What Were the Mistakes of the Pharisees?

In Luke 11, Jesus confronted the Pharisees with several deficiencies of their religion. Over the next 8 days or so, we’re going to see what their faults tell us not only about the Pharisees, but also about ourselves.

They Settled For Looking Good.
A major chemical company recently ran a series of image-changing ads designed to convince the public that it was concerned about the environment. The television evening news carried the story of a group of protesters who weren’t convinced that the company was as concerned as it claimed to be. One protester held up a sign that named the company. It read: “We won’t be fooled. Clean up your act, not just your image.
The protester’s sign reminds me of what Jesus said to the Pharisees. Luke 11 likens them to a group of dishwashers who clean the outside of a container, while leaving the inside dirty. He said: “You Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you.” (Luke 11:39-41)
Jesus was referring to the careful and technically exact ritual of hand washing that Pharisees practiced before sitting down to a meal. They washed before eating and between courses not for cleanliness reasons, but because they prided themselves in fulfilling their ceremonial law. Jesus knew, however, that the “ritually clean” religion of the Pharisees didn’t go below the surface. Their image was good, but their act was bad.
Religion never changes the heart of the problem. It deals with surface issues. That’s why on another occasion Jesus told a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews that he needed to be born again (an internal spiritual birth) if he was ever going to see and be a part of God’s kingdom (John 3).
Prayers, communions, confirmations, baptisms, or volunteering for church causes may look good. Standing on form, however, won’t fool God. Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Receiving Christ can do what all the religion in the world could never do. Religion can change the outside; but only Christ can change the heart.
Trusting Christ changes the heart. It brings the Source of love within us. It’s a humbling process. It means acknowledging the worthlessness of our external clean-ups, giving ourselves over to the mercy of God, and trusting Him to do through the Spirit of Christ what we could never do for ourselves.
Tomorrow, the second mistake of the Pharisees.