Matthew 23:23-26: Neglecting Justice, Mercy and Faithfulness

“You clean the outside of the cup…but inside (you) are full of greed ...” Jesus to the Pharisees, Matthew 23:25

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”  (Micah 6:8, ESV)

“Nobody is ‘cool’ before the cross. …The gospel crucifies our swagger and kills our pride. The gospel is not about us becoming more ‘hip’ but more loving as we walk in humble service to our King.

(Michael Pohlman, “Blessed are the Uncool”, http://michaelpohlman.wordpress.com, Oct 27, 2011)

Jesus continues to expose the Pharisees and the scribes after they repeatedly tried to discredit Him (Matthew chapters 21 and 22).  In 23:23 Jesus continues His series of “woes”:  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law.  The scribes and Pharisees were obedient to Deuteronomy 14:22, “You shall surely tithe all the produce… which comes out of the field every year.” 

The scribes and the Pharisees had taken this command the extra mile and had tithed not only their crops but even the spices that could have been grown in small containers in the kitchen window.    In so doing, they neglected the weightier, or the more important, provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. 

In the previous chapter Jesus was asked, “Which is the great commandment in the Law?”  Jesus answered quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,’” (22:37).   Jesus continued, “The second (greatest commandment) is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ (22:39).  Tithing spices, a priority of the Pharisees, was much further down on the list of great commandments.

Whether they were robbing widows of their estates (23:14) or tying up heavy burdens on men’s shoulder yet refusing to help them with so much as a finger (23:4), the scribes and Pharisees failed to show justice, mercy and faithfulness (v. 23).  Tithing spices are among the things they should have done (v. 23).  But because their hearts are full of self-indulgence, they failed to love God and love their neighbor.  These hypocrites used the Law exclusively to love themselves.

Jesus continues: “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” (v. 24).    In the desert of Jerusalem all sorts of nasties find their way into one’s drink.   And not swallowing a gnat is technically obedience to the Law (Leviticus 11:41-42).    A gnat is the smallest of unclean animals; the largest is the camel (Leviticus 11:4).   By concentrating on the gnats of the Law, but ignoring the camels of justice, mercy and faithfulness, they missed the point of God’s Law.   

Jesus reminds us of the point of the Law with this illustration:  you clean the outside of the cup but inside you are full of robbery and self-indulgence (v.25).     The gospel is not about putting on our Sunday best, brushing ourselves off and making ourselves more presentable to God.   Jesus taught that He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (see Matthew 5:17).   

The Law is our tutor pointing us “to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24) “apart from the works of the Law” (Romans 3:28).  The point of the Law is to reveal our own inability to live up to God’s impossibly holy and high standard.  The Law reveals our need for a Savior.   The Law cannot make us self-righteous. 

May we clean the inside of the cup and of the dish (v. 26).  How?  Through “His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5).   The inner reality of being cleansed through hope in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins comes first so that the outside of our cup may become clean also (v. 26).   Let’s kill our religious swagger and pride and let’s find life in His death on the cross.