Why Did Messiah Rebuke the Pharisees?
The Scriptures can often be confusing and misapplied. They can be especially hard to understand when we skip to the New Testament and start reading three-fourths of the way in. It’s difficult to understand the gospels and the writings of Paul if we don’t understand what the gospel writers and Paul read.
When we get to the New Testament, we see Yahusha (Jesus) rebuking the scribes and Pharisees. And if we haven’t studied the Torah and the Prophets, it might cause one to think that He is rebuking them for following the Torah (law). At least that is what I was taught and used to believe.
But that is not the case. The scribes and Pharisees (who were the brunt of Yahusha’s rebukes), were not following the Torah. At least, not in the way they were supposed to be observing it.
Here is a list of rebukes that Yahusha issues in Matthew 23 alone:
- They bind heavy burdens for the people without lifting a finger to help them (v. 3)
- They widen their t’fillen and lengthen their tzitzits (v. 5)
- They love the best seats in the congregation (v. 6)
- They make you call them rabbi (v. 7)
- They eat up widows houses (v. 14)
- They make for a show long prayers (v. 14)
- They swear oaths contrary to the Torah (v. 16)
- They tithe according to the Torah, but miss the weightier matters of the law (v. 23)
- They clean the outside of their vessels but not the inside (v. 25)
- They build and decorate the tombs of the prophets they have killed (v. 29)
He calls them hypocrites (8 times), blind guides, serpents, and brood of adders. It is not a pleasant conversation. It is fair to say that He is not pleased with them. We are often taught in the institutional church that He rebuked them for observing the Torah (law), but they really were not.
I like to remember the words of Jude (the half-brother of Yahusha), when he begins his epistle:
“I felt the necessity to write to you urging you to earnestly contend for the belief which was once for all delivered to the set-apart ones.” – Jude 3
The scribes, Pharisees, and religious leaders of the time were not contending for the faith which was ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS (set-apart ones). Yahuah gave His people instructions and commandments. Yet, the faith had devolved into a set of rituals and outward appearances that were nowhere near the perfect Torah (instructions) of the Most High.
When the Israelites came back from Babylon, they brought with them many of the traditions of that nation. They had instituted a set of “oral laws,” which today is called the Babylonian Talmud. They had all sorts of additional commands, laws, and traditions that went against the perfect Torah given to them by the Most High.
“Do not add to the Word which I command you, and do not take away from it…” – Deuteronomy 4:2
Unfortunately, the scribes, Pharisees, and other religious leaders had done just that. And it is still occurring today. We all have either added to or taken away from the instructions of the Father. We obey parts of the Scripture, but not others. We add man-made traditions and rituals to our lives. Most believers follow some of the commands but not all. We add holidays not dictated to us in Scripture and remove those that are called everlasting.
I was always taught that Yahusha was rebuking the scribes and Pharisees for following the Torah. It was this thing of bondage that they just couldn’t understand for some reason. But they weren’t even close to following the Torah. And that is why Yahusha is rebuking them so often. He followed the Torah the right way, reminding us that we should do the same.
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to complete. For truly, I say to you, till the heaven and the earth pass away, one yod or one tittle shall by no means pass from the Torah till all be done. Whoever, then, breaks one of the least of these commands, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the reign of the heavens; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the reign of the heavens.” – Matthew 5:17-19
Notice what he says about the Torah? It will not pass away until heaven and earth pass away. And we shouldn’t even break one of the least of the commands.
So why is there such hate for Yah’s perfect Torah?
Most of us who have been part of the institutional church have been brought up thinking that the Torah (law) is this terrible thing that Yahusha came to destroy. And those who follow it are Judaizers or legalists. Yet, Yahusha obeyed His Father’s Torah. And in Matthew 23 (and many other Scriptures) He is rebuking those scribes and Pharisees who pretended (or thought) to be following it but were, in reality, filled with hypocrisy.
“The Torah of Yahuah is PERFECT, bringing back the being.” – Psalms 19:7
Observing the Torah does not make one a “legalist.” It does not trample the blood of Yahusha, as some like to say. The Messiah walked perfectly, according to Yah’s Torah. He did that out of obedience, and to become our High Priest. We won’t be perfect, but we are told to walk like him. That is what a disciple does.
“The one who says he stays in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He did.” – 1 John 2:6
Even Paul says we need to look like Yahusha.
“Become imitators of me, as I also am of Messiah.” – 1 Corinthians 11:1
Our redemption and salvation are the sole work of Messiah. But our walk should be according to the instructions of the Father. That’s called the Torah. It guides us in righteousness as we seek to please the Father. And breaking it is the primary definition of sin that we have in the Scriptures…
“Whoever commits sin transgresses the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” – 1 John 3:4
FAITH IN MOTION 