In Mark 3:1-6 we read about a miracle that Jesus performed. It made waves with the religious rulers, the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious and political elite of Jesus' day, not unlike the Rabbis and Muslim leaders of the Middle East today. They enjoyed an important position, political power and a life of privilege.

Here we discover something about their true character. Jesus had always been troublesome for them, and they often challenged Him. But at this point, they changed their tactics. It says in verse 6 that they began to form a plot to take Jesus' life. The Jewish Law of course, forbade this. But at this point they crossed a line.

I have always read this and thought about how evil these rulers were. But recently upon re-reading this story, something new occurred to me. I asked myself the question, "How did they get here?" In other words, what could bring them to this point—where they were ready to commit, or at least encourage, Jesus' murder?

The obvious answer is that He performed a miracle on the Sabbath. While the Law that God gave Moses strictly forbade working on the Sabbath, it didn't define "work." So the Pharisees took it upon themselves to help God out by defining it—even to the point of defining how far you could walk until it could be considered "work."

They felt threatened by Him because they considered Him a loose cannon, a reckless individual they couldn't influence or control. He had not received their formal training. He didn't ask for their permission to teach or heal the people...He just did it.

And, in their own words, they felt that all the people were changing their allegiance to Him and his teaching. He had the audacity to teach that the people didn't need an intermediary to connect with God. He introduced God as a Father, not the unapproachable, holy Being that demanded compliance and enjoyed judgment. This upended their teachings.

Whatever the cause, we come back to our original question..."How did they get here?" As I thought about this, I found myself asking the question, "Why did individuals join the Pharisees in the first place?"

I believe that, while it's possible they joined for the prestige, etc, the overwhelming majority probably joined because they wanted to know and please God. Isn't that the same reason we serve God?

So...how did they get here? Someone once said that great moral failures are the result of many small compromises. I think that they ended up:

• Substituting rules for a genuine relationship with God
• Valuing religious acceptance over a right heart, and
• Overcompensating because of the guilt of their inevitable mistakes and failures.

As a matter of fact, their hardheartedness frustrated Jesus (verse 5 says that He was deeply distressed). In this case, they placed a higher value on their definition of "work" than on the Kingdom value of helping people.

And they considered performing a miracle (something they couldn't do!) also to be work. In other words, they would rather have this man remain in his condition in order to protect their petty rules than see him free. This infuriated Jesus!

Let's contrast this group with Jesus' disciples. A few verses later in this chapter we discover a bit about them.

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to Him those he wanted, and they came to Him. He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.
(Mark 3:13-15)

By looking at these verses, we learn a lot about them, and their eventual success in changing lives. We often look at this and overlook the order of Jesus' call to them. It says that the first thing they were to do was to "be with Him."

While the Pharisees valued rules, the disciples were to be governed by relationship. Their training consisted of spending time with Jesus. They were to first do life with Him, experiencing His heart and learning His values; and then to learn by doing.

We could also ask the question, "Why did they join the disciples in the first place?" I think this is also easily answered...Jesus invited them, just as He invites us, to follow Him. And they simply responded to His invitation.

What is the greatest difference between these two groups? One was governed by rules...the other by relationship. So then, how do we avoid this Pharisaic path?

We make our focus the same as that of Jesus' disciples—first be with Him! It is so easy to substitute doing for being. Jesus calls us to first be with Him, and then to do things for Him.

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