Wednesday 01 April 2009

Background

Today's reading is part of a larger passage in which Jesusconverses with people described as "the Jews" and "thePharisees".

The word 'Jew' occurs 70 times in John's Gospel, where in manycases, it refers to an ill-defined group who are - to varyingdegrees - against Jesus. Sadly, at different times throughout thehistory of the Church these generalised negative references in theGospel of John have been used to justify anti-Semitism. It is,however, worth noting, not only that Jesus and the first Apostleswere themselves Jews, but that John's Gospel explicitly refers to"the Jews who had believed" in Jesus (verse 31).

In the passage before us it appears that 'the Jews' with whom Jesusis talking are some of the leading Jewish religious authorities,who would almost certainly include a number of Pharisees.

At the time of Jesus' earthly ministry the Pharisees were theleading religious group in Judaism. The Aramaic word from which weget the name 'Pharisee' literally means 'the separated ones', andthis group viewed themselves as separated from those who did notfollow exactly the individual legal prescriptions of the JewishScriptures. In one of his letters, the apostle Paul admits tohaving been "as to the law, a Pharisee" (Philippians 3:5).

Of the four New Testament Gospels, Luke is alone in not depictingthe Pharisees as generally opposed to Jesus. Today's passage is,therefore, consistent with the negative portrayal of the Phariseesin Matthew, Mark and John. As a group, the Pharisees appear to beso preoccupied with the fulfilment of the Law that they have becomeintensely narrow, rigidly formal and quick to judge those who donot share their particular view of things. There are, however,individual Pharisees who are clearly attracted to Jesus, such asNicodemus (John3).

It is clear from today's passage that, as far as some of thereligious people of his day were concerned, Jesus might as wellhave been speaking a foreign language. The claims of Jesus simplydid not square with their neat and tidy world view.

To Ponder

Like the Pharisees, we each see things throughthe lenses of a particular world view with which we arecomfortable. How open are you to hear what God may be revealingfrom an altogether different perspective?

Whilst John speaks generally of "the Jews" and"the Pharisees", he also makes it clear that those who might gladlyown such labels did not all hold the same point of view. Whichgroups of people today are wrongly assumed to be of one mind?