Sound Bites

I remember that when I was very young, my father taught me some mnemonics which seared their tattoos into my brain. One interesting mnemonic involved Jesus' debate opponents, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

My father said that the Pharisees were Fair-I-See — in Matthew 23:27, the Bible records that Jesus said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." They appeared fair on the outside, defenders of the law, very meticulous about practices and customs, but not at all like that on the inside.

He said that the Sadducees were Sad-U-See — in all three of the synoptic gospels, they are described as people who deny the concept of resurrection, and hence believed that in death, all go down to Sheol forever. In fact, they were complete materialists; the book of Acts tells us that they did not believe in supernatural agents or agencies.

For Christians, these two errors are pretty serious. The first is to adhere to the form, but not the substance; the second is to deny that there is a spiritual destiny at all. I've succumbed to both at various times in my life, and I suspect that there might yet be times of drought.