Thursday, March 17 - Matthew 23:1–39 (NIV)

Matthew 23:1-39 

One of the  most caustic speeches of Jesus as he puts the hypocrital religious establishment in its place.  A cautionary section of Scripture to all of us.

Did you know someone in school who was always right, no matter what? Someone made sure that everyone knew they were right—and everyone else was not really right enough? Nasty, weren’t they?

Or maybe you were in the military with some of those people who knew   every regulation in the book and followed the book completely even when it didn’t make any sense. Probably the same ones you knew at school.  They wanted everyone to know that they knew the right regulation and everyone else better look sharp and snap to it.

The Pharisees didn’t start out that way, but they became those people.  They began by wanting to do everything that God told them to do, and of course they wanted to do His will the best they could.  But they got lost in the rules, and they forgot that God was more important than the regulations.

Some of the rules were so complicated that they even outdid government regulations. Barclay’s commentary on Matthew lists some of them, and they are amazing.

For instance: An earthen vessel which is hollow becomes unclean only on the inside and not on the outside; and it can be cleansed only by being broken.  The following cannot become unclean at all—a flat plate without a rim, an open coal-shovel, a grid-iron with holes in it for parching grains of wheat. On the other hand, a plate with a rim, or an earthen spice-box, or a writing-case can become unclean. Of vessels made of leather, bone, wood and glass, flat ones do not become unclean; deep ones do.  If they are broken, they become clean…” You get the idea.  How does this make sense?

Or take the fine art of making an oath. An oath which includes the name of God includes God in the contract and cannot be broken, no matter what.  An oath which does not include the name of God, however, can be broken.  What’s the use of an oath that can be broken? It’s contract law that has cheating as its purpose!

The scriptures gave guidelines for serving God, but the rules stole the whole show and became their own religion. And when the Pharisees kept the rules, they believed that they were doing everything that God required of them, that they were perfectly deserving of Paradise.

Mr. Barclay also says, “To be truly religious is to love God and to love the men whom God made in His own image; and to love God and men, not with a nebulous sentimentality, but with that total commitment which issues in devotion to God and practical service of men.”

Knowing the rules is not enough.  Even obeying the rules is not enough.  When we serve the rule book instead of serving God and God’s children, we become Pharisees: blocking not only ourselves but others from entering God’s kingdom.

God wants us to be clean for Him.  He wants us to obey Him, not because it is in the rules but because we love Him.  Sometimes it’s harder than just  following rules, but our love is what He wants from us.

Stewart Bolerjack

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 1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries  wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. [14]

15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”