Secure in his Righteousness
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
-Matthew 9.
I didn’t set out this time through the gospels to have more sympathy for the Pharisees, but I am finding it anyway. Its not that I am discovering they were right all along. That would be absurd. I am discovering the natural human tendencies they fell into like traps (at least, the better ones among them, people like Paul and Gamaliel). For example, see this post on Collective Guilt for Killing Christ.
Take the scripture passage I just quoted. Some of the Pharisees were concerned about mingling with sinners and publicans on friendly terms for good reasons–their righteousness was shaky and needed the support of maintained boundaries. They felt themselves, like many of us do, on the edge of a cliff. Christ didn’t feel that way. He was secure in his righteousness.
Of course, in our day, with the benefit of Christ’s teaching, we can fall into the opposite error of blithely acting like we are secure in our righteousness when we are not. Faking it till you make it is part of the solution, but the main solution is just to become more righteous.
Christ’s teachings in the Sermon on the Mount to be even more righteous than the Pharisees and then Christ hanging out with the sinners aren’t contradictions.
johnson dave
March 9, 2023
The stories of Christ eating with publicans and sinners are probavly inventions based on misunderstanding “harlots enter the kingdom ahead of you” as literal rather than a mere insult akin to “you’re worse than a prostitute” which is by no means a literal endorsement of prostitutes. But Catholic retards took it that way and then invented stories of Jesus eating with them and letting them get all touchy with his feet.
G.
March 9, 2023
I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that you are correct.
Trolling was part of his teaching repertoire
E.C.
March 9, 2023
My current Institute teacher pointed out that in our contemporary context, technically we are the Pharisees – although we hold actual authority, which the Pharisees did not have.
It made me think about my life a little bit differently.
And you’re right, G, trolling was part of Jesus’ repertoire. The same Institute teacher had an interesting exercise for the class: think about who Jesus’ audience was for each of his parables, or who he was probably looking at when he gave them.
G.
March 9, 2023
You’ve passed on that observation before. I’ve been thinking about it and I think its half right. The difference is that we aren’t surrounded by foreigners. We are still part of the larger culture and its values. So while there can be aspects of pharisaism with respect to our distinctive values there can also be aspects of pharisaism with respect to the larger culture and its values, and in that latter aspect the pharisees mostly aren’t us.
G.
March 9, 2023
-who he was probably looking at when he gave them
Yes, that is funny
Rozy
March 9, 2023
But didn’t Jesus say that he had come to heal the sick, ie. the sinners? He was the Spiritual physician come to heal the sick sinners, so of course he sat down to eat with those who were considered sinners by the Jewish leadership.
Unless I’m missing something here, which is par for my course.
E.C.
March 9, 2023
@ Rozy,
You are correct. Think about who Jesus was looking at when he said that line. He was undoubtedly addressing the publicans and sinners – and the Pharisees, who didn’t seem to think they needed healing, or the Healer.