Passion Week Devotion #5
Text: Matthew 23
Pastor Jimmie Suggs
“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being 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 call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, 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.’”
Have you ever been called out on something? Have you ever been called out on something publicly? If you have you know some of the feelings associated with that kind of experience. Normally they are not good feelings. Now reverse the situation. Have you ever had to call out someone on something? Have you ever had to do that publicly? That brings with it a whole other set of feelings.
Can you imagine all that was going on in the setting described in the text? It was the day after Jesus had driven out the money changers and all the merchants who had set up shop in the temple (Matt. 22:18ff). He was back in the temple. Can you imagine the tension? It began with the priests and elders questioning the authority he had to disrupt their enterprise. The crowd was gathered around him. He began teaching. His disciples were part of the audience but so were the religious leaders, the priests, elders, scribes and Pharisees.
Then after several interchanges with these leaders Jesus pointed to them, so to speak, and said to all who were present, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.”
And you are probably thinking: “I cannot believe Jesus just did that!” He did! And that is not all. He turned to them; and with every eye fixed on him he directly addressed the scribes and Pharisees calling them out by name according to their office. (Read verses 13-26 again.)
Notice throughout his direct indictment he pointed out their hypocrisy, their misleading of the people, their spiritual blindness, their over zealousness for the law as their means of righteousness, their greed, their self-righteousness, their spiritual deadness, their lack of care for the spiritual wellbeing of the people, their utter hatred of God, and their murderous spirit. Then he concluded by saying, “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”
Jesus demonstrated grace toward the scribes and Pharisees. You are probably thinking, ”Grace? There seems to be nothing gracious about it.” But you see, there is. It is gracious for God to confront our sin, even call us out. Jesus loved them enough to share with them the sinfulness of their thinking and behavior. This confrontation was necessary. He was about to die because of sin, the sin that caused this kind of thinking and behaving. Don’t think Jesus was drawing down on them in retaliation; because he wasn’t. Jesus was exposing them for who they were. And left unrepentant, well, their judgement was clearly stated: “How are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” That was a rhetorical question with the answer being: they would not escape hell!
But it was also a demonstration of grace toward his disciples and the others in the audience. In exposing them he was exposing the potential failures and sin of every person present. Left to themselves and their own religious manipulations, and there would be some, every person present would face the same judgement.
Jesus was gracious in his confrontation of the leaders because he exposed their religious system and their distortion of it. By the end of that same week all that their system of worship had pointed to, as it had been given by God, would be fulfilled and completed. He was the fulfillment and completion!
Now let’s put ourselves in the crowd. We are feeling the tension in the air. We are hearing the indictments. Maybe we are even one of the ones being indicted. How do we feel? Better yet, how will we respond? Hopefully we will hear that “our house is left desolate” (Matt. 23:38), meaning we don’t have leg to stand on. But then, hopefully we also hear, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Christ has graciously come and exposed our sin and has graciously given us a leg to stand on, his death as payment for our sin and his resurrection securing our eternal life!
Prayer: LORD I thank You for Your grace toward me in Christ! As You were gracious and patient with the rebellious in Jesus’ day, please be patient and gracious with me. Grant me grace to see my sinfulness and the potential of my sin in its effects on others, my relationship with You, and its judgement without You and the saving work of Christ Jesus. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.