Matthew 23: 1 – 12
You can think it but don’t do it
23 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6 They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ 8 But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. 11 But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
I am not too much of a movie goer but there are some films that I will watch over and over. One of them is Smokey and the Bandit. (Only the original, not the other two spinoffs)
Jackie Gleason played an excellent role as sheriff Buford T. Justice. His pursuit of the Bandit is quite entertaining. He shuns help from other law enforcement officers so that he can personally apprehend the Bandit.
He is a southern gentleman with the ladies and at the same time has no problem in confronting all the guys he come across.
In composing this study, I thought of a great line he said to a bunch of juvenile delinquents who were rifling his son ‘Junior’s’ fiancé’s car.
After ruffing them up he tells them not to leave the crime scene until one of his deputy’s comes and deals with them. His last comment reminded me of the instruction our Lord Jesus gave to His disciples relative to the religious leaders. Sheriff Justice said to the three young thieves, ‘you can think it, but don’t you do it.’ Our Lord Jesus will say in His wonderful advice to His followers, ‘you can think of what they tell you to do, but don’t do what they do.’ (for their actions do not meet their words)
Having made clear that He has come to establish a new ‘congregation’ and a new ‘nation’, made up of the remnant of Israel who have believed in The Son of God Jesus Christ as the Messiah, The Lord Jesus will now reveal what is to happen to the old nation that has rejected Him, and why. He commences with a warning to His disciples against pride and hypocrisy in their new role as Teachers of His ‘church’ and follows that with His indictment of the Scribes and Pharisees whose behavior has guaranteed judgment on Israel. These were the men whom Israel had as their spiritual leaders.
What was said here was necessary. Such a huge change as the rejection of a people who are to be replaced by a remnant from among them who would form a ‘new group from all nations to join His flock’.
That is why here in chapter 23 we have our Master and King Jesus’ official indictment on those who, while being seen by many Jews as religiously the cream of the people of Israel because of their outward show of piety, and because they so carefully regulated their religious lives, were not seen by The Lord Jesus as fitted to the task. His purpose is to explain why the change is being made by God, and why He Himself has rejected them. He wants the Jews to know without any doubt that those religious leaders, to whom supremely they had looked for the truth about God, have failed and therefore will have to be replaced (21.33-44). And all would have agreed that if these were doomed, Israel also was doomed, for religiously they were the most respected men in Israel. This doom is what The Lord Jesus will then reveal in chapters 24-25.
Many find our Lord Jesus’ words to the Scribes and Pharisees difficult because they do not fit in with their picture of Who Jesus Is. But there is nothing here that The Lord Jesus has not said previously. The reason that we are brought to a sudden halt when we read it is because it is all portrayed as spoken at the same time, and therefore seems overwhelming. But that is what it is intended to be. It is the explanation of God’s final break with the old nation, and why Jerusalem must be destroyed.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Is not, therefore, to be seen here as condemning all Scribes and Pharisees without exception, but rather as condemning their system and as especially condemning those who fitted in with His criteria, which sadly made up the large majority. In fact, many of those who stood there would, in their bitter zeal for what they believed in, and in their heedlessness of what God really wanted, perish in the invasion of Palestine and the fall of Jerusalem, while others would come through it very much chastened and changed.
Nor would we be correct to see in our Master Jesus’ demeanor here an unrelenting condemnation of even these men. We must see Him as aware of the crisis that was about to come on Him, and on them, and as rather taking this last opportunity of making His final desperate plea to these hardened men, as He spoke to them with prophetic fervor. For ‘woe’) can equally as well betoken words spoken from a broken heart, as from a remorseless one.
Nor must we judge His words by our own reactions as also sinners. He spoke as the sinless One Who would one day judge all the world from His throne of glory (25.31), not as a hurt sinner, upset and disoriented. And we can be sure that He Who would later calmly pray under even greater pressure, ‘Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’ (Luke 23.34), and would bend in mercy, even on the cross, towards a repentant evildoer who had previously cursed Him (27.44), would also have in His heart, even while He spoke these words, a yearning that some of even these might repent before it was too late. So, all in all there are sound reasons for our God Jesus speaking as He does here.
The chapter begins with an exhortation to His disciples, and to the crowds gathered round Him in the Temple courtyard. He wants them to be clear that in indicting the Scribes and Pharisees, as He Is about to do, He Is not condemning the Law for which they claimed to stand. Rather He wants His disciples and the crowds to respect and fulfil that Law more faithfully than the Scribes and Pharisees have. And He especially warns His disciples against succumbing to the dangers revealed in what the Scribes overall had become, men who were inward looking and filled with a sense of superiority, of religious arrogance and with a sense of their own importance. Thus, He wants to warn the disciples on their part against the danger of their becoming the same, and also feeling superior to, and lording it over, others. When they shortly sit in Jerusalem on their ‘thrones of David’ they are to do it as equal to equal, brother to brother, and servant to servant, and not as a ‘great one’ might do to inferiors, or as a ‘father’ might do to sons, or as a ‘master’ might do to servants. He had seen what it had done to the Scribes whom as a little boy He had admired so much, and He recognized how necessary it was to warn His disciples against the same danger.
23 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples,
Sitting teaching in the crowded Temple courtyard, filled as it would be with pilgrims and worshippers, The Lord Jesus directs His first words at the eager crowds who, along with His own disciples, gathered round Him as potential disciples although He will then turn on the Scribes and Pharisees, who are standing there glowering at Him in the foreground and no doubt heckling and using their influence to seek to turn the crowds against Him.
He was well aware that these were His last days, and one of His purposes in being there was clearly in order to make one last appeal to the Scribes and Pharisees in the sternest words possible, But at the same time He would want to ensure that the hovering crowds and the disciples interpreted His words to the Scribes and Pharisees correctly. He does not want them to think that by condemning the Scribes and Pharisees He Is condemning the Law of God. He thus first prepares His disciples and would be disciples for what He is about to say, by warning them against similar behavior. And at the same time, He gives them a vitally important and unforgettable object lesson that they would never forget, for His scathing words would not be easily forgotten, and they too would in the future be in equal danger of becoming exactly like the Pharisees (as many Christian leaders did in later centuries), something which He had constantly striven to guard. We must not therefore see these as just introductory comments. They are making the position clear and giving a dire warning that they too must take heed not to become like the worst of the Pharisees, as they so easily might, and His words are complete in themselves.
2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.
‘Moses’ seat’ was a chair in the synagogue reserved for the holding of the scrolls of the Law and possibly used by those who in the services read from the Law. This reading was a central aspect of each synagogue service. Stone seats have been excavated in ancient synagogues which were clearly shaped so as to hold scrolls, and it may well be that the idea was that they held the scrolls of the Law (as ‘Moses’ seat’) and that the reader of the Law for that day would pick up the scrolls and then reverently sit down on the seat to read them out as though he were Moses, thus solemnly ‘sitting in Moses’ seat’ as the Law promulgator. After that he would equally solemnly and reverently replace the scrolls on the seat. Moses had spoken!
The reading from the prophets was possibly dealt with differently, being read standing, prior to the reader then sitting down, probably in a different seat (for the first held the scrolls) in order to expound on the passage read (Luke 4.16-20), the scrolls of the Law having been previously read and set down again on ‘Moses’ seat’.
3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
It may have been because of this that they were thus to do whatever the Scribes and Pharisees bid them (‘all things’) from the Law of Moses, as they read them out or recited them from memory. Whatever His disagreement with the Scribes and Pharisees He did not want it to prevent His disciples, or His would be disciples, from obeying the Law of Moses, or going to hear it read. And if only the Scribes and Pharisees had genuinely obeyed the Law of Moses that they knew by memory He would have been satisfied with them too. But that was the point, they had not. They had mainly limited their obedience to ritual matters or had altered its significance to suit themselves by subtle interpretation, thus often mocking the Law. overall the zeal of their predecessors, who had sought to preserve the Law against Hellenization, had in them hardened into a harsh religious observance and condemnation of those who did not follow their ideas, made even more intense by conditions in Palestine and the sense of insurrection that was constantly in the air. They really believed that this might be God’s time and they wanted to ensure that they did not come short. But unfortunately, they put the emphasis in the wrong place. So, His disciples must not follow their behavior, because what they say when they proclaim the Law of Moses is not what they actually do. They say and do not. The righteousness of His disciples must therefore exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, for they must do what the Law says in the way that He has explained it in the Sermon on the Mount.
4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
For this is an expose of the Scribes and Pharisees. They are revealed as binding grievously heavy burdens on men and making very little effort to help them carry them. They laid on men heavy religious requirements, especially negative ones (‘binding’ was a word used for ensuring the enforcing of negative commandments) which they themselves were able to observe because they had shaped their lives in a way that enabled them to do so, and overall had the resources to do it. Indeed, they had multiplied laws and expanded on them to such an extent that only an expert could really understand what was required. But they had taken no note of the problems of ordinary people who had to live their daily lives in situations very unlike theirs, and especially those whose occupations prevented them from being able to fit in with their requirements, even though they made abundant use of some of whose services.
They made no attempt to assist such people in their difficulties. They were simply seen by most as riffraff, to be mainly treated with contempt. The Scribes and Pharisees thus found no difficulty in breaking bruised reeds and quenching smoking flax. They simply thrust them to one side.
This was in direct contrast with those who took on themselves Jesus’ yoke, for they found that that yoke was ‘easy’ (straightforward and understandable) and the burden was ‘light’, it did not ask of them the impossible or write them off for the wrong reasons. He did not ask of them narrow and detailed requirements connected with ritual which had to be performed in the right way to be meaningful, but rather asked of them what they could all achieve in their daily lives if they really wished to do so, by living their lives in love and righteousness. That is why His yoke was ‘easy’, not because it did not make great demands but because it was clear and was applied in an atmosphere of love and forgiveness on those whose hearts were ready to respond. It was a glad and willing service in response to an all-powerful love and compassion revealed towards them. They loved because He first loved them.
We should note here that the very reason that Jesus had spoken of His yoke, and of the lightness the burdens that He placed on men, was precisely because His were in deliberate contrast to the difficult yoke (of their version of the Law) and the heavy burdens placed upon them by the Scribes and Pharisees, of which the people themselves were very much aware, and under which they groaned. The Rabbis spoke of ‘the yoke of the Law’, a yoke which had become burdensome, Our Lord Jesus stressed that His yoke, which united them with Him in the way that they walked, was in contrast ‘easy’ and ‘light’.
It may simply mean ‘they will not lift even a finger to help them’. For they had worked out many ways of mitigating the harshest effects of the Laws on themselves, but they rarely bothered to enlighten the common people about these, or to assist them in their struggles of conscience about them. They were good at saying ‘it is not lawful --’. They were not so good at saying, ‘consider this, it is not required’. Many in the crowds would have been nodding their agreement with The Lord Jesus on this. They knew just how heavy they found the burdens heaped on them. Jesus would hardly have dared to say such things before the crowds had He not known that many of them would acknowledge them as true.
5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6 They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’
But not only did they inflict heavy burdens on people, they also did what they did to be ‘seen of men’. For many that had become more important to them than their actual obedience. The emphasis here is thus on the fact that many of them were mainly all outward show. They did many of the right things, but they did them for totally the wrong reasons. Their whole life was a public display in order that they might obtain credit for themselves, both before God and before men (‘to be seen of men’). And yet at the same time they convinced themselves that they were being ‘righteous’. For were not the things that they did proof of their obedience to the Law? They did not appreciate the fact that those who are truly righteous are those who are least aware of the fact. The ideas in mind here are thus very similar to those condemned in the Sermon on the Mount.
They worked very hard in one way. ‘They made large phylacteries.’ Phylacteries were leather pouches which contained citations of the Law which they wore on their forehead and on their arm. This was done in literal fulfilment of Exodus 13.9; Deuteronomy 11.18. They were mainly worn at morning and evening prayers, although some had taken to wearing them all the time. But they were not satisfied with simply wearing them. Just small ones would have achieved their purpose of reminding them of God’s law. The point here is that they manufactured and wore large ones so that everyone could see how pious they were, for when they saw the large pouches all would know that they had been able to write the citations in large letters.
The tassels that every Jewish man wore on his cloak were again intended to be a reminder of the commandments of God (Numbers 15.37-38). So, these Scribes and Pharisees wore very large ones so that no one could be in any doubt of their respect for God’s commandments. By this they made their cloaks longer, and those tassels would sway ostentatiously on their cloaks as they went around, at the same time paradoxically misusing or misrepresenting the Law of God. These were, of course, but two examples of their whole attitude towards life. Jesus was not just speculating about their hypocrisy. He had seen it with His own eyes.
Furthermore, they were men of ‘love’. They loved the chief place at the feasts they went to, vying for the top positions (and once they had achieved them they loved sitting there aware that men were looking at them admiringly.
The tables were often arranged in a U formation with the bottom of the U indicating the placing of the chief tables, to which all could look. The central table would be occupied by the host with his most important guests on his right hand and his left. And then the places would go in descending order of importance. Thus, they were delighted when they were placed near the top. And they loved the chief seats in the synagogues, where chairs would be set in the front, possibly on a platform, so that they could sit in them and face the people. We can no doubt recognize a similarity with our own customs today. But it is not to be so among Christians, for none are more important than any others before God.
They loved the respectful salutations in the marketplaces as they moved around, especially because of the recognized principle that the lesser saluted the greater. For they loved not only to be seen of men but for their superiority to be verbally acknowledged, and to hear men calling them ‘Rabbi’ (my great one) which was not yet an official title, but was regularly used of respected Teachers (it was used as a courtesy of both John the Baptist and Jesus, although neither sought it or wanted it). One of their main aims in life was thus to be highly esteemed, and to be treated as though they were important, and thus be publicly acknowledged as such. It made all their religious activity worthwhile. It was very much a case of ‘us’ and ‘them’.
8 But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. 11 But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.
The Lord Jesus then firmly uses the Scribes and Pharisees as an object lesson. ‘As for you’ He says to His disciples. The ‘you’ is emphatic. It is contrasting those who serve Him, with the Scribes and Pharisees. Those who follow Him are not to be like them, and He gives three examples of what must be avoided:
1)They must avoid being great teachers, or as ‘great ones’ (Rabbi means ‘my great one’ and is often translated into Greek as - ‘teacher’) because they are all brothers, from the least to the greatest, and they have only one ‘Great Teacher’. This idea of the ‘Great Teacher’ (Christ Himself) probably has in mind such references as Jeremiah 31.33-34, ‘I will put My Law in their inward parts and in their hearts will I write it, and I will be their God (and thus their Great One) -- and they will no more teach every man his neighbor, saying, “Know the Lord”. For all will know Me from the least to the greatest’. Thus, there will be none who have special or esoteric knowledge. All will equally have access to the truth directly from God through Christ, Who alone Is the Great Teacher.
Everyone who teaches must therefore be aware that his own illumination is from God, and that if those who hear them are to be illuminated it is God Who will do it by His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2.10-16). Thus, they can take no credit to themselves. And what is especially forbidden is to accept a title which is seen as giving special distinction and superiority, for that is the road to spiritual disaster. All must rather be as brothers contributing based on the gifts that God gives them without any sense of superiority, each with his own gift, because in the end it is God Who teaches all, and they but teach as His messengers. It is He Who is the Great One, not they. Thus, within the ‘congregation’ no one is to be seen as ‘superior’ to the others, and as having special sources of knowledge from God. All have the same source by the Spirit. The church is thus to be an equal ‘brotherhood’ with none seen as superior to another.
2)They must not call anyone their ‘father’ on earth, that is, ‘fathers’ from a religious point of view. There was a tendency to look back to ‘the fathers’ in the sense of their being esteemed figures of the past whose wisdom was to be acknowledged and treated as sacrosanct, and thus being deserving of special reverence, and possibly even to see especially revered guiding figures at that time as ‘fathers’. But among His disciples there was not to be such a relationship where men were given special and superior recognition. There was to be no special class called ‘fathers.’ For they had only One Who was their Father, and with Whom they should have that special relationship, and that was ‘their Father in Heaven’.
The point is very much that each believer must look directly to his Father in Heaven and not be so dependent on others in that he calls any such his ‘father’ in religious matters. (This is very specific. To seek to get around this to justify calling religious figures ‘father’ is to be as guilty in God’s eyes as the Scribes and Pharisees, whatever sophistry we use to justify it. The use of the title of ‘father’ by ministers of a church is to go directly against what Jesus Is saying here, and it generally has the same consequences of spiritual conceit and of a sense of superiority, or even gives men ideas above their station. Thank God for those who avoid it!).
3)They are not to be called ‘esteemed teacher’ (or ‘master’), for they have only one Esteemed Teacher and that is the Christ. Once again, the emphasis is on the fact that they must look to One and not to the many. No one is to take His place as their leader and guide and illuminator. He is their Lord and leader through life (Hebrews 2.10). Note here the unusual and rare reference in Matthew to ‘Christ’ (standing on its own) when indicating The Lord Jesus. It was, of course, necessary in these words spoken in the Temple courtyard to use such a designation. It would have raised a huge outcry had our Lord Jesus said openly that He was the only ‘Teacher’ to Whom men should listen, and He would have laid Himself open to accusations. But none present would have denied that the coming Messiah could be seen in such a way, while at the same time the disciples and the listeners know to Whom He Is referring, and soon all will know. This is one of those incidental situations where what appears unusual suddenly makes perfect sense.
Our Holy Lord Jesus whole purpose here therefore is to prevent the giving of ‘titles of exaltation’ to members in His community, titles which could lead on to them being treated with special reverence to their hurt, and we must not get around it by inventing other titles. His aim Is rather to turn their whole attention to their Heavenly Father and to Himself, and to ensure that that attitude is maintained. It was especially important as the powers that He has given them might lead to their being seen almost as ‘gods’. This paralleling of Himself with the Father is again an indication of His unique claim for Himself, compatible with such statements. All are therefore to look to a Heavenly Father and to His Christ, and are rather to see each other as servants, and genuinely behave in that way, and the Apostles are to see themselves as the least of all. In all this there is a fine line to be drawn between what is justified and what is not, but any title that gives a person a sense of superiority within the congregation or makes them be acting in the place of God, is to be avoided. Once a person becomes proud of his ‘title’, rather than being genuinely humbled by it, he should discard it at once, for whatever it then is to others it has become for him the devil’s tool and will only hinder his ministry.
The Lord Jesus finishes off the list by pointing out why they are to do all this. It is because the truly great among the people of God are those who, like Him, give themselves genuinely in service. They genuinely see themselves as humble servants, thus they eschew titles. (Once we put a capital letter on ‘Servant’ it becomes a forbidden title, when Paul called himself the slave of Jesus Christ he did not intend it to become a title). If they therefore wish to be the greatest, and for God to call them ‘great one’, they must humble themselves totally in service (as He did when He washed their dirty and dusty feet from a cheap earthenware jar when no one else would do so - John 13.1-10. There is no humility in it when it is performed as a ceremony from a golden bowl. It has become an empty gesture like that of the Pharisees). This is Jesus’ constant theme.
Christ must ever truly be Master. Here He tells us that while we are to act in His name and in consultation with Him, we are not stand ins for Him. We are rather to let Him minister through us.
12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Our Great and Holy God Jesus Christ finishes these important words off with a saying which sums up the eternal consequences of our attitudes. It declares that ‘the way to up is.
Our Lord Jesus Himself exemplifies the second. Those who set themselves to seek glory and position and recognition will find that if they are truly His they will have to be humbled (as the Apostles had to be when they were made to reveal their cowardice - 26.56; whether it be in this world or the next, while those who maintain a humble attitude and behavior before God and men, and seek only to genuinely serve, will find that God lifts them up and does great things through them, and their righteousness will be its own reward. They will desire nothing for themselves. But woe to Christian men and women once they begin to covet titles and position, or to exert their own authority. Their usefulness to God will then be finished, for their light will no longer be shining before men to bring glory to God. It will rather be shining to bring glory to themselves. And thus, they will have had their reward on earth, and will lose out in Heaven. For God will not surrender His glory to another. Indeed, those who find what is now said about the Scribes and Pharisees difficult should consider this well, for it may well indicate that they are following in the same path as them, for the humble will not be surprised. They will rather say, ‘Yes, this is what I deserve too’, and will mean it.
In the end, however, the idea behind these words in verse 12 includes the judgment that is finally coming. Then those who have walked in true humility as servants, will find themselves ‘exalted’ into the Lord’s presence and what they have become will be their great reward. They will shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (13.43). But those who have exalted themselves, (and enter Heaven with high hopes), will find their hopes dashed. What they have been will have diminished them, and even should they enter Heaven, (and not be wailing and gnashing their teeth), their shining forth will be very much dimmed, for they will have already received their glory on earth.
