Fool or Pharisee?

I unexpectedly ran into a friend a couple of weeks ago, and we had a conversation about some of the things that God was teaching him and helping him to overcome. In the midst of that conversation, he said something to me that was so simple, but so profound. My friend said, "human beings are just suckers for religion."This past weekend I was reading John chapter 7 in the Message translation when I came across something scripturally related to what my friend had said to me. Jesus was at the festival of the tabernacles, and He was preaching to the crowd. As people in the crowd began to be persuaded that Jesus was the Messiah, the Pharisees became angry. They sent the temple police to arrest Jesus, but the temple police came back without Him. When the Pharisees asked why, the temple police said to the Pharisees, "Have you heard the way he talks? We've never heard anyone speak like this man," to which the Pharisees replied with the following:"Are you carried away like the rest of the rabble? You don't see any of the leaders believing in him, do you? Or any from the Pharisees? It's only the crowd, ignorant of God's law, that is taken in by him - and damned."This is flat out scary when we really think about what was happening here. The Pharisees were so dependent on their religion that they were blinded to the living Son of God right in front of them. They were so blind, that they clearly exalted themselves as being wise, and they chastised people and called them foolish for actually believing. They referred to these ignorant people as “the rabble” in this translation.Here is the scarier part. If what my friend says is true, if we are truly suckers for religion, then our natural tendency is towards the mindset of the Pharisees. I have personally seen this play out in my life. As I walk with Jesus, come to see the reality of His work in my life, and study His word diligently, my tendency is to become more self-righteous rather than more aware of my unrighteousness. As I have opportunities to take on leadership roles within my church, the first thing my flesh wants to do is praise the work of my hands and puff up, not recognize it solely as an act of God and become more humble. The more that God helps me to overcome strongholds in my life, the less compassion my flesh has for the people that are still fighting them, as if I was actually the one who overcame those strongholds in the first place.Friends, this is something that we simply must guard our hearts against as followers of Jesus. Often, this mindset tries to creep in much more subtly than we see it played out from the Pharisees in John Chapter 7. For us, it may just happen when we see people doing things that we would consider “foolish” for Jesus. We may look at the person in church worshiping wildly and think that they need to dial it back. We might see a person sell everything to head off for the mission field and think it is irresponsible and unwise. We might see someone praying passionately for healing that does not come, and feel in our hearts that they are trying to walk in something that is not their calling.We must remember that God does not see as man sees. God looks at the heart, not the results. The Bible says that He chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). The fact of the matter is that while we strive to make ourselves look wise in the eyes of the world, God is telling us not to be afraid to be fools in the eyes of the world. This applies to our “religion” as much as it does anything else. The next time that we look around and see that person who looks like an absolute “fool” in our eyes in the way that they are pursuing Christ, rather than judge them, let’s take the opportunity to ask God how He is using them to kill off the Pharisee inside of us.

“Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them” (proverbs 26:12).“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Isaiah 5:21).