Have you ever been technically right, but in reality you were wrong?

Right on paper, wrong in conduct?

Factually right but not loving or helpful?

Hopefully it’s not just me, but I have surely been there in my own life more than once. I have walked away from so many moments thinking to myself, “huh… I’m not sure if I was really that helpful at all.” Even if I’m technically right, sometimes the way that I go about things ends up being more harmful than helpful.

As I think about this concept and how the Scriptures talk about it, I think about the Pharisees. We often picture this group as monstrous villain figures that were the bad guys in the Jesus story, but let’s pause for a second and make sure we assess the situation properly.

The Pharisees set out with incredible intentions. They were a group of religious leaders who had the desire to help people adhere to the Old Testament law in their lives. They were often found at the Synagogues teaching, performing sacrifices, and explaining the law to people.

Who would ever say that those desires were in and of themselves wrong?

Helping people figure out how to follow God in their own lives? That sounds like the right thing to do.

And yet… somewhere along the way, right became wrong. They became so self righteous, legalistic, and hypocritical that they drifted so far away from God’s heart and desire for His people.

They started caring more about rules than people, being correct than showing mercy, and their personal image more than recognizing Jesus.  

You could say, right became wrong when they lost their love for others.

And it’s not a debate that Jesus saved His harshest words for this very group of people. The religious leaders. The ones who saw themselves as better and above everyone else. This broke the heart of Jesus and made Him unbelievably angry.

Let’s take a look at a story in the Gospel of Matthew of Jesus versus the Pharisees. Based on everything that we just talked about, I want you to notice the kinds of things that Jesus is confronting in them, and how right becomes wrong.

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” 11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Matthew 12:1-14  

 

Now… before we rush to point the fingers too hard at the Pharisees and all the ways that they got it wrong… Let’s take a second and inspect the Pharisee inside each and every one of us. How has our desire to do right turned into something wrong? How have we missed out on loving others? Who is paying the price for our need to be the center of the universe?

May Jesus shape all of our hearts one day at a time, so that we can see loving God with all that we are, and loving our others as ourselves as the most important things.