A PRAYER TO START
Our Father is gracious to show us his way, to guide us to a fruitful and abundant life; often after much time lived wandering aimlessly at best or rebelliously at worst. Begin your time today praying this prayer adapted from a section of the psalm 119 from The Message bible…
Be good to your servant, Father; be as good as your Word. Train me in good common sense; I’m thoroughly committed to living your way. Before I learned to answer you, I wandered all over the place, but now I’m in step with your Word. You are good, and the source of good; train me in your goodness. The godless spread lies about me, that I not walking the right way, but I focus my attention on what you are saying in Jesus. Their heart is lifeless, while mine beats alive to tune of your revelation. My troubles turned out all for the best—they forced me to learn from your textbook. Truth from your mouth means more to me than striking it rich in a gold mine! Amen.
DIVING INTO THE DETAILS
Chapter 22 ends with the Nazarene carpenter’s understanding of the nature and ways of God proven superior to that of the morally, culturally and even intellectually religious elite,
And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. (22:46)
The crowds who have gathered with intrigue around this humble king’s entrance into the city (21:1-11), are waiting with baited breath for Jesus’ next statements. Jesus has vanquished the voices to whom they attuned their actions and attitudes; the wisdom of the leaders who were supposed to join them to God, show them a life of faithfulness, and lead them to eternal life. The silence separating them from what they thought was true with what is true begs to be filled. What will Jesus say now? What words will he speak that once again close the gap between God and humanity?
Per-usual, Jesus takes a sideways approach. Perhaps he learned it from the prophet Nathan when he confronted David through the story of the greedy rich man (2 Samuel 12:1-15); regardless, Jesus knew that sometimes to recognize our own issues, we need them to be exposed in others.
Read Matthew 23:1-39. It won’t be easy, but try and read the words exposing the hearts and loyalty of those everyone now clearly sees as the “bad guys”, these “hypocrites”, in a way that allows you to recognize if any of these same tendencies are present in your own life.
Jesus’ final lament (vs. 37-39) gives a way his intent. He certainly desires to show the gravity of a life lived in a god-less world, the non-real world of actors (remember that the word “hypocrite” is used for someone playing a part in a fictional play). Yet the lamentation is over whole of the city that represents the people of God, for they all have rejected the cornerstone (21:42-44). Indeed, the history of humanity’s relationship with God has been one of rejection. From the blood of Abel spilled because Cain desired to worship God in his own way (Genesis 4), to the blood of Zechariah murdered in the holiest of places (2 Chronicles 24; which is last book in the Hebrew bible) humanity has taken little notice of holy things and rejected the messengers of God to invite us to live differently (Morris, 588). So, these words are not merely for the scribes and Pharisees, but for the “disciples” (23:1) who follow Jesus and are no less prone to the hypocrisy, arrogance and injustice (Garland, 232) that the leaders of God’s people up to this point have demonstrated.
These seven “woes” can be separated into three groups of two, and one final pronouncement. The first two (v. 13-15) are introduced in verses 2-12. Jesus condemns the leaders for making disciples of themselves. Essentially these leaders were creating followers, doing whatever was necessary (including using the scriptures that they were experts in) to encourage and keep people connected to them, needing them in order to communion with God.
Are you prone to this same temptation? Living your life in a manner that gets others to follow you, and using God as a means to do so?
What walls do you build that keep people from accessing God through you?
Do you know or are you prone to follow such people? Does their expertise, position, intensity, intellect, or popularity draw you to them without really knowing them?
Jesus reorients his disciples to the proper kingdom perspective. God the Father is alone the one to whom we owe our lives. Jesus alone is our rabbi, and the Spirit alone our instructor. We are equal, brothers and sisters, in this faith; meant to serve one another (even “enslave ourselves” to each other) as we build each other up into maturity in Jesus. Such a life of equality, alongside one another, has little room for pomp and certainly no room for hubris.
The second set of “woes” (v. 16-24) exposes these leaders’ “as blind guides whose fixation on the minutiae of the law leads them to neglect what really matters” (Garland, 234). Their obsession with oaths puts them in the driver seat of what is holy and what is not, leaving God out the equation; which is why Jesus already condemned such oath taking (5:33-37). They were masters of the law, especially the details, but lost sight of the purpose the law: to love God and love others (22:34-40). They cared more for “correct” behavior then they did for a relationship with God himself. And, ironically, their attention to detail caused them to miss the mark of what God has all along said was necessary for a good life: justice, mercy and faithfulness (Malachi 6:8).
Are you prone to this temptation? Living your life focused on the minutia of “correct” behavior that you miss out of loving God and others as yourself?
Are you prone to this temptation because you don’t believe that it is not what is offered to God that makes it a holy act, but God himself that makes what is offered holy?
Or, do you find it easier, more satisfying, to do the little things well while not having to deal with the messy, complicated things like loving your enemy or spouse; or sharing life with the poor and needy?
In what ways are you blind to the justice, mercy and faithfulness of God? And, blinding others to him as well?
Jesus reminds the scribes and Pharisees that this world, including how we worship, is under “the throne of God”. He alone makes offerings holy and acceptable, including the lives of those of us who give them to him. We are poor judges (Matthew 7:1-6) of what is holy, and poor interpreters of what God loves most (Matthew 5:43-48). Therefore, let us be ones who are not so concerned with trying to figure out or master the ways of God; rather, let us be ones whose attention is set on living like Jesus: dependent upon the Father and choosing mercy over sacrifice (the system of religion).
The third set of “woes” (v. 25-28) expose the “disparity between their ritually pure outside and their corrupt inside” (Garland, 235). The scribes and Pharisees, many at least, believed that what made you righteous—in a proper and flourishing relationship with God and others—was how you behaved and how you appeared. Certainly one’s behavior reflects one’s heart, which is true here. For they neglected mercy and justice and so their behavior was limited to following the culturally accepted rules for good religious people. All the while, their hearts were lacking in affection for God and others (i.e. “lawlessness”). They were dead in their religion and righteousness.
Are you prone to this temptation? Living a life focused on appearance while ignoring the often dirty parts of your own soul?
What keeps you from “cleaning the inside of the cup and the plate”?
In what ways does your disposition to focus on appearance impact the fruitfulness of way you are trying to live faithfully?
The life and ministry of Jesus, especially in Matthew’s gospel story, has been one in which he overturns our perception of what makes one righteous or good. It is not what goes in the mouth, but what comes out (15:10-20) that reveals what you really are; either alive in Christ or dead in sin. Will it be faith in Jesus which comes from within us as it did for the unclean and culturally rejected that Jesus has continuously made whole? Will we allows ourselves to be exposed so that we might be made new?
The final “woe” (v. 29-33) sentences those who go their own way not because of their actions but because of their loyalty. When Jesus repeats the words of John the Baptist (3:7) by calling the leaders “You serpents, you brood of vipers”, he reveals exactly why such a life means “being sentenced to hell”. The commentator, Leon Morris (587-588), notes that the reptilian phrase can better be translated “You snakes, and sons of snakes”. Did you catch that? The way in which the scribes and Pharisees relate to God and others is the same as a serpent; you know, the serpent we met at the beginning of Genesis (3), and the same tempter who tried to get Jesus to comprise his faith at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel story (4:1-11). This is who they are acting like, who Peter was accused of acting like too (16:21-23). They are rejecters of God’s messengers, rejecters of God’s intervention into their lives to show them the way out of a fictional world into an real, everlasting world. They are twisters of truth, just like their father (John 8:39-47). As author David Garland (236) notes,
“Because the scribes and Pharisees are not poor in spirit (23:6–7), do not hunger and thirst to do what God requires (23:13), are not merciful (23:23), are not pure in heart (23:28), and persecute the righteous (23:34), theirs will not be the kingdom of heaven but the judgment of hell (23:32).”
They are missing the kingdom of God because they are loyal to another. Their striving for others to follow them, or to live in a manner where others recognize their religious virtue; their focus on the details while missing the big picture; and their lack of attention to the inside demonstrates that they bought into some other kingdom or rule of life. How can they escape the self-destruction that comes to all other kingdoms that will not last forever?
What kingdom allegiances do your tendencies, convictions, vigor, and actions in your life of faith reveal? Describe.
God our Father does not stand down against our rejections. He only sends more “prophets and wise men and scribes” to expose our allegiances and call us to “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”. Ultimately his desire to see even the rebels be spared of their self-destruction, compels him to send his Son to plead with us “be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). Will we keep rejecting Jesus and his way, refusing to rest beneath the wings of our loving God (v. 37), or will we be ones who can truly say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” (v. 38)?
DEVELOPING DISCERNMENT
Chapter 23 of Matthew’s gospel story is not an easy one to read. Jesus’ polemic is meant for you and me to feel the weight of a way of surviving that rejects the way of new and abundant life in Jesus. We can just as easily be scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites inhabiting a god-less, fictional world. Will we hear and feel the cry of sorrow that invites us to open our eyes and ears, or will we keep on rejecting the gracious appeal?
Don’t skip this part. Information is of little use in quickening a transformed life if we are undiscerning people. Take the time to thoughtfully answer the questions in the paragraphs above, and maybe use them as conversation starters in Gospel Community, at work or in your home. Doing so will pay dividends in the long run!
A PRAYER TO CLOSE
Our God is relentless gracious in calling us to repentance and life in him. This prayer of John Ballie reflects his never ceasing love to which we awake afresh to each morning. Close your time of reflection praying…
Most gracious God, I rejoice in the love you have shown to our poor human race, opening up to us a path of deliverance from our sin and foolishness.
O God our Father, I praise you for your great and holy love. When we had utterly gone astray, you diligently sought us out and saved us, sending your beloved Son to suffer and die so that we might be restored into fellowship with you.
O God the Son, I praise you for your great and holy love. You humbled yourself for the sake of me and all people; you shared in our common life; you dwelt in the midst of all our sin and shame. You endured all the bitterness of the passion and died at last on the cross, so that we might be released from the shackles of sin and enter with you into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
O God the Holy Spirit, I praise you for your great and holy love. You daily pour into my heart the peace and joy of sin forgiven, so that I may share with all the saints in the blessings of my Lord’s incarnation, of his passion and crucifixion, and of his resurrection and ascension to the Father’s right hand.
O holy and blessed Trinity, help me to dwell so fully in the mystery of this heavenly love that all hatred and malice may be rooted out from my heart and life. Help me to love you, as you first loved me; and in loving you help me also to love my neighbor; and in loving you and my neighbor help me to be saved from all false love of myself; and to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be all glory and praise forever. Amen.