John 9:39 –
Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”
This is the story of the blind beggar who Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Once again the miracle of what happened was lost in the legalism of the Pharisees. These leaders lost sight of God’s presence and focused more on enforcing the law which gave them power. I think that’s the reason Jesus was crucified because He was shaking up the “power structure” and placing God back on top. Why else would they dismiss what Jesus did?
These men felt that their own definition of righteousness was God’s standard and did not like Jesus questioning it. How can you deny something is not from God that obviously is? They were trying to claim something that had never been done before was not of God. If you think about it, doing this elevates Satan to a position equal to God. So the Pharisees were not only dismissing God, but glorifying evil. They were truly blind, as Jesus was pointing out.
I see this today with many churches and various religious sects. I know one of the most popular taboos is drinking and is seen here in the south. There have been laws on the books that don’t allow liquor store sales on Sunday’s, but bars are allowed to be open. It’s kind of strange, but stems from churches feeling that drinking is a sin. Nowhere in scriptures is this mentioned other that drinking in excess. I am not denying that many do so, but remember Jesus and the disciples all drank together. So the church has limited the sale of alcohol for legalistic reasons.
Now I am not saying the church cannot have a “no alcohol” policy for their members, since that may be necessary for alcoholics. This becomes a “safe haven” for those members with that problem. Where the problem comes in is when they try to claim any drinking is a sin and get into the legalism by forcing their dogma upon society as a whole. Unfortunately, this then reflects poorly on the church because someone who does not believe tends to think that the church is forcing their morals on them. Then it becomes a problem with hypocrisy when they know Jesus drank. You can see why Jesus came to break down where Israel had gone, since they were more concerned on a healing done on the Sabbath then the fact Jesus helped a man to see!