seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Matthew 23:1 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[a] 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] [b]
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.’[c]”
Footnotes:
a. Matthew 23:5 That is, boxes containing Scripture verses, worn on forehead and arm
b. Matthew 23:14 Some manuscripts include here words similar to Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47.
c. Matthew 23:39 Psalm 118:26
Sounds like the Pharisees and the teachers of law had it bass-ackwards.
The commentary is from the easy English site again. This is one of those chapters where the commentary is longer than the chapter itself. Kind of ironic considering the context.
God had given the Law to Moses long ago. The Jews had to obey God’s laws. The men who taught the Law and the Pharisees were responsible to teach the Law to the people. They taught that people should respect God and respect other people. So all the Jews should obey them. But the Pharisees had hundreds of their own rules to explain God’s Law. They said that people should obey all these rules. But they often avoided their own rules. Jesus did not want people to copy this bad behaviour. These teachers tried to appear good, but they wanted honour for themselves rather than for God.
All their rules were like a great load that people had to carry. For example, there were many rules about how to keep God’s day special. It should have been a day when people rested and were happy. But it became a day when people were anxious about all the rules. So these rules had become a very heavy load. But the Pharisees did not make the smallest effort to help with the load.
The Pharisees liked people to think that they were very holy. They wore little leather boxes that contained tiny paper rolls. They called these little boxes ‘phylacteries’ and they wrote four passages from God’s Word on each little roll. Jews wore one or more on their arms and one on the front of their heads. They reminded people about God’s commands. The Pharisees wore very large ‘phylacteries’. They wanted to make people notice them. People could see how well they obeyed God’s laws. The man wore his special coat with corners when he prayed to God. These coats also reminded people about God’s laws. But the Pharisees would make the corners extra long so that people would notice them.
The Pharisees liked people to think that they were important. So they wanted the seats that were next to their hosts at parties. They liked to sit on the seats in front of everybody in the building where they met to worship God. Then they could look at everyone who was there. And everyone would notice who was sitting on the front seats.
They liked people to give them the greatest respect. They liked titles that gave them honour. Some translations use the word ‘Rabbi’ which means ‘My teacher’. They even liked people to call them ‘father’. Jesus said that Christians have only one teacher. And that teacher is Christ. Christians have only one father who made them. That Father is God. And with God as their father, Christians are all brothers and sisters.
Jesus emphasised that a Christian should serve other people. And he or she should be humble. God gives honour to people who deserve it. Proud people do not really praise God. Instead, they just praise themselves. But God will destroy their pride. He will also know which people are really humble. He will reward them and give them honour.
Jesus warned the religious leaders seven times:
1. Most of the men who taught the Law and the Pharisees opposed Jesus. He wanted people to enter where God rules. But these leaders refused to listen to Jesus. Also, they tried to stop other people from listening to him. They did not want anyone else to accept Jesus’ invitation. This was like shutting a door to keep people out, Jesus said. When Jesus healed a blind man, the man’s parents were afraid to answer questions about their son (John 9:20-23). Some people accepted Jesus as the Messiah. But the religious leaders refused to let such people stay in the buildings where they met to worship God (John 9:22).
2. The Pharisees made every effort to teach foreigners. They wanted them to believe like the Jews believed. But the Pharisees did not really help them to know God. They only tried to make people accept all their rules. They tried to make people follow their example. When someone changes his religion, he is usually very eager to obey the new religion’s rules. So this was the danger for other people who believed the Pharisees. They could become worse than the Pharisees themselves.
3. Jesus had already spoken about serious promises (Matthew 5:33-37). There were different kinds of promises. The Pharisees thought that they only had to keep certain promises. They did not have to keep other promises. If they did not promise with the name of the Temple, or the holy table or heaven, then they could break that promise. But Jesus said that everything belongs to God. And it should not be necessary to make promises with the names of holy things at all. Jesus said that they should be honest. They should mean what they said.
4. The Levites worked in the Temple. They did not own any land. The other Jews had a duty to provide for the Levites. So from all their grain, oil and wine the Jews had to give them one part out of ten. But the Pharisees also gave one out of ten, even from the small plants in their gardens. These tiny plants were their medicines and gave extra flavour to food. Jesus showed that the Pharisees were emphasising the wrong things. It is far more important to be fair to other people. It is better to help people who need help. It is better to be loyal to God and honest with each other. The Pharisees wanted to avoid everything that they thought was not ‘clean’. So Jesus suggested an impossible word picture. They were careful to take any tiny insect out of their drink. But they were prepared to swallow something as large as a camel! This funny picture showed that the Pharisees were stupid. Some things are important and other things are less important. The Pharisees could not see the difference.
5. The Pharisees’ many rules included how to wash dishes. They had to make sure that the outside of a cup or a dish was clean enough for God. It may not have looked dirty. But nothing that their rules considered ‘not clean’ must touch the outside. That touch would make it ‘not clean’. They did not worry much about more important wrong things. When someone had cheated, it did not worry them. When someone had stolen food and drink, it did not worry them. So the Pharisees were like their own cups and dishes. They made sure that they seemed pure on the outside. But they were greedy inside, where it did not show. They wanted to please themselves rather than to please God.
6. Jews believed that a person must not touch a dead body. It would make the person ‘not clean’ (Numbers 19:16). In some places, there were graves by the road. Someone might touch a grave by accident. So then they would no longer be ‘clean’. If this happened at Passover time, that person could not be part of the Passover ceremonies. So in the spring, Jews painted the graves white. They looked beautiful, but inside they were full of dead bodies or just bones. Jesus said that the Pharisees were like the white graves. They looked so good on the outside. But deep inside, the Pharisees were as awful as it was inside the graves.
7. The Pharisees pretended to give honour to God’s special servants who died long ago. They made their graves look beautiful. Sometimes they even built new rock graves for them. The Pharisees said that they would not have killed God’s servants. But Jesus was bringing God’s message, and they were planning to kill him. He had shown that he knew their thoughts in his story about the wicked farmers (Matthew 21:33-41). All through Jewish history men had killed God’s special servants and refused to listen to their message. The Pharisees were the same.
Jesus used words that John the Baptist had also used. He warned the Pharisees about the punishment in hell. God had sent his special servants with messages in the past, and he would send more in the future. But they would all suffer because they were doing God’s work. And Jesus knew that they would fix him on a cross to die as well. The entire Jewish history showed how the Jews had murdered God’s servants. Abel was the first. His brother Cain murdered him (Genesis 4:8). Zechariah was the last because Chronicles is the last book in the Jewish Old Testament. He told the people that God would punish them for their bad behaviour. But king Joash encouraged the people to throw stones at Zechariah. And those stones killed him (2 Chronicles 24:20-22). In Genesis, Abel’s murder meant that God would judge Cain (Genesis 4:10). Before he died, Zechariah prayed to God. He asked God to judge his murderers (2 Chronicles 24:22). Jesus said that the people living then would suffer because of the murders in their history. Jesus gave a very serious warning to them. He knew what would happen. The nation had always refused to believe God’s message and soon God would punish them. The Pharisees were among those who opposed Jesus. But Jesus was God’s final message to them.
There is a guy who lives in my neighborhood. He thinks his poop doesn't stink. He also thinks his poop is better than the others who think their poop doesn't stink. Everyone in my community is over 55 years old. Almost everyone is over 65 years old. He held a concert..... at his garage. He put up a sign at the mailboxes. About fifteen of my neighbors went, I am told. There was no social distancing. His poop doesn't stink. His poop is better than anyone else's poop. His singing of old Elvis hits.... that's what matters. Our community center closed until this virus is over. We generally have several gatherings a month.... but for safety reasons..... our calendar was wiped clean. This man really needed some adoration. I'm sure when the first Pharisee wrote the first rule.... it was to make things better for everyone. But then they got carried away. I suspect, if someone made a complaint... someone would be in serious trouble for picking their own nose on the Sabbath. But it was all supposed to make things better.
The commentary says that the Jews had a long history of murdering the people God sent to warn them. Jesus knew they were not going to change their ways.... especially for someone who was stealing their thunder by riding into town on a donkey with adoring followers laying their cloaks down, singing, and waving palms. Jesus knew He was doing the right thing when He destroyed the marketplace, just as He knew that would really make the Pharisees and the Sadducees angry. Jesus knew they were going to get Him hung on a cross. The joke was on them.... when they came to put a coat of white wash on His borrowed tomb..... He wouldn't be there.
I feel the need to point out that Jesus was the Son of God..... and He was dealing with stupid humans. Jesus was the Son of God.... and I believe Jesus was standing right beside His Dad when the earth was being formed. I believe Jesus was there while God decided just how long the human arm should hang.... or how much longer the leg needed to be than the arms. I don't think They worked in silence. I believe They talked about the humans while they were being formed. So Jesus knew those stupid humans better than they knew themselves.
Jesus knew my neighbor, like the Pharisees, started out with a good heart.... or so the neighbors must have thought..... BUT....it was really never about giving enjoyment to the neighbors., anymore than wearing those adornments was about showing priestly respect for God...... it was all about self adoration.... my neighbor claims to be a good Christian, just as the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the teachers of the law thought they were good descendants of Jacob [Israel].
Jesus gave them a warning..... smell your poop.... it stinks just like everyone else's. It stinks seven ways to Sunday. Stupid humans.
