For the Salvation of Souls:
A Preacher's Contribution

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As the old saying goes, If the Pharisees didn't exist (at least as they are portrayed in the gospels), we'd really have to invent them, because they tell us so much about ourselves and about the pitfalls of our religious attitudes and practices, particularly about exclusivity and inclusivity, exclusion and inclusion.

Actually, very little. No written records of the Pharisees from the time of Jesus survive—most were destroyed in the Roman destruction of Palestine in the late first century. What we know of them apart from the Gospels is basically what we know of their heirs—the rabbis that pieced Judaism together after the destruction of the Temple in the year 70.  And so it was the rabbis as founders of modern Judaism that the members of the early Church knew, and with whom they fought, as Christianity gradually separated itself off from Judaism, and the negative Christian views of these rabbis certainly influenced the way the Pharisees were portrayed in the Gospels. I say this, because although it is clear that Jesus did engage in arguments over the Law with Pharisees, it's very difficult to know just what Pharisees in the early first century really believed, and in particular whether they were are rigid and hypocritical as many early Christians thought they were. But they were at least Jews who had a different take on how to obey the will of God that did Jesus, and they certainly did debate and argue with Jesus over the correct interpretation of the Law of Moses.

Now, with that scholarly footnote out of the way, back to the question of exclusivity and inclusivity, and what the Gospels' portrayal of the Pharisees can tell us about ourselves:

On the one hand, it seems that one item on the Pharisees' agendaCperhaps the major oneCwas to bring the holiness of God that was believed to dwell first and foremost in the Temple, out from Temple and into the everyday lives of the Jewish people. One of the ways they did this was to try to eat every meal with the same degree of ritual purity and perfection that was required of the priests who served in the Temple. Their food had to prepared in a certain way, certain tithes had to be paid on certain kinds of foods, hands had to be washed before each course, foods that were considered unclean (not only pork) had to be avoided, and certain people who were ritually or morally unclean could not share the same table with those who considered themselves clean and morally upright. Some contemporary scripture scholars actually go so far as to describe the Pharisees a table fellowship sect; the very center of their religious lives turned on how they ate.

But what was the character of that holiness that they tried to live away from the Temple, and which they invited othersCincluding JesusCto share? It was a holiness defined as separation from everything and anything that was in any way religiously or spiritually unclean or sinful. And Pharisees, as well as many Jews in Jesus' day, believed that all sorts of things were unclean, not just certain foods, but certain occupations (such as shepherds, gamblers, tax collectors, butchers, peddlers, barbers, tanners) and certain people who did not live good religious lives or who were inflicted with certain diseases (such as skin diseases). Indeed, the Pharisees were disinclined to mingle with sinners of any description, even apart from meals (this may be why the Pharisees were originally called separated ones, ones who separated themselves from everything unclean).

On the other hand, pressures for assimilation to the surrounding secular and religious culture were very great for the Jews, a small and much conquered, much exiled people. Elaborate religious practices (not only minutely following the Law of Moses, but also obeying the so called fences erected around the lawCfurther practices whose observance would make it even harder to even accidentally break the Law) were therefore taken extremely seriously. And so worship of God went hand in hand with maintaining their identity as God's people. If they did not rigorously obey the Sabbath rest, if they ate pork, if they were not circumcised, who would be able to tell them apart from the hordes of pagans and unbelievers who surrounded them, and who even inhabited their land? To lose their religious identity as a people would be to lose their belief in God.

The problem, of course, was that this focus on these identity markersCas Jesus saw very clearlyCled some Jews, including the Pharisees, to a religious exclusivity that contrasted with God's will that all peoples would eventually come to know and worship him; that the Jews, God's chosen people, were to be the leaven through which the Gentiles would eventually be brought to belief.

A number of scripture scholars theorize that these were the basic bones that Jesus had to pick with the Pharisees: both their understanding of holiness as separation from unclean and sinful things and people, as well as their fixation on their own identity. What can we learn from the Pharisees?

In the first place, that they were in some measure rightCholiness does indeed need to come out of our Churches and into our daily, secular lives in the worldCbut not, as Jesus made clear, as separation from sinners and the sinful world, but rather as merciful involvement with them in view of their salvation. Jesus became so involved in the lives of sinners in view of their salvation, that he actually became in some way identified with them in his suffering and death, even though he did not sin. And so our holiness lies not in isolation from the world and its sins and imperfections and temptations, but in loving immersion in that world in view of its salvation and concrete needs for justice and mercy.

In the second place, we Roman Catholics especially have always had many ways of successfully protecting our identity from assimilation by the cultures around us: our meticulously worked out system of theology and doctrine, our prayers and devotions and liturgies and traditions, our dress and for many years our language. But sometimes it's easy to forget that the reason for maintaining our identity as Catholics is service to the Truth of Christ, which is of course as inclusive as it gets. However, these Catholic "identity markers" can also work in the opposite directionCtoward exclusivity and exclusion, giving rise to attitudes of us against them, of us better than them, of us being unable to learn from them, of us the saved, them the lost. Catholic identity turned on its head, Catholic identity that can very quickly become unchristian.

Why ultimately did the Pharisees exclude? I think simply because of fear: they were afraid that they would lose their holiness as well as their identity as God's people by mingling with sinners, with the world, with the unholy. And I think we need to ask ourselves the question: do these same fears cause us to separate and to exclude? Fear of temptation, fear of being corrupted, fear of that which is different, fear of losing our well-worked out identities as God's Catholic people? But I think Jesus was telling the PhariseesCand his whole manner of life is telling usCthat we must not fear, that the holiness God wants for us is not the holiness of separation, but of compassionate involvement in our sinful and suffering world, that our identity as His people does not come primarily from the identity markers of our devotions and disciplines and theological distinctions (important as these may beChey, I mean I teach theology!), but rather from following the Lord's way of loving service to the Father and others.

Holiness, yes, but not as separation from those who sin and suffer, but rather as merciful solidarity with them, compassionate involvement in their lives;

Catholic Identity, yes, but not the identity of the ghetto, of the self-righteous, but rather the identity of those who have immersed themselves with Jesus and in conformity to Jesus, in the problems of the world in order to bring to it his good news of forgiveness, hope, salvation.

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