The Law, the Pharisees, and Christ — Why Did Jesus Confront the Pharisees? – Part 2

The Heart of the Law · Part 2

Key passages: Mark 2:23–28; Mark 7:1–23; Matthew 5:17–48; Matthew 23:23; Jeremiah 31:31–34; Romans 8:1–4

In Part 1, we saw that the Law was covenant instruction for a people God had already redeemed. It revealed His character, ordered Israel’s life, exposed sin, and prepared the way for Christ.

By the time of Jesus, the Law was surrounded by generations of interpretation and application. Teachers had to decide how its commands should be lived in ordinary circumstances. Alongside those interpretations, safeguards were developed to keep people from coming close to transgression.

The familiar rabbinic expression is “make a fence around the Torah.” A fence was not a wall meant to keep people away from God. Nor was it simply another name for interpreting a command. It was an additional boundary intended to protect the command from being broken.

The desire behind such a safeguard could be serious and faithful. Jesus did not condemn careful obedience. He confronted traditions when the fence displaced the command it was supposed to protect.

Why Put a Fence Around the Torah?

The reasoning is understandable. If God commanded Sabbath rest, what activities should be avoided to keep that command? If the Law distinguished clean from unclean, what practices would help Israel preserve those distinctions?

A fence tried to answer a practical question: How can we remain far enough from transgression that we do not break God’s command, even accidentally?

That concern should not be mocked. The Pharisees were not cartoon villains who disliked grace and enjoyed making rules. They belonged to a Jewish movement concerned with holiness, covenant faithfulness, and the application of Torah to daily life. The Gospels preserve sharp conflicts between Jesus and certain Pharisees and scribes, but those conflicts do not mean that every tradition was corrupt or every safeguard foolish.

A wise boundary can help a person resist sin. The danger begins when the boundary acquires the authority of the command itself. A fence can begin as a servant of obedience and quietly become its measure.

When the Fence Displaced the Command

Mark 7 gives the clearest example.

Some Pharisees and scribes questioned why Jesus’ disciples ate without observing the ceremonial handwashing required by the tradition of the elders (Mark 7:1–5). The issue was not ordinary hygiene but ritual practice.

Jesus did not answer by declaring every tradition worthless. He exposed a case in which tradition had been used to evade a direct command of God.

He pointed to the practice of declaring property Corban, devoted to God. In the case Jesus described, that declaration could prevent resources from being used to care for one’s parents. A practice presented as devotion had become a way to avoid honoring father and mother (Mark 7:9–12).

“Thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.”

Mark 7:13, ESV

The problem was not merely that an additional practice existed. It had reversed the moral direction of Torah. A tradition associated with devotion to God was being used to avoid love for the neighbor standing closest.

Jesus judged the fence by the command, not the command by the fence.

When the Fence Obscured the Purpose

The Sabbath controversies reveal a related problem.

Safeguarding Sabbath observance required judgments about what counted as work. Conflict arose when those judgments were used against hunger, healing, and restoration.

When Jesus’ disciples plucked grain, He appealed to Scripture. When He healed on the Sabbath, He asked whether it was lawful to do good or harm, to save life or kill (Mark 2:23–28; 3:1–6). He was not treating the Sabbath as unimportant. He was refusing an application that separated the command from the mercy of the God who gave it.

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:27, ESV

A safeguard may be useful, but it cannot become the purpose of the command. The Sabbath was given as holy rest, worship, dependence, and life before God (Exodus 20:8–11; Deuteronomy 5:12–15). To use it as a reason to withhold restoration was to misunderstand the gift being guarded.

Jesus did not break the Law to make room for mercy. He showed that mercy belonged within faithful obedience.

When Precision Replaced Proportion

Jesus’ criticism in Matthew 23 is equally important:

“You tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.”

Matthew 23:23, ESV

His point was not that attention to small acts of obedience was foolish. He continued, “These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

The problem was proportion. Exactness in minor matters had become compatible with neglect in major ones. A person could appear scrupulous while remaining unjust, unmerciful, and unfaithful.

Love for God and neighbor stood at the center of the Law (Deuteronomy 6:4–5; Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:34–40). Justice, mercy, and faithfulness were not values Jesus set against Moses. They were central to the covenant life the Law required.

Fencing can create the impression that holiness is measured mainly by how far we remain from a prohibited act. Jesus shows that holiness must also be measured by nearness to what God loves.

A Fence Cannot Cleanse the Heart

After the dispute over handwashing, Jesus turned attention from the external boundary to the source of defilement.

He taught that evil proceeds from within: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, deceit, pride, and foolishness (Mark 7:14–23).

A fence can restrain behavior. It cannot cleanse the heart.

Restraint is not useless. Wisdom often avoids circumstances that encourage sin (Proverbs 4:14–15; Romans 13:14). But no external safeguard can create holiness. A rule may place distance between a person and an action while leaving the desire for it untouched.

This is the same need exposed by the Law itself. Sinful people required more than better boundaries. They needed forgiveness, new hearts, and the Spirit of God. Jeremiah promised a covenant in which God would write His Law within His people (Jeremiah 31:31–34). Ezekiel spoke of cleansing, new hearts, and the indwelling Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25–27).

Jesus did not come merely to redraw the fence. He came to accomplish the renewal to which the Law and the prophets pointed.

The One Who Fulfills and Gives the Law

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus brought the commands against murder, adultery, falsehood, and retaliation into the inner life (Matthew 5:21–48). He did not discard outward conduct. He revealed the wholeness God requires: actions, desires, words, and loves brought under His reign.

N. T. Wright argues that Jesus acts not merely as a new Moses but with the authority of a Torah-giver. The point helps explain why Jesus does more than choose among competing interpretations. He speaks with the authority of the One in whom the Law’s purpose is reaching its goal.

Jesus fulfilled the righteousness the Law required (Matthew 5:17; Hebrews 4:15), bore the covenant curse brought by disobedience (Galatians 3:13), and established the new covenant through His blood (Luke 22:20). Through His resurrection and the gift of the Spirit, He began forming a people whose obedience would grow from renewed hearts (Acts 2:32–33; Romans 8:3–4).

He did not remove every boundary and call the result freedom. He freed His people from condemnation and from the attempt to establish their own righteousness (Romans 8:1; 10:3–4). Then He called them to follow Him in the obedience of faith (Romans 1:5; John 14:15).

The Fences Christians Build

Christians can repeat the same error.

We make judgments about habits, entertainment, alcohol, dress, food, worship, and spiritual disciplines. Some boundaries are wise. A person who knows a particular weakness may need to remain far from it. Families and churches must make practical decisions where Scripture does not provide a detailed rule.

But wisdom becomes distortion when our boundary is presented as God’s command for everyone. A safeguard becomes dangerous when it gives us confidence in our own righteousness, allows us to neglect clearer duties, or becomes a measure by which we rank other believers (Romans 14:1–13; Colossians 2:20–23).

The question is not simply whether a fence is strict or permissive. The question is whether it serves faithful obedience to Christ.

Does it protect what Scripture commands? Does it remain distinguishable from the command itself? Does it help us love God and our neighbor? Does it make room for justice, mercy, and faithfulness?

The Law was good, and the desire to obey it carefully was not the problem. The problem came when human rulings gained the weight of divine speech and outward precision concealed an unchanged heart.

Jesus brings us back to the command, its proper weight, and the God whose holiness is never separated from mercy. He does more than correct our boundaries. He gives the forgiveness and renewal no fence can provide.

Study References

• Mark 7:1–23, concerning the tradition of the elders, Corban, and the true source of defilement.
• Mark 2:23–28 and Mark 3:1–6, concerning Sabbath observance, mercy, and restoration.
• Matthew 23:23, concerning justice, mercy, faithfulness, and the weightier matters of the Law.
• Matthew 5:17–48, concerning Jesus’ fulfillment of the Law and its reach into the inner life.
• Jeremiah 31:31–34 and Ezekiel 36:25–27, concerning the new covenant, inner renewal, and the work of the Spirit.
• Romans 8:1–4, Romans 10:3–4, and Colossians 2:20–23, concerning condemnation, self-established righteousness, and human regulations.
• Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.