Are We Pharisees?نموونە

So, the religious leaders unknowingly went all in on the knowledge tree. They became knowledge architects. Wanting to avoid anything like the punishment Israel had experienced in the past, and hating being subjugated by Rome, they thought they could engineer a holiness that would lead to the total restoration of the kingdom of Israel. They memorized the scriptures (because they needed to know) and wove a delicate and extensive set of rules.

Consequently, the Pharisees were: Utterly. Disconnected. They reeked of disconnection. That’s the trademark of their religion. Though they thought otherwise, they had no idea what God really wanted. They were Jesus’ greatest enemies, and the greatest enemies of the early church. Remember the “woes” of Matthew 23? They were literally so disconnected from God that they were connected to Satan.

Instead, Jesus appeared and started talking about the kingdom of God. He acted like the thoughtfully crafted theology of the Pharisees didn’t really matter. He listened to His Father and He did what His Father asked of Him. He was the most connected-to-God human to walk the earth. He spoke only what His Father said. He did only what He saw Father God doing. And, infuriatingly, this meant ignoring/breaking the Pharisee’s well-informed, well-reasoned rules.

Paraphrasing, Jesus said the kingdom of God is a connected life. It’s those who receive what God says and do it; and to those who hear, more will be given. Those who don’t hear and heed, even what they have will be taken away.

And that’s exactly what happened! In 70 AD, the Pharisees watched Rome destroy Jerusalem and raze the gold-covered temple Herod had built on mount Zion. The very icon of their religion was taken from them. While the Pharisees grieved their substantial loss, the early church flourished because Jesus had told them about spiritual connection with God:

“The time is coming when you will not have to be in Jerusalem or on this mountain to worship the Father… the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. In fact, that time is now here. And these are the kind of people the Father wants to be his worshipers.” (John 4:21,23 ERV)

Eating from The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will leave us so disconnected from God. So… disenfranchised from His counsel, wisdom, knowledge and friendship. It leaves us guessing. “What should we do?” “I don’t know, how about this?” “Well, I think, we should do this.” “Ya’ll don’t know anything. THIS is what we should do.” Many times, the most confident or persuasive person wins, and this kind of thinking can make us arrogant.

But what does God think? What is God doing? And what does He want to do?

How do we know what God wants? Usually, we don’t really know the mind of God because we haven’t really talked with Him about it. We can make lots of assumptions and presumptions, drawing on our plethora of biblical principles, 5-8 step solutions, and access to expertise.

The more we do this, the more we have a God who is fairly mysterious and not very intimate… the more we feel dry inside. God will be Father in a cold and supreme sense, but He definitely won’t be Abba. We become susceptible to demonic manipulation and, unknowingly, we can wind up resisting the Holy Spirit… in Jesus’ name… not recognizing Jesus right in front of us.

We can act disconnected. We won’t know God’s mind because we won’t spend the time to humbly ask. If we do ask, is it with a heart ready to accept whatever answer He gives?

There’s only one way to truly know His mind: ask Him humbly, as unpretentiously as a five-year-old. Talk with Him. We might not understand the answer, but that’s okay. We don’t always need to, remember? We are talking to God. He will speak things we have zero grid for. We might mishear, but that’s okay, too. His Spirit is here to lead us into all truth. We have to start the truth journey somewhere. Walking with God isn’t for those who can’t handle being wrong, it’s for those aware they need to learn.

Do we want to cultivate a deepening, working-towards-continual, childlike obedience and connection with God? Or are we still searching for perfect knowledge, iterating more perfect sets of “principles,” zealously teaching and practicing our religion, labeling our dryness “perseverance,” and imagining we’re engineering revival? Are we disconnected? Are we… Pharisees?