A great crowd of people celebrated Jesus as He entered Jerusalem back in Matthew 21. In Matthew 21:12, he entered the temple and purged it of merchandisers. He healed the sick. Jesus is still in the temple in Matthew 23. His audience consists of His disciples, crowds of people and the religious leaders. In chapter 22, the Pharisees questioned Jesus three times and the Sadducees and Herodians questioned Him once. Here in Matthew 23, Jesus instructs the multitudes and His disciples how to behave toward the scribes and Pharisees.
Jesus said to respect the scribes and the Pharisees because they sat in Moses’ seat. D.A. Carson wrote, “Synagogues had a stone seat at the front where the authoritative teacher sat.” [1] But Jesus, like an Old Testament prophet, also exposed the errors of their conduct and teaching.
The scribes and the Pharisees burdened not helped people. They served for recognition’s sake. They made their phylacteries broad and enlarged the borders of their garments. Phylacteries were small leather boxes with tiny scrolls with Scriptures on them, tied to the arm and head with leather straps. Large borders on garments were designed to boost their public image.
They loved to be the center of attention: to have the best places, best greetings, and best seats at banquets and at the synagogue. They loved superior titles such as Rabbi and father.
The “spiritual” leaders of Israel were carnal. The idea of dying to self and living for Messiah was a non-starter for them. They were not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.
Jesus warned people not to imitate them. There is one Teacher and one Christ – Him, Jesus Christ. They were treat one another as family.
Normally, people estimate greatness by how many people serve and honor them. In the kingdom of God greatness is contingent on respect and service toward others.
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” Matthew 23:13
This is the first of eight woes that Jesus speaks against the scribes and Pharisees in this chapter. “Woe” is an expression of intense grief due to imminent divine judgment.” [2]
Woe to the scribes and Pharisees for rejecting faith in Jesus Messiah and for turning others away from faith in Him. Jesus is the way to God.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation.” Matthew 23:14
They made a lot of money by deceiving people, but their last pay check will be a verdict of guilt and condemnation from God.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” Matthew 23:15
Are false teachers more diligent than proclaimers of Christ? How many Christians travel land and sea to win a soul to Christ? False teachers and their followers are diligent to populate hell.
“Dear Heavenly Father, please turn our stoney hearts into hearts of compassion for lost souls.”
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.” Matthew 23:16-22
Jesus flagged the faulty scales of the scribes and Pharisees. On their scale, gold outweighed the temple. On their scale, gifts of people outweighed the altar of God. Theirs was a people-based scale. On a God-based scale, God’s works outweigh the works of people.
In Christianity faith is receptivity. Faith receives Christ and all that He has done for us. We bring our gifts to God in gratitude for the work that He has already done and is still doing for us.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” Matthew 23:23-24
The scribes and Pharisees carefully weighed the mint, anise and cummin that their gardens produced to ensure that they did not tithe more of these spices than was due to the Lord. If a bug as small as a gnat was in the mix, they removed it. While they were straining out gnats from their tithes, failures to do justice, show mercy and to trust God as large as camels slipped right by them. Their blindness was due to looking inward rather than upward toward Jesus Christ.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside of them may be clean also.” Matthew 23:25-26
It is inevitable that if a person’s end goal is to gratify the flesh, he or she will do outward acts to deflect attention from the extortion and self-indulgence within. Jesus rightly diagnosed this disease as blindness. How does one clean his or her heart? The answer is by giving our old heart to Jesus Christ and by receiving a new one from Him that is filled with the Holy Spirit.
In Jeremiah 13:23, the Lord asks, “Can a leopard change its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.” God must do the transformation. We must pray as David prayed in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” In other words, “God, I am broken. I need You to give me an overriding appetite for You.”
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Matthew 23:27-28
While serving the Lord in Hong Kong, my family stayed for a month with a couple from Australia named Peter and Jean Cameron. They had discernment and faith from Jesus to cast out demons. We saw the results of one of these miracles with our own eyes.
One day during a conversation, Peter asked me, “What is this with all these movies about bloodshed? God hates bloodshed. Only demons like to see blood flying everywhere.”
I bring this up because I am shocked every year to see so many “Christians” and churches celebrate Halloween. To dabble with evil is a red flag. Something is wrong. The scribes and Pharisees put on a good show with their religious meetings, but in their hearts, they enjoyed visions of dead men’s bone, lawbreakers and uncleanness. In Psalm 106:38, the Lord speaks of the land being polluted with the shedding of innocent blood. So, many movies focus on the shedding of innocent blood but never mention the blood of Christ by which sin is purged.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore, you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” Matthew 23:29-36
The scribes and Pharisees honored memories of prophets and righteous people. They thought of themselves as being such heroes of the faith. Jesus said they were serpents, the offspring of vipers and hell bound. God raised up prophets, wise men and scribes to speak truth to them. They mistook God’s messengers for monsters. They tortured some and crucified others. They hunted God’s messengers of good news from city to city to locate and kill them.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!’” Matthew 23:37-39
Like Jeremiah the prophet, Jesus lamented for the people of Jerusalem. He wanted to save them, but they refused His help. Jesus knew that they were headed toward destruction. They made it clear to Him that they did not want Him to be their Messiah, so He would wait for them until they were ready to say, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!”
No wonder some people thought that Jesus was the Prophet Jeremiah (See Matthew 16:14). Jesus quoted from Jeremiah’s book as He purged the temple. Jeremiah 23:1 says, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” In Jeremiah 23 and Matthew 23, the Lord condemned the priests of Jerusalem for being false prophets. Both Jeremiah and Jesus desired to save Jerusalem. They both grieved over the bad choices people made. In Matthew 24, Jesus will give more details to His disciples of what is yet to come.
Jesus identified religious malpractice to save souls from hell. It was not worldly wise but was greatly needed. “Heavenly Father, please help me to be like Your Son Jesus Christ in this regard.”
[1] Enduring Word Commentary
[2] Google Sources
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