When John the Baptist proclaims that the time of Messianic judgement is about to commence. He urges people to put their lives right with God, to repent of their sin.
But interestingly, those who John comes down on most harshly are not the people we expect – people whose lives are obviously less than perfect. Instead, John comes down most harshly on the Pharisees and Sadducees – the religious elite.
The Pharisees were the devout Law-keepers. The Sadducees were the wealthier ruling class – the chief priests and the high priest were all Sadducees. The Pharisees were more representative of the common people and had the respect of the masses. The Sadducees’ centre of power was the temple in Jerusalem; whilst the Pharisees controlled the synagogues.
The Sadducees didn’t believe in the afterlife, for them the soul perished at death. The Sadducees also rejected the idea of an unseen, spiritual realm with angels and demons.
These groups were rivals for the religious leadership of the nation and the only time in the Bible that the Sadducees and the Pharisees put aside their differences to work together would be when they jointly worked to bring about the death of Jesus.
John condemns these two groups violently, calling them a “nest of vipers”. But why?
In the Bible vipers are an evil creature, deadly and cunning and associated with Satan. For John to call the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” implies that they were satanic. This same idea is expressed by Jesus in John 8:44, where He says they “belong to their father, the devil.”
The image of vipers fleeing was quite a common sight in Israel when farmers burned the stubble in the fields after the harvest. As the fire spread across the fields it would approach vipers’ nests and the snakes would then try to escape from the flames, but they didn’t all make it. So snakes fleeing from the fire was a common sight.
The Sadducees and Pharisees were meant to be the religious leaders turning people towards God – shepherds of the sheep. But in reality the Pharisees were more interested in public acclamation. They practiced their faith ostentatiously. Jesus had them in mind when he warned;
‘Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’
Matthew 6:2ff
The problem with the Pharisees was that they did all the right things, but for all the wrong reasons. They lived devout lives – praying, worshipping, giving, fasting etc. But it was all twisted and perverted. It was all done to gain the respect and acclamation of others, none of it was genuine, done for God. It was a Satanic perversion of piety.
The other group, the Sadducees, they didn’t believe in the life to come, so their whole focus was on this life – getting what you can while you can. They were just interested in wealth and power. They were even willing to cooperate with the Roman invaders in order to maintain their position. For them, there was no judgement to fear, no eternal reward to work for. Just get what you can while you can and enjoy it while it lasts.
So what? This text is 2,000 years old, what relevance does it have for us today? Well, open any newspaper, turn on any TV news program and you will see that the Pharisees and Sadducees are alive and well.
Remember Sir Jimmy SAVILLE OBE – knighted by the Queen and the Pope. He raised millions of pounds for charity, and he was given honours and fame because of it. Yet we eventually find out that he was actually a monster of a man, who did untold harm. That’s a pure-blood Pharisee – doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons.
We also see people who spend their whole life just seeking after money and power. People who live with no thought of eternity and who will do anything and everything – lie, cheat, steal, side with the most awful individuals – just to get more and more. Donald TRUMP springs to mind. Is there anything that man wouldn’t say or do if he thought it would bring him money and power? A pure Sadducee.
But worryingly, it all comes a bit closer to home too. When people notice our good deeds, our charitable giving, our prayer life, our spiritual disciplines and they say how wonderful we are. Our inner Pharisee slithers up and says, “I expect that you are right. I really am better than most people aren’t I?” Next thing you know we are making sure that our good deeds are just that little bit visible, so no-one misses them. Our inner Pharisee hisses approval.
Or what about our balance between working for a better life in the here and now, and storing up treasure in heaven, by doing those things that please God? We know that this world is passing, it is merely the land of our pilgrimage, it is not our permanent dwelling. But it can be tempting to put all our focus on the here and now, to be a Sadducee, a Sssssadduceeee.
Does this make us feel uncomfortable? It should do. Advent is not meant to be a comfortable time; it is meant to be a transformative time. A time to put things right, to make the required changes. A time to reset our priorities and to make sure our life’s compass is correctly aligned.
A time to look inside of ourselves. See the snakes that reside within. Remind them that the fire is coming…
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