We Are Pharisees.

God's good grace. It's a popular subject amongst the Christian circles. We love to discuss what the grace of God has done in our lives, how it has changed us from one person to another, and how we have witnessed the power in the lives of our loved ones. Please, don't get this post wrong, I am most definitely not undermining this precious gift, for I too have marveled at it. However, I did have something on my heart to share today.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are."-Matthew 23:13-15

Sometimes, I find myself disassociating myself from stories such as this; especially, when Jesus is referring to the Pharisees and other spiritual leaders. The reality is, this is the same gracious Jesus. I often forget that He's not always unicorns and cotton candy.

And He did not just address them in this manner only once...

"Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain;

their teachings are merely human rules.’”-Matthew 15:6-9

My heart is heavy today because of this. The Pharisees were children of God just as I; am I any better than them? Not by any means. If I were to run into Jesus on the streets today, what would He say to me?

"'Cause I was a Pharisee, I never saw my need for grace. Then your love came to me, stood next to mine, and I saw that I was poor."-Empire, As Cities Burn

Grace is a gift. A precious, awe-inspiring gift. Most of all, it's a need. It is a need worth dying for, and a need I need to embrace and live for.