I want to take a moment and perhaps cut the Pharisees a little slack. When we, as Protestants read the Bible, we often project our own issues back on to what we are reading. The reformers were zealous in preaching salvation by faith alone, as opposed to “works righteousness”. That is good. But when we see everything through that lens, we can misinterpret what other people are trying to say. We often want to imagine that the Pharisees were legalists trying to “work their way to heaven” instead of just trusting Yahweh. We imagine that if they are advocating adherence to a law, it MUST be because they deny justification by faith. But that is projecting a reformation-era controversy back on the first century. Relaying on the law to save them may have been a serious problem, but some wise historians have suggested that this may not have been forefront in the Pharisees mind.
Remember that Israel was a conquered land, ruled by the Romans. They’re devotion to God was suppressed. They were surrounded by idol-worshipping pagans sacrificing to Zeus and you-name-it every day of the week! Keeping the Sabbath and eating Kosher food was very important to them as a badge of national identity. It was one of the few ways they could say, “Hey! We’re different! We are our own people! We are NOT like you pagans.” These traditions kept them glued together as a people in an environment where many other cultures disappeared or were simply absorbed into the empire. Keeping the Sabbath, for them, was more than obeying a law that God gave them a long time ago; it was a huge part of asserting themselves as Jews. It gave their life meaning.
Are we like them? Do we have a badge of Christian identity that makes us stand out in our very secular culture? Wearing a beard or a head covering? You still find that in some places. No drinking beer and no 2-piece bathing suits? Maybe if you grew up Baptist, like I did. Those may have meant something in America 50 years ago, but they are probably failed or false distinctions today. Displaying an American flag? That doesn’t actually have anything to do with God. How does anyone know we are Christians? No divorce? No ridiculous consumer debt? How on earth do we stick together and distinguish ourselves from the surrounding culture? I don’t really have an answer. The Jews and the Pharisees, subdued by a foreign power, were grasping for a way to do that. Observing the Sabbath strictly became that mark. Perhaps showing up to sing and eat bread and wine on Sunday is still our best bet.
Actually, later in his gospel account, the one we are studying this year, John tells us what Jesus said our badge would be:
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
(John 13:35 ESV)
They will know we are Christians, not by our clothes or food or drink or rituals, or wealth or poverty, or politics (though those things are necessary and DO matter), but our defining, obvious characteristic is to be our love for on another.
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Note: For an insightful look at the Jewish attitude toward the Sabbath during Jesus’ time, see N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, especially pages 387-396.