Palm Sunday must have been an incredible day.  The road from Bethany to Jerusalem was not a long one, but it is now one of the most famous paths in the world.  Bethany is on the other side of the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem.  On that day nearly 2,000 years ago Jesus ascended that famous landmark and looked over the city of Jerusalem that he loved so much.  He began his descent into the Kidron Valley where thousands of graves exist awaiting the resurrection.  Down the path is an olive grove that Jesus would visit on Thursday.  It is called Gethsemane.  I wonder if he glanced over to that quiet place in the midst of the noise of Palm Sunday.  As people were waving palm branches, throwing their coats on the road as a make shift red carpet, and singing out, “Hosanna!  Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord,” did Jesus see the Garden and anticipate the grief of betrayal?

We’ve been looking at how things could turn so quickly for Jesus between the cheers of, “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday to the shouts of, “Crucify him!” on Good Friday.  We have discovered that the religious groups of power were confronted by the Christ in such a way that they were almost forced to clearly declare, “This is not my Messiah”.  The Essenes were separatists who were known for their ascetic life style and communal living.  Jesus seemed to spend way too much time with the crowd, the people of the land.  “Clearly, he is not my Messiah,” the Essenes would say.  The Zealots were a group committed to reestablishing an independent theocracy or at least a religious monarchy, where Rome would be expelled from the vicinity.  They were so focused on political matters that they confused their cause for Christ.  So when Jesus showed up and instructed the people to give back to the emperor the things that were the emperor’s – specifically the annual poll tax, they realized, “This is not my Messiah.”  The Sadducees had it all.  They were religious, but not in a fanatical way.  They were well educated, respected by the Romans, lived well with the aristocracy, and were pretty open minded.  However, to them the resurrection seemed like folly – an opiate of the masses, if you will. Jesus confronted these Temple officials with the possibility that they could be wrong. “This is not my Messiah,” the arrogant Sadducee would have barked.  So there they were, by Tuesday every significant religious group was confronted by the harsh reality, “This is not my Messiah.”

Wait a minute.  We forgot the group that gets more press in the gospels than all of these other groups combined.  The Pharisees are mentioned 88 times in the first four books of the New Testament.  They pop up thirty times in the book of Matthew alone.  Who were these leaders that were so often opposed to Jesus?  They were pretty much the antitheses to the Sadducees.  The Sadducees were liberal.  The Pharisees were conservative.  The Sadducees were temple oriented.  The Pharisees were synagogue focused.  The Sadducees said there was no resurrection.  The Pharisees said there was.  The Sadducees held only the books of Moses as authoritative.  The Pharisees held up all of the Old Testament and the rabbinic writings of the Talmud as holy and instructive teachings that were to be followed down the last letter.  So, it seemed like if Jesus had issues with the Sadducees and their condescending manner, he would be the Messiah of the Pharisees.  However, Jesus had one huge issue with these religious sheriffs of the world.  They had replaced rules for a relationship with God.  OK, two huge issues.  They were also hypocrites, because even they couldn’t follow the elaborate religious system that they had created.  He told the people to listen to what the Pharisees say, but don’t do what they do.  It might be good for us to take a quick look at this advice on this Palm Sunday as a useful warning.  You see, whenever rules replace relationships you are not far from the Pharisees.

Jesus’ advice to the Pharisees was harsh.  Seven times he used the word, “Woe!” which is an expression of grief.  R.T. France said these exclamations are converse to the “blesseds” with which Jesus began his public ministry in the Sermon on the Mount.  Do you remember how that most famous sermon began?  Eight beatitudes, “blessed are…”  Sophie Laws, a New Testament scholar, says that the Greek word, “makarios” that is translated “blessed” means, “to be in the best possible situation in life.” If that is true, then “ouai” translated “woe” would mean, “to be in the worst possible situation in life.”   These seven woes can be distilled to three warnings that I want to offer today, because whenever rules replace relationships you are not far from the Pharisees.  
 

When rules replace relationships misdirection occurs.

The first three woes point to misdirected zeal, conversion, and values.  The Pharisees became so intent on following the rules that they had lost sight of the kingdom and were actually locking people out of the kingdom with their works righteousness model that left no room for God’s transforming grace.  They were all about converting people to their way, but were making not making disciples of Jesus Christ, but disciples of them – a very poor substitute.  Their values became so distorted that they thought about the stuff of the temple as being more important than the temple and the stuff of God being more important than God.  They were misdirected; making good time, but going the wrong way. 

I was reading about aptitudes this week.  Both of our children have taken an aptitude test to help them determine a course in life that is both enjoyable and fulfilling.  One of the aptitudes measured is Inductive Reasoning or the ability to move from the general to the particular.  I love this quote, “Inductive reasoning, like other kinds of reasoning ability, is dependent on knowledge for its proper use…People with inductive reasoning and little knowledge generally face continuing difficulties.  Their solution to problems may be brilliantly reasoned but completely wrong, because they lack the right information or the right understanding of the information.”  This was the problem with the Pharisees.  They had all the right qualities – zeal, a desire to make disciples, and a value system – they simply lacked the right understanding of the Word of God who was now referring to them as hypocrites and blind guides.  Where did they go wrong?  They replaced rules for relationships and misdirection occurred.

It is easy for this to happen.  We can begin to think that our way is the best way and forget completely what it is the way to and we get off track, misdirected.  Don’t be fooled into thinking that the Pharisees were limited to biblical times.  Whenever rules replace relationships you are not far from the Pharisees.
 

When rules replace relationships means are confused for the end.

The fourth woe, declaration of being in the worst possible situation in life, had to do with the Pharisees insistence on the letter of the law being so meticulously observed that they forgot the end to which the law was the means.  They tithed on the tiniest of spices; but neglected justice, mercy, and faith.  Lindsay Kirkpatrick, our Pastoral Intern, pointed out in a letter that was sent to our congregation last month, “It is easy to measure my proportional giving.”  Tithing isn’t rocket science and Jesus is not saying that it should be discarded as a spiritual discipline.  He simply relegates it to remedial spirituality, “These you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.”  He told them that it was like straining out a gnat, the smallest of unclean animals and swallowing a camel, the largest unclean animal in Palestine.  Spiritual disciplines like tithing and keeping the Sabbath were means to an end of relating to a God who cares for people.  The Pharisees had the means confused for the end.

It can happen to you.  I know that because it can happen to me.  Friday night Tammy and I drove to Katy to play bridge with our best friends.  We had determined last month that we need to get together at least once a month to visit and play cards.  It is good for me to go out of town to play bridge because I am a terrible bridge player.  I don’t mean that I can’t bid or play the hand properly.  I am better than some and not as good as most in my ability, but that is not what I mean when I say that I am a terrible bridge player.  Here was the situation.  My friend and Tammy were partners and his wife and I were partners in this particular game.  He bid one no trump and later claimed to have bid one club.  To those of you who do not play bridge, don’t worry about that.  I stood firm that he had bid one no trump.  In fact, I was so emphatic about the matter that I was practically yelling, “No! No! No!  I passed, you bid one no trump, my partner passed, your partner bid two diamonds, and you bid four no trump.”  Do you see how well I remembered all that?  The only thing that I forgot was that this was my friend, and though he is entertained by my animated style of play, we were there to hang out with friends.  The game was simply a means to the end of being with people that we love.

Be careful with this one.  Means are often confused for the end, especially when rules replace relationships.  And whenever rules replace relationships you are not far from the Pharisees.
 

When rules replace relationships we mistake presentation for product.

The last three woes address people who appear very clean on the outside, but inside they are full of greed, self-indulgence, hypocrisy, and lawlessness. They are like a clean cup with putrid contents.  They are like whitewashed tombs (which was customary during the season of Passover, when Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees in this passage).  They looked new on the outside, but were full of death inside.  They may have claimed that they would have never persecuted the martyrs whose tombs they decorated and venerated, but Jesus knew they were simply another generation of persecutors that stretched all the way from Abel, the first martyr of the Old Testament to Zechariah, the last martyr of the Old Testament, whose tomb is still prominently displayed in the Kidron Valley.

One of the life lessons that I have stressed to my children is that presentation is everything.  I never really meant everything; it just seemed to flow nicely as a memorable maxim.  Now I wonder if I misspoke.  What if they would actually take that lesson literally and pay no attention to what was inside, as long as it looked nice, like a white elephant present at Christmastime?  I mean I think it is nice when I make a breakfast casserole that the cheese is evenly spread and the bacon geometrically placed on top, but that is not more important than the ingredients underneath the cheese and bacon.  I like dressing up for church and sitting in a beautiful sanctuary, but I hope I never confuse the presentation for the product of a life in Christ.  I know it can happen.  When rules replace relationships we mistake the presentation for the product.

Woe! Jesus cried out.  Seven times he said it:

·         Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  You lock people out of the kingdom.

·         Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You create converts that look like you.

·         Woe to you!  You have your values all distorted.

·         Woe to you! You have obsessed over the means and missed the end.

·         Woe to you! The outside of the cup is clean, but the inside is filthy.

·         Woe to you! You are like all those whitewashed tombs, full of death.

·         Woe to you! Presenting yourselves as innocent, but continuing a long line of guilty abusers of the righteous.

Tuesday at staff meeting Vickey Tesh led us in our devotional and wondered out loud if she would have been any different than those who abused and those who abandoned Jesus in that Holy Week.  Her question was so sincere that I have not been able to dismiss it since.   What would I have done? I am not sure, but I am certain that whenever rules replace relationships I am not far from the Pharisees, who firmly declared, “You are not my Messiah!” 

What if instead of searching for my Messiah, I would search for ways to become his follower? 
                                                                                                                                            Amen.