Here's a definition from Merriam Webster Dictionary of high horse: an arrogant and unyielding mood or attitude.
How many times have you looked at another person or group of people, you may know them or not even know them, or do you know about them & passed judgement on what they do or who they are or what they do in their lives without any true facts of proof that they did it? I'm not talking about the gut feeling you get when you may be faced with harm. Have you judged a person on the color of skin, what they are wearing, their age, the way they talk?
When you start making opinions, judgements, comments about a person without interacting with them & getting to know them as a person, you are on a high horse. You can then be compared to the Pharisee in the Bible. The Pharisee did just that, they thought very highly of themselves & very less about the people below them. Remember Jesus came for the people below the Pharisees. The Pharisees did tell Jesus they did not want him. They thought they were above Jesus.
When people tend to "look down", "frown upon" or scorn people who they feel are different, doing wrong, or don't even measure up to their standards. Remember not everyone has the same standards as you. Doesn't make them wrong or less of a person. It does make them different. Different is not sinful. Are you afraid of different?
Self-righteousness is what the Pharisees excelled in it. Pharisee had their own insecurities that made them get on their high horse so they could feel better & secure. With their attitude towards Jesus the people around picked up on & followed in it. In Mark 2:18-22 gives example of that.
Mark 2:18-22 (NIV)" Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
People were making judgement why was Jesus disciples different? Like they were wrong. Jesus clears it up for them. John's disciples & the Pharisee's disciples had their own standards then Jesus' disciples. Yes, they were different. I'm not looking to point if one was wrong or right. But the point is a group of people seen a differences & looked at it as wrong. The passed a judgement on people that were different. Jesus cleared the matter up. If the group still felt the same afterwards, I don't know. Were they set in the decision? Or did they hear the words & change?
How do you interact with people? Are you on a high horse, feel more holy then another? Do you deal with religious snobbery? Jesus gave us the greatest command of all, Love God with all our heart mind & soul, Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself, so how can you be more holy than your neighbor, how can your neighbor be less than you?
Are you a Pharisee or the people that Jesus came for? Jesus came to love people & share the knowledge of who God is. Love first then knowledge.
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