Matthew 16:1-3 (NASB)
1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 But He replied to them, “ When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?
By observing the natural world, Jesus said, we are able to predict things like the weather. Our faith should be very natural if we open our hearts and eyes. Lack of faith is no great mystery. When people voluntarily choose to close off their minds and hearts to God, or to Jesus in the case of His time on this earth before His death and resurrection, they have made a choice not to believe. When the OBVIOUS Messiah was in front of them, the Pharisees and Sadducees pleaded ignorance. Pharisee and Sadducee stories keep cropping up in the gospels so they must be important! We must be able to see why they are constantly being commented upon in Scripture and by Jesus. When I was a child and read about these stories, I could not understand why Jesus kept being seemingly harsh with the spiritual leaders of Israel. I could not equate religious leadership with people who angered Jesus. It was only by continuing to read Scripture over the years that I came to understand the important lessons we need to learn. Just about every Christian knows that Jesus accused them of hypocrisy but what exactly constitutes hypocrisy in their case? Let’s look:
In the Matthew 16 passage above, the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and asked of Him a sign from heaven, presumably to validate to them His claims about Himself. Does Jesus accommodate their wish there and then? No. Rather, He tells them that they should be discerning, just as when we can discern what the weather will be like by observing certain common signals in the current state of the sky. Harsh of Jesus? Not at all. After all, they had been constantly seeing Jesus’ miracles and excellent character and extraordinary teaching and complained about them to Jesus’ face and to the crowds who welcomed Him in their midst.
Mark 11:27-33 (NASB) 27 They *came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders *came to Him, 28 and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?”
29 And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” 31 They began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. 33 Answering Jesus, they *said, “We do not know.” And Jesus *said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Were the Pharisees and Sadducees stupid? No, so what could be the cause of their confusion? What it is whenever this sort of thing repeatedly happens. They knew that Jesus was the Messiah but they preferred to suppress this truth, both to themselves and to the Jewish crowds who were, in a very natural way, impressed by Jesus as being one with authority. They had reactions like this:
Matthew 7:28-29 (NASB)
28 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
No, it wasn’t that the Pharisees and Sadducees were genuinely perplexed by Jesus. Remember, these leaders were meant to be the shepherds of Israel but other agendas had taken them over. Here are a few:
John 11:47-48 (NASB) 47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
Luke 16:14-15 (NASB) 14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.
Israel’s spiritual leaders at the time of Christ were trying to control Israel’s direction and destiny but the people of God never belonged to them, they belonged to God. The task of the Pharisees and Sadducees was to faithfully lead and teach God’s people in God’s name. Instead, they made Israel come to serve their own interests. This is a heinous misuse of power and hypocrisy through and through. The role of the Pharisees and Sadducees gone seriously wrong is what Jesus’ parable about the vineyard and the tenants is all about (Matthew 21:33-46). Some of Jesus’ harshest words about Israel’s leadership can be found at Matthew 23:1-36.
I am not saying that none of the Pharisees and Sadducees believed in Jesus. There were some serious and true leaders of Israel who came to believe in Him but these were few and far between. These serious leaders became followers of Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah. The Messianic Jews of today are in the same lineage as these true-to-God leaders of Israel were. These are the true Jews, the ones who recognise Jesus as Messiah. Lest you think my title of “true Jew” is misled, Jesus Himself used it of one of His disciples, Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael:
John 1:47 (NASB)
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and *said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”
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