Gtcotr/ss080920
Today we are going to discuss the frustration, anger and injustice caused by Hardness of Heart and Protection-Based Politics in the Bible.
In Jesus’ day there were two main forms of government:
1.
The Roman Government which served the wishes of Caesar.
2.
The Jewish Government made up of three main political parties.
a. Sadducees
were conservative aristocrats who were anti-spiritual intellectuals. They
did not believe in the resurrection or angels but did believe in law and order.
They were mostly made up of the priesthood and they were in charge of the
Jerusalem Temple and it was their source of income. They desired to keep the
status quo and felt it their duty to interpret the law as it was written and
given by Moses. Nothing remains of their own writings if there were any. All we
know about them comes from their enemies. We picture them as a relatively small
elite group of wealthy privileged people. They only agreed with the Pharisees
on one issue … let’s murder Jesus.
b. Pharisees
were liberal progressives made up mostly from the middle class. The Pharisees were
the largest and most popular political party and they were always getting on to
Jesus for something. He ate with sinners, healed on the sabbath, His disciples
did not wash their hands and did not follow the customs and traditions of the
fathers, (i.e. oral law). Their greatest claim to power was that they believed
they were the trustees of the oral law. They believed Moses received the
commandments in two parts, one written and one oral. Whenever the written law
did not fully answer a question or settle a conflict, they believed they were
the ones solely responsible to interpret what God meant between the lines and
through the loopholes. Therefore they believed they could make it up as they
went along.
c. Herodians
were in bed with the Romans and they favored Greek customs. They were
more worldly and not so religious, and they favored Roman law and way of life.
d. There were other small
groups which made little difference such as the Essenes, Galileans, Zealots,
Scribes, which were the lawyers, and then the Sanhedrin.
e. The Sanhedrin was the
Jewish high council. It was the court of Jewish law. It seems all of the
political parties were mostly filled with hypocrites as Jesus indicated more
than once.
These parties did not quite know what to do about Jesus. People loved Him and He was so clever every time they tried to trick Him into breaking the law. Besides this, Jesus refused to belong to any party and called them all hypocrites. In politics, if you cannot get a person’s support you, you destroy them. And that is exactly what they all conspired to do to Jesus.
·
The
High Priest, Caiaphas the Sadducee, and his Sanhedrin council
·
The
Pharisees
·
And
the Herodians
Mark 3 NKJV
1 ¶ And He entered the
synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.
2 So they watched Him
closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse
Him.
3 And He said to the man who
had the withered hand, “Step forward.”
4 Then He said to them, “Is
it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”
But they kept silent.
Jesus attempted to reason with these parties because all they had was reason and logic to guide them and they did not have the Spirit. Jesus appealed to their compassion, but they were unimpressed. They were afraid of losing their phony high ground of ungodly tradition and were standing by only what they believed was best for them and their party even if it killed everyone else – except them of course. So they were silent.
5 And when He had looked
around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He
said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand
was restored as whole as the other.
6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.
Jesus
was angry with them … mad at them … filled with indignation concerning them because
they were more concerned about preserving their party platform than they were
about people. They were supposed to be taking care of the nation and the nation
is people, not politics.
Jesus was grieved at their callous hearts towards people with needs. This man with a withered hand, at least hindered and possible unable to work and provide for his family, was nowhere on their radar. They did not care.
All the Pharisees and Herodians did was to protect their hierarchy and traditional platform and governing institution. What they were really afraid of was that Jesus might join one of the other parties or perhaps start His own. What Jesus really wanted was for the leaders of the people to:
Stop arguing over who’s right and start doing what’s right.
But their hearts were calloused, and they could not be touched with the feelings and needs of others. They were missing the very reason why their group should exist at all. They had fallen into the devil’s snare of protection-based politics. Perhaps even worse … protection-based theology – they had convinced themselves that God was on their side.
When something is as hard as their hearts had grown, it is almost impossible to make an impression on it. Even Jesus, the Son of God, their own Promised Messiah and Savior of the World could not get through to them. They were hard-hearted and Jesus was mad at them!
What was their response? “Let’s conspire together to murder Jesus.” Well, just to let you know … Jesus was murdered once, and Jesus is not going to go to the cross for you again. The next time someone sees an angry Jesus, it is not going to end so well for them. The should have changed …
These political parties of Jesus’ day wanted to argue over who is right and did not care about what was right. That is what being hard-hearted will do to you. Hearts do not get hard overnight however, there remains a remedy for those who will just listen to the simple wisdom of Jesus and change.
“Is it better to do good or to do evil … to save life or to kill?” Do not keep silent! Answer up … look around … help save lives, all lives, including the unborn children being ripped from the womb by hard-hearted politics. It is a hard-hearted political doctrine that says we have to choose between a mother’s rights and a child’s life … Why can’t we love them both!
Hebrews 4:7 Again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
Isaiah the prophet rightly prophesied and Paul remembered and in:
Acts 28:27 “For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.”’
Action Items for this week: Hearts – Ears – Eyes
1.
Check your eyes … what do you see – is this the best we can do?
a. Champion what is right
instead of who is right.
b. Cast your vote for Jesus
every chance you get
c. Serve in His Kingdom
with passion and purpose
2.
Check your ears … align yourself with Christ – what are you hearing
a. His platform is the
Gospel
b. His passion is people
c. His purpose is
salvation
3.
Check your heart … do you understand what
Jesus wants?
a. Are you more concerned
about politics or people?
b. Jesus wants us to care less about who is right and more about what is right. God’s Word, Will, and Way is what’s right!
