River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-09-15

THE Pharisees and Sadducees OF
W our Lords day were the lead
ers of religion. They h 4d formed
trust or federation, SO to speak, and
rarely made an attack upon each
other, although their doctrines were
directly opposed. The Pharlsees
acknowledged God and the prophets
and the Law, and believed in
future life by resurrection from
the dead, and believed in coming
Messiah to exait their nation and
through it to bless the world. The
Sadducees believed nothing of the
kind-they were agnostics, Higher
Critics. They were making the best
of the present life, doubling any
future existence. The Pharisees OPP
posed Jesus because he did not &C
knowledge them, but criticised them,
and showed the hypocrisies of their
claims to be perfect and holy in the
keeping of the Law, and reproved
them for their lack of sympathy
with the poor and less pretentious.
The Sadducees opposed Jesus be-
cause, from their standpoint Of un-
belief, he was fraud. But even as
a fraud they would not have both
cred themselves to oppose him, only
that they perceived that he was
gaining an influence with the people
an influence which they feared
might, sooner or later, lead to some
disturbance of the peace and un-
favorably influence the conduct of
the Roman Empire towards the
Jews. So while the Sadducees and
Pharisees both opposed jesus, their
opposition was for different reasons.
The triumphal entry of Jesus into
Jerusalem, and the crying of the
multitude, "Hosanna to the Son of
David" the Messiah! awakened
envy in the minds of the Pharisees.
But in the Sadducees it produced a
fear that the common people should
become SO aroused as to involve
their nation in some strife with the
Empire. The Pharisees Strove to
turn away the symp athy of the peo-
pie from the Great Teacher, and, to
this end, sought to catch him in his
words by putting the question, is
it lawful to give tribute?"
They reasoned that if Jesus would
say, 1t is not unlawful, they would
have little difficulty in having him
arrested as leader of sedition and
thus compel Plate to put him to
death. They reasoned further that
if Jesus should answer that it was
lawful to give tribute to Caesar he
would thereby ALLEVIATE the sympa-
thy of the multitude, which cried
Hosanna!" after him; for the Jews
held, almost superstitiously, the
idea that they, as Gods Kingdom,
must not pay tithes to any earthly
Kingdom-that it would be irrever-
eut to do so, excepting under COM
pulsion. We notice how artfully
they endeavored to ensnare the
Master by complimenting him upon
his truthfulness, saying, Master,
we know that thou art true!" Not
only SO, but they sought to impress
upon him their appreciation of him
the light, the Truth, at any cost.
And so they said, Thou teachest
the way of God in truth" And
further, they fortified their position
by saying, eve know that thou re-
gardest not the person of men!"
These treacherous compliments
were intended TO ensnare him, but
he promptly answered, Why tempt
ye me, ye hypocrites?" Why do
you veil your base designs under
guise of speaking for the Truth?
Show me the tribute money" This
was, literally, the census coin in
which the tax was to be paid. They
handed him a denarius, the usual
wage for the day laborer, CORE
spending in value to about seven
teen of our cents. Jesus asked,
Whose is this image and super
scription?" They ans wered,
Caesars" Jesus replied, Render
unto Caesar the things that are
Caesars and unto God the things
that are Gods" No wonder the
willy Pharisees were troubled to
know how to catch him in his words!
On the contrary, they were caught;