Jesus warned about hypocrisy among religious leaders and accompanying woes. Have we ever heard this taught? Is it just too painful to admit that we church leaders can sometimes be just like the Pharisees? Let’s learn some hard lessons from Jesus in Matthew 23.
Hypocrisy
Do we practice what we preach?
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. (Matthew 23:1-4 NLT)
What are some false motives for church leadership? Do we love our titles like father, reverend, preacher or pastor?
But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the fringes of their garments, and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi by men. (Matthew 23:5-7 WEB)
Should we demand religious titles?
But you shouldn’t be called Rabbi, because you have one teacher, and all of you are brothers and sisters. Don’t call anybody on earth your father, because you have one Father, who is heavenly. Don’t be called teacher, because Christ is your one teacher. (Matthew 23:8-10 CEB)
What’s the real problem here, mere descriptions like father or teacher, or puffing ourselves up over others instead of having the attitude of a servant?
Whoever is the greatest should be the servant of the others. If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored. (Matthew 23:11-12 CEV)
The attitude of demanding a title or other fawning recognition is not godly. Do we choose arrogance or humility? You decide!
The 7 Woes
This passage is suspiciously left out of the Revised Common Lectionary, a preaching guide. Why? It contains strong warnings for church leaders.
1. Shut Up the Kingdom
Do we shut the door of God’s kingdom in people’s faces?
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You lock up the kingdom of heaven from people. For you don’t go in, and you don’t allow those entering to go in. (Matthew 23:13 HCSB)
2. Housing the Poor
Do we ignore the housing needs of poor widows and such like, and make long prayers to cover it up?
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. (Matthew 23:14 KJV)
3. Make Converts Worse
Do we teach our converts to be even worse hypocrites than we are?
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. (Matthew 23:15 NASB)
4. Money Hungry
Do offerings mean more to us than holy ground?
Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? (Matthew 23:16-17 NIV)
Are gifts more important to us than God’s altar?
And you say that to swear ‘by the altar’ is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar’ is binding. How blind! For which is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred? (Matthew 23:18-19 NLT)
How important are our promises to God?
He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who has been living in it. He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it. (Matthew 23:20-22 WEB)
Do we focus on minutiae and forget the essentials of our faith?
How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You give to God a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, but you forget about the more important matters of the Law: justice, peace, and faith. You ought to give a tenth but without forgetting about those more important matters. You blind guides! You filter out an ant but swallow a camel. (Matthew 23:23-24 CEB)
5. Greed & Self-Indulgence
Do we look good on the outside but inside is greed and self-indulgence?
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. (Matthew 23:25-26 ESV)
6. Hypocrisy & Lawlessness
Do we look good on the outside while inside is a dead person, every impurity, hypocrisy and lawlessness?
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28 HCSB)
7. Children of Murderers
Are we descended from those who murdered Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Anabaptists or other Christians in history?
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. (Matthew 23:29-31 KJV)
Do we have a spirit of murder, hating and falsely accusing those who believe differently from us on non-essentials of our common faith?
Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You snakes, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you will fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. (Matthew 23:32-36 NASB)
Why did Jesus grieve over Jerusalem?
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, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ (Matthew 23:37-39 NIV)
We are all a prophet to somebody, even if only to our family and friends. Will we take these stern warnings from Jesus seriously, and examine our hearts lest we too fall short like the teachers of the law and Pharisees? You decide!
