I get worked up about a lot of things. I get worked up when they change the words to old hymns that are favourites of mine. I get worked up at umpiring and refereeing decisions – perhaps not as much as St. George supporters, but worked up nonetheless. I get worked up when Damien takes the last cold can of soft drink from the fridge when I desperately wanted it. And I won’t even start to mention what gets me worked up when I’m behind the wheel of a car! I got worked up over some fairly petty things!
But I also get worked up over things that maybe aren’t so petty. Like deceit in government. Like the way we treat aliens and strangers in our land. Like people who call themselves Christian who lead others astray by teaching things that aren’t true.
Sometimes when I decide to have a rant about one of those things, people look at me with those glazed expressions of boredom. Here he goes again, they think. Others look at me a different way, as if they’re wondering whether it’s right for a Christian to speak like that at all. Whether it’s right for a Christian to be anything other than accepting of everyone and every viewpoint. Whether it’s right for a Christian to be angry about something and to say it with a degree of force. And, just as importantly – what should a Christian be angry about?
Well then we come to Matthew 23 and this schalacking that Jesus gives to teachers of the Law (or the Scribes) and the Pharisees.
Our society is so caught up in the “gentle Jesus meek and mild” view that to many it comes as an incredible shock to see and to hear that Jesus uses the sort of strong language that we get in this passage. You may not be caught up in that, and if you were then I expect the last few weeks on Matthew have challenged that view already.
But make no mistake about it. This is a stinging tirade of condemnation and, many would say, abuse. There are no niceties, no political correctness, no “let’s have a listening process to sort out our differences”. There is challenge upon challenge, condemnation upon condemnation, insult upon insult.
There is serious anger here. There is no way of envisioning this speech being delivered except with raised voice, with heightened emotion and probably with lots of fist pumping and finger pointing.
As we go through this litany of condemnation I’ll try to draw your attention to places where our society and our churches are exactly like those Scribes and Pharisees. But we all need to be considering our own hearts as well. The righteous anger of God’s only begotten Son is one thing. That doesn’t necessarily make our anger legitimate. Is our anger just hypocrisy? Do we do exactly the same things, just in different ways? As Jesus says, we need to remove the plank in our own eye before getting rid of the speck in our brother’s.
With that warning, let’s turn to Matthew 23.
When you heard it read earlier I’m sure you picked up on a word that kept springing up, a description of the Pharisees that Jesus kept returning to. Vs 13, 15, 23,25,29: “Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” Ultimately, that’s their problem. Hypocrisy. As vs 3 says, “they do not practice what they preach.” They put themselves in the seat of Moses and claim his authority. They demand that the people keep law after law, after law – many of which were not in the Law of Moses at all – and in that way place this heavy load of obedience on men’s shoulders. But they’re not willing to do it themselves. They’re not willing to live it out themselves. And they’re not willing to give any assistance to those who are so burdened. Compare that to Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28 who says “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
We often hate hypocrisy in others but are quite comfortable with it in ourselves. I remember when I was in primary school one teacher in particular was an absolute nazi about getting students to pick up rubbish on the playground. She’d call to a kid on the other side of the oval to come and pick up a bit of rubbish that was at her feet. She’d point at it so her finger was within an inch of this chip packet and scream pick it up. She demanded others do what she wouldn’t do herself. I’m sure there’s some teachers out there this morning who think she did exactly the right thing. But I reckon it’s hypocrisy.
And it’s hypocrisy that’s the catch cry of Jesus’ rant against the Pharisees. And then he launches into a damning list of their flaws and this morning we’re going to look at them in four groups.
Hypocrisy 1
The first hypocrisy vs. 5 – “everything they do is done for men to see”. These are men who claim to worship God, but they’re more concerned with impressing other people. They wear their phylacteries (which are boxes contained Scripture verses) and tassels to draw attention to themselves. They crave people going around and giving them special honour.
In the early years of the church up until about 300AD, Christianity was illegal. Off and on, Christians were severely persecuted, driven underground, arrested, beaten, tortured and killed. Then a fellow who was fighting to become the sole emperor of Rome, a guy by the name of Constantine, was converted – or supposedly converted, anyway. The persecution ceased. Christianity came to be supported by the government. You might think this was a great blessing – and in many ways it was. But Christian historians are often torn over whether this was a good thing for the church or not. The problem was it made it a good thing politically, financially and socially to be a Christian. It was a good thing politically, financially and socially to be a Christian leader. And so from that point on right up until today we’ve had the constant danger of having Christian leaders who are in it for the prestige or the financial gain. That didn’t happen as much when the best you could hope for was a quick death.
That’s what these Pharisees and teachers of the law are like. They want the recognition. They want to sit at the head of the table at the party. They want people to call them Rabbi and Teacher and Father.
There’s a constant danger of that sort of pride in all our ministries. Why do you want to be on the Bible reading roster? Is it because you know you are gifted in that area and want to serve? Or is it because you want to get out front and show everyone here that you’ve got an important ministry at this church. And I can ask myself exactly that question whenever I stand before you to preach the Word of God. Am I exalting myself? Or am I humbling myself?
Hypocrisy 2
13 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
15 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
These Pharisees don’t lack zeal. They’ll travel over land and sea to convert someone. But they’re not converting anyone to a saving faith in the living God. In fact, they’re leading them astray. They don’t have the truth themselves – they’re sons of hell – and any of their followers will be sons of hell just like them.
The amount of people in our world today who claim to represent the church, who claim to speak the gospel and who claim to work on behalf of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ but who instead preach a false religion that shuts the doors of heaven in men’s faces – the amount of those sorts of people is staggering and sickening. Whether it be a heretic and false teacher or a Mormon or a Jehovah’s Witness. So many Christians I speak to say “oh, they’re entitled to their opinion”. Or when they see a Mormon on his bicycle in his carefully ironed shirt and black tie and name badge identifying him as Elder Smtih and the Christian says “well, I don’t agree with them but I do admire their commitment in travelling to the other side of the world to preach”.
There is nothing to admire about Mormon evangelists. There is nothing to admire about Jehovah’s witnesses knocking at your door. There is nothing to admire about the latest liberal Christian preaching a gospel free of all references to sin and sacrifice. There is nothing to admire about them because they are slamming the gates of the Kingdom of God closed in the faces of their listeners. And there is nothing to admire about them because they are all to the last man and woman sons and daughters of hell.
Now I’m not advocating you rant and rave in their faces next time you cross paths. In Matthew 23 Jesus is giving a real warning to people who took him seriously – or at least some in the crowds did, anyway. Doing that to the Mormons at Riverwood train station may not be quite so well timed or wise. But don’t forget that when you see God’s name trashed and his Word perverted you should be angry.
Hypocrisy 3
Let me read vs. 27-28: 27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
I love that imagery of whitewashed tombs – it says it all. Similarly you could use the Great Pyramids of Egypt or even some of those grand and polished mausoleums on the hillside at Waverly Cemetery. They look so grand and sparkling on the outside but on the inside is only death. The Scribes and Pharisees have washed their outsides but not their insides. They’ve kept up appearances before men, but you can’t trick God. They’re much more concerned about the outward practices of the Law than about the inward transformations required of someone who is a genuine follower of God.
There’s a few ways they do this. This first is in vs. 16-22 and it’s about swearing oaths. At first glance it appears a bit convoluted, and we’re not going to spend much time on it. Seemingly, if you swore an oath on the gold of the temple that was binding, but if you swore it on the temple itself it meant nothing. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, it didn’t make any sense to Jesus, either. It’s a ridiculous distinction and all it demonstrates is that the Pharisees are more concerned about following intricate man-made laws that they are about the basic principle – that is, just tell the truth.
In much the same way, they make sure they give a tenth of all their herbs and spices but they ignore the more important matters of justice and mercy and faithfulness. He’s not saying they should set aside giving the tenth, but they need to practise those more important principles as well.
And his next example is about cleaning crockery. He’s using this image in two ways at once. Simply, he’s saying how bankrupt and useless it is to clean the outside of a cup when the inside is still caked in dirt and germs, but he’s also using the way the Pharisees ceremonially cleaned crockery to again show that they are far more concerned about the outward signs of religiosity than they are about the actual state of their hearts before God.
I’ve heard of a number Anglican churches which stringently insist that all its clergy and lay leaders wear very specific robes for their services. They must parade up the isles of a Sunday morning using a specified number of steps, and they must light a series of candles in a specified order. They are stringent about this, and about ensuring that all parishioners genuflect before coming up to receive the Eucharist. And yet at the same time when it comes to the sermon, the minister will spout all kinds of nonsense that has no relation whatsoever to the Bible. They hold onto the often man-made trappings but they get rid of what’s at the heart of the gospel. They look religious, but their insides are dead.
That sort of falsehood should anger us.
Another thing that should anger us is the way we as a nation treat people fleeing from persecution and war If you’re not angry about refugee policy then I think you should be. We hide behind arguments about due process and queues and bringing undesirables into the country like the Pharisees hid behind giving ten percent of their herbs. But we feel free to ignore what’s at the heart of the Law, what’s at the heart of a Christian response to our world – justice, mercy and faithfulness.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say don’t help anyone in distress because they might take advantage of you or because they might jump some non-existent queue. In fact, Jesus says we should allow ourselves to be taken advantage of if it means helping a widow or orphan or stranger or even an enemy in distress – “lend money without expecting any back” he says in Luke 6:35.
Are you angry about outward signs of being religious when the more important commands of God are ignored? You should be.
Hypocrisy 4
And the final hypocrisy – the way they treat the prophets.
They revere them. They build tombs for them and decorate their graves. And they say: “If we’d been around then, we would have treated them better. We would have listened.” But Jesus knows that’s not true. You know how he knows? Because they’re not listening to him. And he knows how they will treat the apostles and evangelists after him. That’s why he says to them in vs 33 and following: 33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
He’s going to send them and send them but he knows the religious leaders will have them crucified or stoned or at best run out of town. If he knows that, why will he send them at all? Because just like many of the prophets of the OT who knew they would be ignored, their prophecy is the final nail of judgment in the coffin of fire for these hypocrites. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
Abel the first murdered, and Zechariah the last at the end of 2 Chronicles which is the final book of the Hebrew Bible. As in Genesis 4 the blood of Abel cries out to God of Cain’s guilt, so the litres of blood that has flowed from God’s righteous prophets at the hands of the Scribes and Pharisees will be revisited upon them, upon that very generation. And we see that fulfilled at least in part in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70.
It’s not just anger, though is it? Underneath all that righteous wrath there’s a heavy and almost depressing sadness. Look with me at vs. 37-39 37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 38 Look, 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.’ "
Jesus speaks of the Scribes and the Pharisees and of Jerusalem like a parent might speak of a very wayward and delinquent child. There’s anger there, but underlying the anger is incredible disappointment. Not just because he expected better – although he did – but because he knows what’s going to happen to them. He so wants to protect them and transform them but they are not willing. So when vs 39 says that they will not see him again until they say Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord, I fear the context suggests it is not a promise of a better future but a picture of the great and glorious day of the LORD when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess whether willingly or unwillingless that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord. And when their legs buckle beneath them and they fall prostrate before the throne there will only be a fiery expectation of judgment. That’s why in Luke 23 when Jesus is being led through Jerusalem carrying his cross he says to some crying women: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’”
Friends, Jesus is not happy about this diagnosis of the heart of Jerusalem. He is devastated.
And could he not equally say, Woe to you, people of Sydney? Woe to you leaders of Australia. Woe to you Christian teachers who claim to know the truth but lead your flocks astray.
When we see the same sorts of hypocrisy in our society, in our churches, in our governments, in ourselves – are we angered and deeply saddened by it? Or do we just move on to the next part of our day as if it’s an irrelevance that doesn’t affect us? Are you angered by false teaching? Are you angered by the way we treat refugees Do we share Jesus anger at sin and injustice?
And when we fall into hypocrisy do we share Jesus’ frustration and sadness at our own impure hearts? Do we take our sin as seriously as Jesus does? - so seriously he died for it
