Harsh Language

Pharisees Part 1 - What's the deal with the Pharisees anyway?

As I was listening to Matthew's Gospel the other day I was taken again with the impact of Jesus' verbal barrage against the Pharisees in chapter 23. How could this man of love and compassion who welcomed prostitutes, tax collectors, and the rag tag people that no one else respected, say such harsh things against the upstanding religious conservatives of his day? I mean take some time to listen or to read it again now, isn't it harsh?

Of course today we don't see the real impact because most of us who have been around church for a long time already have formed our opinions of the Pharisees so we don't see it as any big thing at all. But to the crowds that followed Jesus this was a complete shock.

So why? Why did Jesus reserve his harshest words for these men? Just look at how he responded to a woman who was brought to him caught in the very act of adultery. Nothing even close to what he says in Matthew 23. Ponder that thought for a little bit . . .