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May 12, 2026 06:00am

Walking Through Luke: Woes to the Pharisees

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Growing up, I was a stickler for the rules. As the oldest child, this occasionally created problems with my younger siblings, who were nowhere near as by the book as I was. When my parents left me in charge, this often created conflicts, especially with my youngest brother and occasionally with my sister as well. My middle brother and I were always really close, and because of that, as well as the fact that he was older than the other two, there weren’t usually any power struggles between us.

There’s one particular instance that my sister loves to tell about me. This was ten years ago now, but she never misses a chance to bring it up. At the time, our house was right across the street from our church. As is typical of parents at church, ours often stuck around afterwards, either talking or dealing with some after-church business. One particular Wednesday night, my siblings and I decided to head home early.

As we were walking, we cut through the front yard instead of sticking to the street and going up the driveway. My sister was running, and suddenly she clutched her face and started crying. Apparently, she had walked directly into a low branch sticking off a tree. She ran inside, crying, and the rest of us followed her in. She was still crying, curled up on her bed. Well, we had been given instructions before we left church: get ready for bed. Those were the rules. And so, I said, “Go get in the shower.”

She said, “No, I want to wait until Mom and Dad get home so I can tell them what happened.” I told her that we were supposed to get ready for bed, and that we didn’t know when they’d be home, so she needed to get in the shower. She fought back that she really wanted to wait for Mom and Dad to get home. But I would not let up, and the way she tells it, I was really aggressive and mean about it until she finally stormed off to take a shower. I don’t remember exactly how it went down; it clearly stuck in her memory a lot more than it did in mine. But the reality was, I was so determined to follow the rules that I refused to bend even for the sake of sympathy.

I’ve gotten better about that as a dad, I think. I recognize when it’s time to step back from rigid expectations and let my daughter process her feelings. Sometimes, that means doing things out of order or pushing back structure to make room for her to feel safe. But I do still wrestle with that black-and-white worldview that everything is supposed to be exactly a certain way.

We find a similar attitude among the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. They were determined to appear outwardly to follow all the rules. They didn’t want anyone to look at them and think they were doing anything wrong. They wanted to be the most morally superior people around. The problem was, they were only doing things that looked good externally. They were forgetting the most important things.

This led to a problem in Luke 11:37–54, when Jesus did not perform the ceremonial washing before dinner the way Pharisees expected Him to. This was the last straw for Jesus. He delivered a sharp rebuke. He criticized them for being so focused on rituals that made them look good on the outside while neglecting what was inside. They loved to publicly display their giving to the temple, but their hearts were cold and unloving. All they cared about was their own status and importance.

A lawyer nearby tried to defend the Pharisees, saying Jesus was insulting them as well. Jesus said, “Yes! I am!” He said they were adding countless rules that made life difficult for the average person, while they themselves failed to carry those same burdens. They claimed to revere the prophets of the Old Testament, but they had more in common with the people who killed the prophets than with the prophets themselves.

At the root of the problem was a lack of compassion. They were more concerned with following the rules than making sure the people around them were cared for. It didn’t matter how much a person was suffering; what they cared about was whether that person lived up to their standards of behavior.

We have to be careful not to fall into the same trap.

I have known churches that have shown signs of this exact kind of behavior. Their rules define them. The people who enter the church must dress a certain way or behave a certain way, and if they don’t, they aren’t welcome. But they neglect to check on that same person’s well-being. How are they doing emotionally? Mentally? Financially? It doesn’t matter if they aren’t following the rules. And that’s not how it’s supposed to be. The heart of the Gospel is compassion.

It can be all too easy to become performative. We get so particular about looking Christian. We can wear the Christian T-shirts, put a fish sticker on the back of our car, post an Instagram story with our Bible and coffee, make a TikTok with a Christian song in the background, and connect with all the outward appearance of Christianity. But if we do that while ignoring the people who are hurting around us or being rude to those who don’t fit our lifestyle, then we’re acting just like the Pharisees.

What Jesus desires from us, alongside our faith, is to live a life of love and compassion. If we are not expressing the same love He showed us to others, but are still doing all the other “Christian” things, then we’re not really living for Him at all. How are you treating the people around you? That’s the measuring stick Jesus always used to determine whether someone who claimed to obey God was genuine or not. That’s the same measuring stick we should use with ourselves.