Friday: The Pharisee

A Threat to Our Way of Life

Tell me, what has been your experience with Jesus of Nazareth?

My experience? He was a threat to our society, to our very way of life. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. Misleading many, his life was a perversion of the things we hold sacred, the things we deem righteous. This man was a blasphemer of the holy scriptures. He took the words of Moses, of King David, of Zechariah, and he twisted them. He corrupted them with his false teaching and his lies.

I have dedicated my entire life to the law of Moses. I could not—I would not—stand idly by while he grafted his lies to our truth and corrupted the minds of the naive, his followers.

From Praise to Condemnation

I was there when he came into the city, and I saw hundreds of people praising him and worshiping him. And I saw these same people five days later shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!”

Matthew 27:22-23 (NASB)

Pilate said to them, ‘Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?’ They all said, ‘Crucify Him!’ And he said, ‘Why, what evil has He done?’ But they kept shouting all the more, saying, ‘Crucify Him!’

And they were the lucky ones—the ones who saw him for who he really was and cleansed themselves of his lies.

And what of his followers? His disciples? In order to mask their shame, they stole the body of Jesus and ran off with it. Scared and frightened, knowing very well that they were wrong and what they had done was wrong. We will punish them. They will pay for their actions, too.

Matthew 28:12-13 (NASB)

And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, ’You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’

It Is Finished

No, Jesus was not God. He was a liar. He was a lunatic. He was the devil in disguise, and he got what he deserved.

What god would let men beat him and whip him? What god would let men rip the flesh from his bones? They crucified him, and he did nothing to stop it. When the skies darkened and the earth trembled, it was because we had defeated one of the devil’s own. We won. We were victorious.

When he uttered, “It is finished,” he was right.

John 19:30 (NASB)

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

It is finished.