God's plans

You know, if you ask me, I don’t think the Pharisees were bad people.  I think they meant well.  But they just didn’t get it right, even though they seemed pretty convinced that they were on the right track and that they were doing the right things.  That’s what I think.  Maybe it got to their head, and they felt superior, and they didn’t expect anybody to know better than them.  But can you blame them?  I mean they studied scripture, they followed tradition, they had strict code of conduct and rules, and they were careful to observe them.  Scrupulous, even.  Right?

But it took Jesus to point them out to everyone and said, on so many occasions, “Don’t be like the Pharisees.”  One of those occasions, we find in the opening of Matt 5:20-26, where Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness surpasses those of the Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  And after saying that, Jesus started giving examples after examples of the things that changed the way people viewed about what it takes to enter the kingdom of heaven.