goes off.

Today’s chapter records the most intense and scathing rant Jesus ever offered. It is angry, pointed and provocative. What is essential to understand is that Jesus’ harshest words and most scathing criticisms were aimed at the most conservative, upstanding, strict rule-following religious people.

Jesus repeatedly called them names: hypocrites, blind guides, snakes, brood of vipers, sons of hell. He condemned them for their hypocrisy, their judgmental ways, and the selective ways they used God’s rules to make themselves look good and justify their poor treatment of the marginalized. These religious power brokers had already said they wanted Jesus dead, now with every word and every public criticism Jesus is upping the ante and forcing them to see His call and go all in against Him.

Jesus knows it.

At the end of Jesus’ rant He reminds the religious leaders that it was their predecessors who had killed God’s prophets in earlier centuries. It was the High Priests and religious keepers of the Temple who had violently silenced the ancient prophets. Now Jesus ends His tirade by saying, “Go ahead, finish what they started.”

Jesus was not a victim. Jesus was on a mission. He was pushing buttons. He was driving the action.

This morning I’m meditating on the Jesus who forgave the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. I’m remembering that Jesus broke all social, cultural, racial and religious barriers of His day when He conversed with a Samaritan woman while she drew water from a well. I’m recalling that Jesus healed the son of detested Roman officer and healed the child of a despised and “heathen” Gentile. It comes to mind this morning that Jesus hung out with “sinful” Tax Collectors and their worldly, sinful friends at loud parties where who-knows-what sinful things were going on.

I often encounter the misperception that Jesus is all about condemnation of sin and sinners. The record shows, however, that Jesus showed incredible mercy, tolerance and forgiveness to those we would terms sinners. Jesus reserved anger, judgment, and condemnation for “good” religious people who used religion to condemn sinners and make themselves look good.

Chapter-a-Day

The Implosion of Evil

June 23, 2015 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead.” When he said this, a dissension began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. Acts 23:6-7 (NRSV)

One of the themes I have noticed in epic literature over the years is that evil tends to implode from within. In the Lord of the Rings, Merry and Pippin were able to escape from their captors in large part because of the infighting between the orcs Mordor and the Uruk-Hai of Isengard. Likewise, the reason Sam was able to rescue Frodo from the Tower of Cirith Ungol was because all of the orcs killed each other. Factions of hatred have a hard time uniting.

I was reminded of this as I read today’s chapter. The Jewish council had two main factions who disagreed on theology and who seemed to hate one another more than they hated Paul and the followers of Jesus. The Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death or in the spiritual realm while the Pharisees did. Paul, seizing on the opportunity to stir up the on-going debate between the two factions, sided loudly with the Pharisees and got the two factions arguing (orc-like). The Pharisees were suddenly defending Paul as an ally and the Romans were forced to rescue him from the ensuing tumult.

Today, I’m reminded that Jesus command to love others, even our enemies, has powerful consequences far beyond the spiritual health of our own souls. The power of love to unite is one of the most powerful weapons we have against evil.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Luke 7

November 23, 2010 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume…. Luke 7:36-37 (MSG)

Having lived in a few different towns of different sizes and I’ve discovered that there are community archetypes. Within any community I find the respected local politician, the business leader/power broker, the local pastor or priest who is the community religious leader, the high school star athlete who never quite got beyond his glory days, the person with special needs for whom the entire community looks out, and etc.

Years ago I had the opportunity to walk through the ruins of some of the villages along the northern shore of Galilee where Jesus carried out his ministry. They were small fishing villages not unlike the small farming towns in which I’ve lived. Through today’s chapter I get a sense of similar small town archetypes to the familiar ones I know: the Roman captain who represented the occupational civic authority, the town’s poor widow for whom life has been an on-going tragedy, the proud and pious religious leader, and the town whore.

I can’t think of a more dramatic small town scene. A regional celebrity comes for a visit. The entire town is buzzing with news and gossip. The local coffee shop is churning with stories about this Jesus and what they’d heard about him. Jesus is scheduled to go to the house of Simon for dinner. Of course he is. Simon is the town’s religious V.I.P. He is wealthy, he is powerful, and when it comes to spiritual matters in the town he calls the shots. Simon is the final word; God’s local judge, jury and executioner. Of course Jesus would go to Simon’s house.

Then she walks in. They all know about her. In fact, truth be told, some of the pious men in attendance at this private dinner party know her, in the Biblical sense, if you catch my drift. Publicly despised, privately used, and generally dismissed as dirt, she is known by all the town as a simple whore. Then, in a bold move guaranteed to turn heads, the sullied slut walks right into the religiously scrubbed crib of the local holy man. Imagine the snickers, the glares, the gossip ready to drip off the small town lips of the onlookers.

She carries expensive perfume purchased with lust money (we all knew where she got the money for that), and she falls at Jesus’ feet. Her river of tears pour across her cheeks and drip onto Jesus’ feet. They mix with the perfume she humbly, and gently spreads with her hands across his toes.

For each person in that moment, and for each archetype, Jesus is present. For each there is a lesson. For each there is a blessing. For each there is a crossroads and a transformational opportunity. That’s the way Jesus is. No matter who we are or where we find ourselves on life’s road, Jesus dramatically meets us right where we are, turns us away from where we’ve been, and points us where we need to go.