Seeing myself in the Pharisees – Part 1

Several months ago I was startled with a revelation from an unusual source that started me down this journey. While we were traveling on a long deputation trip, we had decided to get an audio book from Cracker Barrel to help us pass the time, and so we picked up this one called Black by Ted Dekker. Now I had never read anything by Dekker, but had heard about him – a Christian thriller writer somewhere along the lines of a Frank Peretti, so we figured that we’d give him a try. In this particular book (actually the first of a Trilogy) there is a lot of symbolism, which really makes you think (a good thing to keep your mind occupied for endless hours on the road), but I hadn’t realized all the symbolism yet. After we finished Black we quickly got Red, the second book, because I was hooked.

As I was listening to this story I found myself siding with a particular group of people, called the Council (or something like that) who were in charge of protecting the Forest People’s religious system called the Great Romance which was the worship of Elyon – an obvious reference to God. These were the good guys, the spiritual leaders and I liked them and their devotion to maintaining the purity of the Great Romance. As the story progresses, a character named Justin of Southern emerges and becomes a main player. Justin had been part of the Forest People’s army, but had defected from the army to seek peace between the Forest People and the Hoarde (the enemy). Ultimately he presents his plan/doctrine of love and peace to the Council but is deemed to be a heretic and violator of the Great Romance and is handed over to the Hoarde to be killed.

As the story unfolded, I was skeptical of this Justin. He was portrayed as a charismatic personality, one to whom people were naturally and almost irresistibly drawn, but one who espoused a doctrine that seemed to deviate radically from the teaching of the Great Romance and devotion to Elyon. It wasn’t until I had already committed to my loyalties to the Council in the story and the subsequent events unfolded that I began to realize the extent of the symbolism. The parallels were clear and shocking – Justin of Southern represented Jesus, and the Council typified the Pharisees. Just as in the scriptural account of Jesus, the Council evaluated Justin according to their traditions and understanding of what the proper worship of Elyon was, and sentenced Him to death because of his radical departure from those traditions and understandings.

The story continued – it’s a masterful story and the symbolism is so rich, but what troubled me was that I had allied with the wrong side. I had sided with the Council and their traditions and against Justin. I had chosen the Pharisees over Jesus! This shook me because I think that I have always viewed the Pharisees as such nasty scoundrels and prided myself into thinking that if I were there in Jesus day, I would have seen and known better than the Pharisees did. But through this story I realized that isn’t necessarily the case. I heard and saw everything the Council/Pharisees did and sided with the traditions and “truth” over the love of Justin/Jesus.

This began to turn a series of questions over in my mind? Am I really like the Pharisees? Surely not! Could I be so blind as they were to my own sins and short comings? No! Granted I do tend to overlook some of my own faults, but these were people who were so filled with hate that they killed Jesus; I would never do that… would I? Everything I knew about the Pharisees I didn’t like; they were the hypocrites, the villains, the evil schemers, the ultimate bad guys. It was unthinkable that I could be like them, that I could see myself in them, but why had I allied with them in this story? Why had I been so blindsided when I should have seen what was unfolding?

These seeds of thought were placed in my mind, and although they didn’t immediately sprout, they were there and would soon begin to take root and grow…

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