Twenty Second Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: An Authentic Self 真我
Probably it is human nature that bad things leave deeper impressions on us than good ones. Thus, we remember Judas’ kiss more than the holy kiss of Paul (Romans 16:16, 1 Corinthians 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:26); remember the hypocrisy of the Pharisees more than their teachings which Jesus commands us to do and observe (Matthew 23:3a). In order to understand properly Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees in the gospel passage today, we need to check out the historical context. The Pharisees were legal experts at that time. Thus, we need to understand why Mosaic laws were important.
During the Babylonian Captivity, the Temple was destroyed and there was nowhere to offer sacrifices to worship God. In order to rectify their identity as the “Chosen People of God”, scribes and Pharisees arose to collect, scrutinize and finalize their Scriptures which consist of three collections: Torah (the Mosaic Law, the five books of Moses), Prophets (the major and minor prophets that commonly known to us, as well as some history books such as Joshua, Judges, Samuels and Kings etc.) and lastly Writings (the Wisdom Literature as well as Chronicles, Daniel, Esther and Ruth etc.) The Torah was supposed to be written by Moses and thus is also known as the Five Books of Moses, the Pentateuch. The five books contain laws and precepts to guide the daily life of the Israelites, interspersed with stories of Creation, Deluge, Exodus and Conquest etc. to give them a context. The famous Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-21) are only a small but essential portion of the Torah because they are the sign of the Sinai Covenant which defines their identity as the Chosen People of God. The Israelites entered into a covenant with Yahweh who delivered them from the slavery in Egypt. “You have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me completely and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine. You will be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation” (Exodus 19:4-6a). The covenant gave the Israelites the identity of God’s Chosen People.
Time passed and situations changed. Those guidelines would become vague and needed further interpretation. Different rabbis might give slightly different interpretations on the same rule. Different schools arose and established their traditions. A case in point, “When a man, after marrying a woman, is later displeased with her because he finds in her something indecent, and he writes out a bill of divorce and hands it to her, thus dismissing her from his house” (24:1). Different schools would count different things as “something indecent” a man could find in a wife. Some rabbis would restrict it to adultery only while others would include more broadly behaviour that brought husbands shame such as not honouring the parents-in-law. That was why the Pharisees raised this issue to stir up a controversy to test Jesus (Mark 10:2). These schools would continue after Jesus. Thus, on top of the Torah, the Mishnah, a collection of opinions of early rabbis of Jewish law were published in the second century. Mishnah was further explained by Gemara and together, they formed the Talmud which became the central text of Rabbinic Judaism in the generations to come. Together with the evolution of the society, this development has a life of its own and its growth is unstoppable.
“The Pharisees” has become a synonym of “hypocrisy” because they did not practise what they preached. That is why Jesus warned His disciples of the yeast of the Pharisees (8:15). He also told the crowd, “Do not follow their examples. For they preach but they do not practise” (Matthew 23:3b). The Law of Moses is supposed to help the Israelites come close to God. However, they made use of the Law to accuse Jesus. For example, in many instances, Jesus healed on Sabbath and they accused Jesus of not observing the Sabbath (Mark 3:2). The Pharisees had abused God’s laws! It is pitiful that those legal experts abused the law! A Chinese aphorism describes them well, “Physicians heals except themselves”! Let us not forget, the merciful Lord criticized them because they were “teachers of Israel” (John 3:10). Jesus found no pleasure in their death. He wanted them to turn back and live (Ezekiel 18:32).
When we take a look at the list of vices which Jesus enumerated, we can easily see that those vices were not Pharisees’ exclusively. All of us would commit those vices too. Jesus says, “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile” (Mark 7:21-23). Who is not greedy nor arrogant? Who has never been jealous nor greedy? So, when Jesus criticised the Pharisees, He was warning the Pharisees within us! In order to come closer to God, it is not enough to make ourselves clean according to rituals the visible and physical limbs but the more essential but invisible parts, our hearts and our souls. How do we clean our hearts and purify our souls?
If the Pharisees had been trying to be concrete, St. James, the brother of the Lord, would be more concrete. Echoing the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock” (Matthew 7:24), we read, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves” (James 1:23) in the second reading today. Of course “the word” refers to the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Sermon on the Mount is the Constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven. James was very pragmatic and did not waste time deliberating the fine prints of the law. He continues, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (1:27). While the Pharisees cared more about purity and being undefiled before men, James hit the bull’s eye directly: charity for the poor makes one pure, undefiled and authentic before God. Period.
Beloved brethren! Had the Pharisees practised what they preached, they would have been authentic, undefiled and pure before both men and the ever-living God! Regrettably, they cut corner and had chosen the less essential part so that they were pure and undefiled before mortal men only! The truth is crystal clear. There is no shade of doubt. Love and care for the poor and needy. You will encounter the merciful Lord in them (Matthew 25:40). Amen!
God bless!
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