Basically,
who were the religious leaders when Jesus walked the face of the earth? The
Gospel refers to the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They comprised the ruling
class of Israel. There are many similarities between the Sadducees and the
Pharisees but important differences between them as well.
The Sadducees
were of the “wealthy” ruling class. Many of them compromised the priesthood
that controlled the temple in Jerusalem in addition to the Jewish legal council.
In some ways they were more conservative than the Pharisees. They only
recognized the Torah as the inspired word of God while the Pharisees gave oral
tradition equal authority as the written word of God. The Sadducees preserved
the authority of the written Word of God, especially the books of Moses
(Genesis through Deuteronomy). While the
Sadducees could be commended for this, they definitely were not perfect in
their doctrinal views.
The Pharisees
were mostly middle-class businessmen. As middle-class businessmen they were
more in contact with the ‘common’ man. The Pharisees were held in much higher
esteem than the Sadducees by the common man.
The Pharisees had great zeal for God. The average Pharisee fasted two
days per week as well as them paying their ‘tithes’ to the penny. They examined
the law down to the smallest detail but they entirely missed what the law was
saying. In accordance to God’s word, Jesus was God’s word made manifest. Simply
put, Jesus was Torah in flesh. Yet, the Pharisees stood in the physical
presence of the perfect revelation of Torah AND they did not know Him.
Jesus, on
numerous times, rebuked both the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Definitely the
best lesson we can learn from the Pharisees and the Sadducees is to NOT BE LIKE
THEM. (I will personally add for those that today are unknowingly acting and
believing as the Pharisees and/or the Sadducees to Stop being like them. Open your
eyes and ears to God!) Unlike the Sadducees, we must believe EVERYTHING the Bible
says, including the miracles and the afterlife. Unlike the Pharisees, we are
not to treat traditions as having equal authority as Scripture and we are NOT
to allow our relationship with God to be reduced to a legalistic list of rules
and rituals (the LAW).
Ironically,
the religious leaders, both the Sadducees and the Pharisees who claimed to have
known God to the fullest, who were suppose to be leading the people in
accordance to God’s way, who were suppose to be teaching the people in
accordance to God’s way, who were suppose to be leading the people closer to
God, were so blinded by their observances and the minute details that they
completely missed their own Messiah when He had appeared in Israel. Those that
who were suppose to be closest to God, those that who were suppose to know God
fully, missed God completely.
