Trying Not To Be A Pharisee

This year, my morning scripture study has centered on the New Testament.  I have been both fascinated and delighted in the patterns that I have found Jesus exhibiting through his life and in his parables.  What I find most monumental is that I have observed him to be at every turn, "thinking outside the box", often times stunning his apostles and everyone around him with his unexpected approach to dealing with others, most often the outcast of society.  His behavior never centered on the sin or the sinner, but in the treatment of that person by himself and others.  It seems he acknowledged the sin of a person, but saw the ill treatment and judgment of the sinner as a more grievous transgression than what the sinner had actually committed.  He constantly bucked the rules or commandments of the time in favor of a higher law.  I often wonder if Jesus were to come again and chose to drink wine while partaking of the sacrament, if people would profess that it couldn't possibly be him because they were so honed into the law, the law, the law.  Here are some observations on the Pharisees during that time.  I believe that Pharisees had a view of religion which is by no means dead today.

*Pharisees were more concerned with the preservations of their own holiness than with the helping of another's sin.  They were like doctors who refused to visit the sick lest they should be injured by some infection.  They shrank away in fastidious disgust from the sinner; they did not want anything to do with people like that.  Essentially their religion was selfish; they were much more concerned with saving their own souls than to save the souls of others.  And they had forgotten that that was the surest way to lose their own souls.
*They were more concerned with criticism than with encouragement.  They were far more concerned to point out the faults of other people than to help them conquer these faults.  When a doctor sees some particularly loathsome disease which would turn the stomach of anyone else to look at, he is not filled with disgust; he is filled with the desire to help.  Our first instinct should never be to condemn the sinner;  our first instinct should be to help him/her.
*They practiced a goodness which issued in condemnation rather than in forgiveness and sympathy.  They would rather leave a man in the gutter then give him a hand to get out of it . . . The Pharisees were people who believed in strict obedience to a literal interpretation of the Law. They advocated adherence to the traditions which had been handed down to them, and they saw themselves as set apart, or different from the world.

*They practiced a religion which consisted in outward orthodoxy rather than in practical help.  Jesus favored the saying from Hosea 6:6 which said that God desired mercy and not sacrifice, for he quoted it more than once (Matthew 2:7).  A man may diligently go through all the motions of orthodox piety, but if his hand is never stretched out to help the man in need he is not a religious man.  The tendency of their teaching was to reduce religion to the observance of a multiplicity of ceremonial rules, and to encourage self-sufficiency and spiritual pride. In my opinion, we should not be merely helping those who are easiest to help, but those who society views as outcasts, those who don't go down the path that we think a "good" person should, and those that are different than ourselves.  Similar to the pharisees, I see a desire to set ourselves up as LDS people as being the only good in the world and the rest of the world as evil, when in truth the good and evil is a division found in each and every soul.  And while I acknowledge that adherence to the commandments is vitally important, it seems that for some, obedience to the commandments includes bludgeoning over the head, those who either don't obey the commandments, or interpret them differently than themselves.  2 Nephi 26:30 states: . . . And except they should have charity they were nothing. . ." which is an important reminder that all of the other works we can participate in this life, pale in comparison to the act of charity in how we treat others.

If you’ll recall, the first four Gospels cover a lot of Christ spending time with publicans, sinners, and other “unclean” types. The Pharisees and Sadducees—two Jewish groups who famously didn’t agree on hardly anything—judged Christ harshly for the company he kept. The apostles spent approximately 3 years with him in the flesh as well as an additional 40 days with the resurrected Christ and up to this point they just didn’t get it.  The entire time, Jesus had tried to teach them by example that society was changing; the separation between clean and unclean or Jew and Gentile had to go.  Now, through a revelation, Peter finally got it and proved that everyone is equal before God and you have no excuse to stand “holier” than anyone else.  No one is common or unclean. “God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean” (KJV, Acts 10:28).

I don’t mention this to make anyone feel judged; this is a much a call to repentance for myself as it is for anyone else.  I admit that I struggle in the tendency to judge those I view as too simplistic in their views of religion.  But yet, no one is common.  No one is unclean, or perhaps they are, but it should never be our responsibility to make this judgment. The more popularly quoted scripture comes a bit later in verse 34, stating, “God is no respecter of persons.” But I prefer the version in verse 28.  I should not call anyone common or unclean.  We teach our Young Women that everyone is divine in nature.  This is the underlying principle here.  No one gets shunned, no one gets left out, and it is not our place to decide if someone is common or unclean.

This is a topic that is important to me because I feel I have never really fit in to the Mormon culture, try as I might.  I have often wondered, "Where is my place?  Am I needed here?"  But I keep plodding along, persevering in every outward way I can, even though I many times feel alone.  I am content with the strength of my personal relationship with my Savior, although I feel sometimes alone in his church.  I am frequently left feeling that I am not wanted, unless of course I can conform my opinions, perspective, and thoughts to the majority.  The pressure to conform is BRUTAL in our church and there are many victims of this brutality.  Believe me when I say I have tried very hard to conform.  I have a questioning and searching mind and it will never be any different, and I am only now realizing that that is okay and that I do have a place and a perspective that should be valued.  I believe in the Body of Christ analogy found in Corinthians; basically, we all make up parts of Christ's church (or body) and therefore, all parts are needed and in fact, depend on each other.  What I desperately wish however, is that we weren't so hard on each other and realized the value in differing points of view.  I will always be fine no matter how I am treated because I have a firm foundation and a great husband that supports me, but I am concerned for those I know who aren't as firm and don't have the support that I have.  What happens when a woman finds she enjoys working full time instead of child rearing?  Does she fit?  What happens to someone that is gay and chooses to attend church?  Do they fit?  What about a Democrat or a feminist?  What is to become of them when they feel the pressure to fit a mold that they can't possible fit into or don't want to fit into?  What good is only one viewpoint in every situation?  What good is alienating all differences until everyone is one vanilla carbon copy of each other?  We are strengthened in our differences when we allow them to challenge our preconceived notions of something, or widen our ability to love all of humankind.  What good is talking about Christ leaving the 99 to seek the 1, if the 1 feels drop kicked out of the church?!  What is the higher law?  That we attend church to be strengthened in our view that LDS people are favored, and more choice than others and how evil the world is and we need to protect ourselves from the world?  Or is it more important to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome, valued, and we view our fellow humans as worthy of befriending and having something to offer us?  Sometimes it feels to me like we go to church for that continual pat on the back wherein we are reminded that we are indeed better than everyone else.  As I said before, there are ways in which I too, perpetrate pharisaical behavior when I assume that a person who has certain viewpoints is a simpleton, which I am working on.  

Joy does not come from from being right.  Joy comes from doing right.  It is far more important to do right than to be right; and what does it mean to do right? The right that matters is doing right by others. This is what Jesus taught by his words and deeds. The Pharisees were very worried about being right, but had little interest in doing right. To what extent am I being like a Pharisee is an important question we should all ask ourselves. Worrying about being right can be a huge obstacle to doing right.  It can be a beam in our eye, that is keeping us from seeing the right thing to do.

It is far more important to do right than to be right. As we do right by others, with no expectation of reward, or even like treatment in return, we will have joy. We will learn that we can have joy despite all the sorrow and challenges on this earth, and that we can do it in “all of living” as we are commanded.  And instead of being harmed by those who are outcast or different for whatever reason or being "infected" by those we feel threatened by, just maybe we can be taught, uplifted, and our love for others can be expanded.