All the Pharisees read was the Torah. They studied it inside out. They rehearsed and prayed it until the cows came home. Yet when the God behind the Torah showed up they totally missed him.
They accused him of blasphemous behavior. They persecuted him and called him a liar, drunkard, and demon possessed. They made it their lives calling to prove him wrong and even ridicule what he did or said. All they were interested in was being right and him being wrong.
It is amazing to me how it can be possible that we can read something and what we get out of it is very much based on our own limitations and experience as we see others and the world through the filter called “ME”. In the Pharisees case it was all about them and them being honored and glorified. It was about them being superior and right and Jesus confirming this which of course he didn’t.
You see they saw the God of the scriptures and expected him to be the same way they were. When he showed up and he was totally different than what they thought they killed him…They never gave him a chance or took the time to come off their religious roller coaster so they could be still, open their hearts, and truly understand who He really was.
Jeremiah wrote that if we are going to boast about anything to do with Dad it needs to be that we know him and understand him. Not that we know the good book inside out or that we don’t sin like others do. Not that we are better because we pray and others don’t and certainly not because we can quote chapter and verse while others cant. The reality is that to understand someone we must first know them, and to know them we must first experience them…nothing more, nothing less!
It was never meant to be about the reading, learning, and obeying as much as it was meant to be about relating and understanding our lover one moment at a time…
-pablo-
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