The Pharisees, like most Jews in that period, hoped for the kingdom to be restored by a messiah who bore godlike qualities. The Pharisees may have disputed and rejected Jesus’ self-identification as ...

That’s what Jesus asks for, and that’s why he excoriates the Pharisees. It’s not even just that they fell short. It’s that they refused to see the deficit.

Evangelical Republicans today are like certain characters in the Bible in Jesus’ day — the very spiritual, very educated, very rich, very law-abiding, and very beautifully clothed Pharisees.