In the Gospel today we hear some more about the Pharisees. It seems they are always complaining when Jesus does something good. In this case, Jesus cures a blind man and they even complain about that. But who were to Pharisees?
The word “pharisee” comes from a Hebrew word which means “separate”. The Pharisees at the time of Jesus were trying to preserve a Jewish identity separate from the secular Greco-Roman culture that surrounded them. This was in contrast to the Sadducees, who were more accommodating to their secular rulers. The Pharisees and Sadducees did not have much in common. The Sadducees were an elite priestly class, and their attitude towards the Romans was probably influenced by the fear that the Romans could simply shut the Temple down, in which case the Sadducees would be stripped of their power. By contrast, the Pharisees were a working-class group. Their emphasis on Jewish culture and traditions were not only designed to prevent the Jews from being swallowed up by the Romans, but also to promote holiness among the common people. They were popular and respected. It is important to realize that the Pharisees were well educated and devout Jews and many of Jesus’ followers were Pharisees. So maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on them.
Today we hear about the Pharisees and we think about their adherence to the law. In fact “pharisaical” is a term still used to describe someone obsessed with small-minded rules. In fact, one of things that marked Judaism as separate was it’s law. In the Old Testament, the Jews were called to avoid the practices of their pagan neighbors and hold to the Commandment of God. So the Pharisees, in fact, were very keen on following the law. But there’s a little more to it than that, so let’s look at these law a little more, in light of today’s Gospel reading.
In Exodus, Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. The Third Commandment (Catholic numbering) forbids work on the Sabbath. That’s all the commandment says: don’t work, and don’t force anyone else to work. It doesn’t define “work” though. And in fact, nowhere else in the Old Testament is this expanded upon. There are exhaustive laws covering all manner of activities, but this particular commandment is vague. Does “work” refer to a person’s profession? Or strenuous physical labor? Or anything that occupies time away from the family? Or anything that takes time away from prayer?
Consider a simple example: let’s say I was employed as a gardener. A week long I worked in the gardens of the king, pulling weeds and pruning bushes. On the Sabbath, can I work in my own garden? Can my neighbor, who’s a bricklayer, work in his garden? Can he work in mine? What if my neighbor enjoys gardening, and it’s a form of relaxation for him. Does it count as “work” because it’s something people are paid to do?
Ancient rabbis, after careful examination of the scriptures, realized that the Hebrew word that we translate as “work” is also used to describe the building of the Tabernacle in the desert. After further consideration, they devised thirty-nine categories of activities related to the construction of the Tabernacle that would count as “work” and which were therefore forbidden on the Sabbath. So things like carpentry, weaving, baking and so on were forbidden. After further study, the rabbis realized that these activities were all of a creative nature. That is, they all involved either creating or destroying something. They involved mastery of the physical elements and so were, in a sense, sharing in the God’s creative nature. But in this discussion it’s important to note that the Jews were not only allowed to violate the Sabbath if it was necessary to save a life: they were commanded to by their leaders.
This list is readily available online. At this point, we may think that this, literally, sounds a little pharisaical. After all, God gave one commandment to rest on the Sabbath, and now we have 39 categories of banned activity plus at least one condition where the commandment didn’t apply. And we might find fault with their list of forbidden activities. However appropriate they might be for a group of nomads traveling through the desert, they seem to lose their applicability to residents of a metropolis like Jerusalem and are even less applicable to sailors or merchants.
But there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with interpreting the law. The commandment says “Thou shalt not work!” and so it’s important to understand what that means to the commandment can be followed. That’s simply the natural course of events in any lawful society. We still do it today. The US has been around for over 200 years, yet every year Congress decides there aren’t enough laws on the books yet and they pass more. And then the regulators get ahold of those laws and derive from them an even greater number of regulations. Then the courts argue about whether the regulations are legal and whether the laws are constitutional. So while we might quibble over their interpretation of the law, the process of interpreting the law is normal and necessary.
So we come to today’s Gospel. Jesus takes pity on a man born blind and heals him by making clay with this spittle and putting it on the man’s eyes. The Pharisees saw this as a violation of the Sabbath. Actually, the lists of things forbidden on the Sabbath that I’ve seen don’t include making clay, but it seems logical that it would be there: it is, after all, changing dirt into a building material.
There are at least three reasons by which Jesus was not violating the Sabbath. First of all, as God, He is the author of the law and so a better interpreter of the law than the Jewish leaders of the day. If they think that what Jesus did violated the Sabbath and He disagreed, then the Pharisees were simply mistaken and the next step would be to update their understanding of the law. Secondly, Jesus cured the man’s physical blindness and in the process removed his spiritual blindness and, presumably, the man continued to follow Jesus to eternal life. Therefore, one could argue that Jesus was saving this man’s life which would override any Sabbath restrictions. However, the biggest reason is that there’s nothing in the Bible about making clay on the Sabbath.
The commandment says “Thou shalt not work on the Sabbath”, it doesn’t way “Thou shalt not make clay” or “Thou shalt not make fire” or “Thou shalt not” any of the other 39 banned activities. Those are human interpretations of the law and, necessary as they are, they are still of human origin and subject to review and repeal. The essential crime of the Jewish leaders in the New Testament is equating human law with Divine law.
The Pharisees also promoted an interpretation of the law that let people out of inconvenient moral obligations. In Jesus’ time, there was no Social Security. Your family was your Social Security. One of the benefits of a big family was that you had plenty of people to take care of you when you were too old to work. There’s a commandment that says “Honor your father” and Jews were strictly expected to take care of their parents. But we all know that relationships between the generations can be complicated. What if you don’t like your parents? What if they were mean to you? What if you don’t want to take care of them? The Pharisees encouraged an interpretation of the law that allowed a person to dedicate all of his property to the Temple upon his death. While he was alive he, and only he, had full use of his property, but it actually belonged to the Temple. So when his deadbeat dad showed up looking for help, he could honestly say he didn’t have anything. Jesus condemns this in Mark 7.
This was Jesus’ primary complaint against the Pharisees. Not that they were avid followers of the law, but that they were avid followers of human law making it equal to, if not superior to, divine law when it was convenient to do so. But as G.K. Chesterton once said, “When you get rid of the big laws, you don’t end up with no laws, you get the small laws.” God’s commandments are relatively few in number and designed to promote the seven virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, Faith, Hope and Love. But those can get in a way of having fun, so we replace them an endless list of rules meant to promote secular virtues like “tolerance”, “diversity”, “empowerment” and “equality.”
The Church today has rules. Anyone who goes against the popular culture is accused of being a Pharisee. The temptation is real: the Church has a clear doctrine that is binding on Catholics. Some of these are disciplines which can change over time – like the Eucharistic fast, eating meat on Friday and so on. Some are doctrinal or dogmatic teachings that never change, like the nature of God or the inerrancy of scripture. But there are other customs and traditions that are not binding on Catholics, like wearing ashes on Ash Wednesday, believing in Marian Apparitions, praying before meals when in public. It’s OK to advocate for or against these customs, but it’s tempting to lump these in with the doctrines of the Church in order to categorize your friends as “good Catholics” and your enemies as “bad Catholics”. On the other hand, when controversial subjects come up, it’s tempting to reclassify the Divine Law, those things revealed by scripture and Sacred Tradition, as pious traditions or customs. In either case we follow our own dogmas instead of the Church’s dogma. Fighting over customs may make Thanksgiving dinner more memorable (and there is a certain enjoyment in that), but our efforts would be better spent promoting and living out the Divine law given in scripture and Sacred Tradition. St Augustine summed it up well: “In essentials Unity, In non-essentials Liberty, in all things Charity.”
The Church speaks for Christ today. The blind man asked Jesus to open his eyes. In curing the man, Jesus also cured his spiritual blindness and lead him to eternal life. We can find ourselves blinded by our material concerns and social pressure. We often think we know exactly how to save the world, and if Church would just go along with it, everything would be great. But we need to be like the blind man and ask the Church in humility to open our eyes so we can see God and follow Him.
Closing Prayer
From a treatise on John by Saint Augustine, bishop
Christ is the way to the light, the truth and the life
The Lord tells us: I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. In these few words he gives a command and makes a promise. Let us do what he commands so that we may not blush to covet what he promises and to hear him say on the day of judgement: “I laid down certain conditions for obtaining my promises. Have you fulfilled them?” If you say: “What did you command, Lord our God?” he will tell you: “I commanded you to follow me. You asked for advice on how to enter into life. ...”
Let us do now what he commands. Let us follow in the footsteps of the Lord. Let us throw off the chains that prevent us from following him. Who can throw off these shackles without the aid of the one addressed in these words: You have broken my chains? Another psalm says of him: The Lord frees those in chains, the Lord raises up the downcast.
Those who have been freed and raised up follow the light. The light they follow speaks to them: I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness. The Lord gives light to the blind. Brethren, that light shines on us now, for we have had our eyes anointed with the eye-salve of faith. His saliva was mixed with earth to anoint the man born blind. We are of Adam’s stock, blind from our birth; we need him to give us light. He mixed saliva with earth, and so it was prophesied: Truth has sprung up from the earth. He himself has said: I am the way, the truth and the life.
Let us pray.
Lord God, in your surpassing wisdom
you reconcile man to yourself through your Word.
Grant that your Christian people may come with eager faith and ready will
to celebrate the Easter festival.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
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