Matthew 23: 13-15 Jesus, Passionate for God’s Glory

“you make him [a convert] twice as much a son of hell as yourselves,” Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees, Matthew 23:15

“The problem with current interpretations of Jesus’ character is that they all try to force him into their own mold. They deny the miracles, the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection, of course, and make Jesus out to be a gentle teacher of platitudes… perfectly reasonable and urbane.” (Reverend Dr. Peter Mullen, www.dailyreckoning.co.uk,  Feb 27, 2008)

“A truly humble man is sensible of his natural distance from God; of his dependency on Him, of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom.”  (Jonathan Edwards, Puritan Pastor, 1703-1758)

Aaah, the days of innocence!  The days of Vacation Bible School and Sunday School in the American church.    Jesus is shown wearing a white robe, of Northern European race, holding a lamb, moving about on a flannel board at the whims of a loving middle-aged mom teaching the lesson.   This picture is very holy and mostly true.  But not Biblically complete. 

Scripture adds another side of Jesus.   Jesus of righteous anger.  Jesus of wrath.   Jesus not politically correct.   True, there is no greater love than that of Jesus (John 15:13); yet His love is passionate- passionate for God’s glory.   

Jesus continues to expose the scribes and Pharisees for who they really are: hypocrites.   From a distance, they are “good ole church goin’ folk.”  But upclose their actions reveal their dark hearts.  They shut off the kingdom of heaven from men.  They do not enter themselves or allow others who are entering to go in (v. 13).  (Wow, is that politically correct to say?)

Jesus came “to seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).   Yet the scribes and Pharisees accused Jesus of being “Beelzebul, the ruler of demons” (Matthew 9:34; 12:24), a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11:19).  They were “indignant” when He received praise (Matthew 21:15), and they were trying to “seize” (Mark 12:12), “trap” (Mark 12:13), and “destroy” (Luke 19:47) Him.  They tried to make the narrow way even narrower (Matthew 7:13-14).

Verse 14 is put in brackets in the New American Standard Bible translation (NASB) and is not included in other popular translations.  This is because the oldest and most reliable copies of Matthew do not include this verse.   However, we can still be confident that this is a genuine saying of Jesus because these very words are found in Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47.   Matthew had a tendency to write his gospel topically (for example, the parables of chapter 13).  Once he began with Jesus’ words about the Pharisees, he gathered more of those sayings (i.e., Luke 11) into this one location.  

The scribes and Pharisees would devour widows’ houses by convincing widows to give large parts of their estate to them.   The Pharisees probably told the widows that their husbands’ salvation would be guaranteed if they did this (just as the Christian church did in the Middle Ages with the selling of indulgences).  And long prayers would be given as a pretense to justify and sanctify this practice of ripping off widows, in spite of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6:7.  

In the second (or third) woe listed, Jesus accuses the hypocrites of traveling on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, he is twice as much a son of hell as they are (v.15).  New converts often show a zealousness that leads to greater religious activity, and in this case, resulting in more evil.  Verse 15 should give pause to those engaged in missions. Don’t we travel over land and sea in pursuit of converts?   Are we too condemned?  It depends on our hearts.  

In our missionary zeal, are we motivated by our own glory and thus guilty of making sons of hell?  Or are we motivated by the love, grace and glory of God?  The Pharisee Saul was confronted with this question on the road to Damascus as he traveled on land in pursuit of his religious enemies (Acts 9:1-2).  On that road Saul was so overwhelmed by the glory of God that it changed his life (Acts 9:3-5).  Saul became Paul and Paul changed the world (Romans 15:19).   And history.   

What is our passion?  If our over-riding passion is to make ourselves look good, then we will not survive the grave.  If our passion is to make God look good, then we will live and reign with Him forever in His city for His glory (Revelation 22:5). 

Matthew 23:6-12: The True Place of Honor

“The greatest among you shall be your servant,” Jesus in Matthew 23:11

“The cause of Christ is greatly dependent on the self-forgetting souls who are satisfied to occupy a small sphere in an obscure place, free from self-seeking ambition.”  (John MacArthur, Commentary on Matthew 8-15)

“The party don’t start until I walk in.” (Keesha)

"I'm the king of the world, I am the greatest, I’m Muhammad Ali. I shook up the world, I am the greatest, I'm king of the world, I'm pretty, I'm pretty, I'm a bad man, you heard me I'm a bad man.”  (Before his fight against Sonny Liston, 1964)

"I have been placed in this job for a purpose, and I am just trying to make great movies and keep my eyes on Him. I don't deserve any praise....It is definitely all God's hand that I get to do this. And who knows how long this will last? He may choose someone else."  (Ralph Winter, movie producer of “X-Men” and “Planet of the Apes;” www.beliefnet.com )

Jesus continues His exposure of the scribes and Pharisees while in the temple during the week leading up to His crucifixion. The very group that sought to trap Him (Matthew 22:15) was unable to respond to any of Jesus’ questions (Matthew 22:46).  Jesus sheds light on the motives of the scribes and Pharisees: “And they love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places and being called by men, Rabbi” (vv. 6-7).  

This is not the only place where Jesus confronts this religious practice.   In Luke’s gospel Jesus teaches that we should not pursue the seats of honor at a wedding feast.  Rather, we should “go and recline at the last place, so that [the host] may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher,’” (Luke 14:10).  This was an issue also for the early Christians. James rebukes them because in their services they would “pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’” (James 2:3).

Jesus also instructs that we should call no one Rabbi (v. 8).  Ironically the only disciple that Matthew records referring to Jesus as “Rabbi” is Judas: at the Last Supper while speaking of betrayal in Matthew 26:25 and at the moment of betrayal in Matthew 26:49.  Neither, Jesus says, should we call anyone on earth your Father (v. 9) or Leader (v. 10).    The issue is not the use of titles per se, but the use of titles in such a way that, according to the English Standard Version Study Bible, gives “undue spiritual authority to a human being, as if he were the source of truth rather than God.”

Matthew records several occasions when Jesus is asked, “Who is the greatest?”  In each case Jesus says, “The greatest among you shall be your servant,” (v. 12; Matthew 18:4, 20:26).  Jesus turns an instinctual value of man on its head. Who is the greatest according to People Magazine?  Forbes?  Muhammad Ail?  Contemporary Christian culture?  And who does Jesus say is the greatest?

And in case we miss it the first time, Jesus says it again differently: “And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and who ever humbles himself shall be exalted,” (v.12).   We all want to be liked; we all want to see that LIKE button pressed on our facebook statuses.  We all want to be the life of the party.    But Jesus points us to a greater LIKE than the mere applause of men, which fades quickly.  Jesus points us to an eternal LIKE: His joy, His rest, His home, His heaven…Himself.  There will no longer be any death, crying or pain (Revelation 21:4).  And we will reign with Him forever and ever (Revelation 22:5).  This applause will never fade. 

And Jesus is our example of humility.  For Paul tells us that, “though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,  being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” (Philippians 2:6-11, ESV).

The test of being a servant, says my pastor Ronnie Stephens, is how we respond when people treat us like a servant.   As Christians we must constantly guard against the craving for man’s approval as our source of identity.  I know I must.  May our place of honor not be at the head of the table, but at the foot of the cross, where we find our redemption.  Forever and Ever.  With Him.  Amen. 

Matthew 23:5 “Dear Sirs: I am. Sincerely Yours,”

“They do their deeds to be noticed by men,” Jesus speaking of the Pharisees, Matthew 23:5

“Dear Sirs: I am. Sincerely yours, G.K. Chesterton”  (Early in the 20th century the London Times asked a number of scholars and authors to write on the topic, "What's Wrong with the World?" Chesterton's {1874-1936} submission was by far the shortest.)

“What angered Jesus during His last week was not the apostles’ confusion.  He wasn’t upset by the people’s demands.  He didn’t lose his temper with the soldiers and their whips nor explode with Pilate and his questions.  But the one thing he could not stomach was two-faced faith:  Religion used for profit and religion used for prestige.” (Max Lucado, And the Angels Were Silent)

In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus is exposing the scribes and Pharisees for who they really are.   It was the scribes, Pharisees and others who repeatedly tried to trap Jesus while He was teaching in the temple. (Matthew 21:23-22:46).    The most condemning statement, I believe, is when Jesus takes us into the heart of the Pharisees. He says, “They do all their deeds to be noticed by men” (v. 5). 

Christ then gives a specific example: “for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments” (v. 5).  According to the Ryrie Study Bible, “A phylactery was a square leather box which contained four strips of parchment on which were written Deuteronomy 11:13-21, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Exodus 13:11-16, and Exodus 13:1-10.   During prayer one was worn on the forehead between the eyebrows and another on left arm close to the elbow.   They were held in place by leather bands, which the Pharisees made broad to attract more attention to themselves.” 

Devout Jews also wore tassels based on the Lord’s instructions to Moses as recorded in Numbers 15:38.  The tassels reminded the Jews to obey God’s commandments. Jesus upheld this law and was wearing tassels when a sick woman touched the tassels and was healed (see Luke 8:44).  As Ryrie mentions in his study Bible, “Christ criticizes not the custom itself but the spirit that corrupted it.” 

No other group was as vehemently opposed to Jesus as the scribes and Pharisees; Jesus openly condemned them.  Even though it is easy to criticize the Pharisees, we must guard against the Pharisee in us all.    Why did Jesus renounce the Pharisees?  After all, they obeyed the Law of Moses.   They let their light shine.   They didn’t hide their faith.   They seemed to be the perfect church member.   Why was Jesus so hard on them?  Motive.  Yes, they were religious people but for the wrong reasons.   Jesus said, “They do all their deeds to be noticed by men” (v. 5).  The Pharisees did not seek to glorify God; rather they sought to use God to glorify themselves.  

In what ways do we today broaden our phylacteries and lengthen our tassels?   The bigger the church, the godlier the congregation, right?   The more others see us share our faith, the more spiritual we are, correct?   The broader our area of responsibility, the more valuable we are, true?   We shun the broken, the burned-out and those at the bottom of the job chart.  Sometimes I notice inner tension when I write a prayer letter or update our blog.  On one-hand, I want to show God’s faithfulness.   On the other, I can be tempted by pride while telling others I am sharing Christ in a faraway land.   When pride wins, I’ve just lengthened my tassels.

This hurting world does not need us to shove our phylacteries in their noses to be reminded of how they don’t measure up.   They don’t need to see us “whip our tassels back and forth” to be shown we got it all figured out.   I cringe when we wear our Christian phylacteries into the political arena (I am guilty of this).  Now Christ is about “us vs. them” instead of “God loves you.”  Instead of broadening our phylacteries, we need to remember the greatest commandment: love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind and the second: love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39).   We need to exalt the sufficiency of Jesus and not our own perceived sufficiency; we need to reveal our own brokenness and not remind others of their brokenness. 

I never met her, except on Facebook.  Her religious and political views were polar opposites of mine. Her sarcastic comments and atheistic boastings I found to be toxic.  We never really talked, rather we ranted at each other.  I wanted to win the argument about Christ more than I wanted to introduce her to Christ.  I flaunted my tassels before her.  I just found out she was killed in a car accident over the weekend.  Now she has been ushered before the very God she denied and argued against.  My heart hurts.

What’s wrong with the world?  We value religion over relationship. We value man’s glory over God’s glory.    We treasure our phylacteries more than treasuring the condition of our neighbor’s soul.  What’s wrong with the world?  Chesterton was spot on.    

Matthew 23:1-5: The Pharisee Within

“Therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds,” Jesus in Matthew 23:3

“He knew that the best way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin.” (author Flannery O’Connor , on her character Hazel Motes in Wise Blood.)

“There are people in every church, no matter what kind of church it is, who struggle with the distinction between law and gospel, who struggle with the driving place of grace in their pursuit of holiness…Legalism lurks in every heart, actually, mine and yours." (Jarod Wilson, www.gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com, September 27, 2011)

After repeated encounters in the temple with the scribes and Pharisees as well as other religious elite of Israel, Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples (v. 1).  He harshly warned them about the scribes and Pharisees, the very ones who had challenged Him His entire ministry.  Imagine!  The gatekeepers of God for Israel, setting themselves up against the Lord Himself!

The scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said, have seated themselves in the chair of Moses (v. 2), meaning they spoke with the voice of Moses; they spoke as Moses’ would speak if he were alive on that day.  In ancient times, a teacher sat while the students stood.  The Sermon on the Mount begins with Jesus sitting down (see Matthew 5:1).  “Chair” is a figure of speech used to imply exceptional authority and knowledge, just like today we will say such-and-such professor occupies a certain chair at a particular university.

The scribes and Pharisees have seated themselves (v. 2).  They appointed themselves as the heir of Moses’ chair, not waiting to be ushered to such a place of honor.   And it appears that Jesus affirms them.  “All that they tell you, do and observe,” Jesus says (v. 3).   But Jesus is not affirming the scribes and Pharisees; rather He is affirming the Law of Moses.  Jesus said that He did not come “to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill,” (Matthew 5:17).  Jesus also says to the unbelieving Jews in John’s gospel, “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me,” (John 5:46).  

Jesus now brings the hammer down.   He warns the crowds and His disciples (v. 1) to not do according to their (the scribes and Pharisees) deeds; for they say things and do not do them (v. 3).  Jesus then gets specific:  “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger,” (v. 4).  The scribes and Pharisees padded the Law of Moses with an additional layer of rules to make it doubly hard on the average Jew to following the teachings of Moses.   From these extra layers the Pharisees and scribes have exempted themselves while condemning those who fail at keeping them.

Jesus continues: “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men” (v. 5).  Their heart motivation is not to please God, rather to seek the approval of others.   Jesus gives specific examples of how these hypocrites like to be noticed by men in Matthew 6:1-7.  In that passage, Jesus says in part, “they [hypocrites] love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men.  Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full,” (Matthew 6:5, emphasis added). Hypocrites.  Plain and simple. 

But here is where we must be careful.   For the spirit of the Pharisees exists in all of us.  “All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23.   “All of us like sheep have gone astray,” Isaiah says in Isaiah 53:5.   All of us have sought the approval of others at the expense of God’s approval; all of us have thought at some point our religious efforts make us better than “that other guy.”  The very act of smugly criticizing the Pharisees shows that we are guilty of the very thing by which we criticize the Pharisees!  Compared to the standard of holiness put forth by Almighty God, no one can stand before God on his own.

Yet that is exactly why Christ died for our sins.  He is willing to exchange His holiness for our Pharisee-within. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  This truth made 16^th century Reformer Martin Luther sing, “O the sweet exchange, O the inscrutable creation, O the unexpected benefits; that the iniquity of many should be concealed in One Righteous Man, and the righteousness of One should justify the iniquitous!”

Exchange the burden that today’s Pharisees, including the one in you, have put on your shoulders and are unwilling to move a finger to help you.   We all have burdens of hurt, fear, guilt, failure, and the disapproval of others.  We have burdens of self-righteousness, pride, lust, and idolatry.   Exchange those burdens with Jesus.  For He Himself has said, “Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you…For My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” (Matthew 11:30). 

Matthew 22:42-46: David’s Greater Son, turning the conversation back to Himself

“What do you think about the Christ?”  Jesus in Matthew 22:42

"We are dealing with God's thoughts: we are obligated to take the greatest pains to understand them truly and to explain them clearly." (D.A. Carson, classroom lecture, May 2011)

“People say, ‘I believe in God, I believe the Bible is a good book.  And then I believe whatever I want.’”  (George Barna, after surveying American Christians’ religious beliefs in his book Futurecast as reported in USA Today Sept. 13, 2011)

After repeated challenges by the religious leaders, Jesus now metaphorically turns the tables on them.  Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, most likely planning their next salvo, Jesus asked them a question.  “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?”  (v. 42).  This is the same question Jesus asked His disciples in Matthew 16:19.    After all, the most important question every man must answer is, “What do you think about the Christ?”  

But Jesus is not so much concerned about other peoples’ opinions as He is turning the conversation back to Himself.   He asks about the Christ, “whose son is He?”   (v. 42).   The Pharisees’ answer is accurate but woefully incomplete: “The son of David” (v. 42).  The Pharisees know that woven throughout the Old Testament is a theme that a descendent of David will reign as Messiah; passages teaching this truth are 2 Samuel 7:16, Psalm 89:3-4, Isaiah 9:7 and Jeremiah 23:5. 

Matthew’s primary intent of his gospel is to show that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, the son of David.  Therefore he begins his gospel by showing the genealogy from David to Jesus (Matthew 1:6-16).  Yet the Old Testament also teaches the Messiah will be much more than a descendant of David.    It is this truth that Jesus wants to teach the Pharisees.

Therefore, Jesus quotes Psalm 110, the most often quoted Old Testament chapter in the New Testament.  This Psalm was written by David, in the Spirit (v. 43).  (This phrase in the Spirit attests to Jesus’ belief in the inspiration of the Old Testament.)  To the casual reader, Psalm 110 seems discombobulated.   Yet for those who plumb its depths, this Psalm reveals much about the Messiah, which is likely why it is the most frequently quoted Old Testament chapter in Scripture.  

Psalm 110 is only one of three places in the Bible that speaks of Melchizedek, an important figure in understanding Jesus as Messiah, Son of David.  Much of this Psalm will be fulfilled at His Second Coming (Revelation 19:11-21).   Yet Jesus, wanting to challenge the Pharisees’ weak conception of the son of David, argues from the first verse of this Psalm.  

He asks how does David call him ‘Lord,’ saying, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’? (v. 43-44).    Jesus then drives home His point, If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his son?" (v. 45).    In Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary, first published 300 years ago, Henry poses His question this way: “If the Christ was to be a mere man, who would not exist till many ages after David’s death, how could his forefather call him Lord?”  

By asking this question, Jesus shows how the Scriptures teach that the son of David will be not limited by time and not be merely a mortal man.  This is the point Jesus makes to the Pharisees in John 8:58, “Before Abraham was born, I am.”  

The Pharisees prided themselves in knowing the Old Testament but were mostly ignorant as to what those Scriptures taught about the Christ.  Hence, no one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question (v. 46).   If we believe Jesus is “whatever I want” as Barna puts it, we make Him a tinker-toy god, adding and subtracting attributes at our own whim.  We rob Him of His glory, commit blatant idolatry, and create an anemic caricature of Christ that is much less than the revealed, risen, conquering Son of David of the Holy Scriptures.

 Matthew Henry continues in his commentary, “It behooves us above all things seriously to inquire, ‘What think we of Christ?’  Is he altogether glorious in our eyes and precious to our hearts?  May Christ be our joy, our confidence, our all.  May we daily be made more like to him, and more devoted to his service.”  Well said 300 years ago and well said today.