Matthew 23
Keeping Up Appearances
Introduction
We all know Hyacinth Bucket from the television sitcom ‘Keeping up Appearances’. Now although it may not be politically correct to make judgements about people, we all know that we all do it. And we can all make a judgement about the character. For Hyacinth Bucket is not what she seems. For despite her airs and graces, we soon find out that her origins are somewhat more humble. Hyacinth Bucket portrays it exactly what it means to be a hypocrite. The word hypocrite is an entirely Greek word, which really means an actor. Now you may recall that we talked about this on another occasion, that actors at that time used masks to denote different characters. And so what this word has become to mean is that it is someone who has an artificial character hiding the reality of the person. It is somebody who is pretending to be what they are not.
And we have that judgement in this passage by the bucket load. For we have repeated time and again the word hypocrites.
So this is the judgement that Jesus is making, not about Hyacinth Bucket, but about the scribes and the Pharisees. He is calling them hypocrites. He says it seven times. For he says in v3 ‘they do not practise what they preach’. They say one thing, but the reality of their lives is another. They are hiding behind a mask. They are acting. They are hypocrites.
Before we go too much further, we need to know who the scribes and Pharisees are. We need to know who it is that Jesus is giving such a hard time to. Well, the Pharisees were a relatively small group, possibly no more than 6,000 of them. Scribes, whose job was writing in a world where most people didn’t read or write, were very often Pharisees, so they tended to get lumped together by Jesus. Pharisees were the religious people who studied the scriptures and taught the faith.
So what had the Pharisees and the scribes done to deserve Jesus anger and condemnation?
First of all, despite their study of the Scriptures, he says that they are spiritually blind. In fact he calls them blind guides v16. But he says that they are spiritually blind because they have not seen the truth of God in their studies. And because they have not seen the truth they have shut themselves off from it. He says that they have shut the kingdom of heaven v13 not only to themselves, but worse to others.
Secondly, he says that they are guilty of spiritual complication. vv16ff and 23ff. They have become so wrapped up in the legality and the details that they have missed the heart of God’s revelation to man. And is so doing they have complicated the faith to the point that it has become unbalanced and disordered.
Thirdly, they are guilty of spiritual ostentation. V5ff, v27. So although it was right and proper to perform the religious duties and ceremonies that the law required, it is not right and proper to do that in such a way as to emphasise yourself rather than the worship itself. Whilst it is right and proper that certain people are authorised to act as priests, or as teachers, it is not proper that those positions should be abused for personal ostentation.
Fourthly they are guilty of spiritual shallowness. V23. For they have concentrated on the details of the law and omitted the application of the principles. They have concentrated on the details of tithing, but forgotten the principles of justice, mercy and faith.
Finally, they are guilty of spiritual selectiveness.v29. For on the face of it, they appeared to venerate the prophets of the past, but failed to listen to the prophets of the present.
So this is a fairly damning indictment of the Pharisees. This is a judgement that goes straight to the point. It’s a judgement that doesn’t mince it’s words, and makes it clear that the consequences of this kind of hypocrisy are eternal separation from God. v33.
But what has this to do with us? We have no Pharisees to-day. Well, before we congratulate ourselves, we need to have another look at the Pharisees. You see, it is very easy to write them off on the basis of these few verses. But that is to take them out of the context of the gospels as a whole. And if we look at that wider view, we find a more rounded picture. We find that there was much upon which they were in agreement with Jesus. For example, we find earlier in Matt 5:20 that to Jesus said ’unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven’. Clearly the picture is not quite as clear as it might at first appear.
We need to go back to in history to understand something of the background of the Pharisees and the scribes. You may recall that after the Babylonian exile when the Israelites returned to their land there was a very strong feeling that their exile had been as a result of their failure to keep God’s laws. And as a result there was a new emphasis on understanding and studying the Scriptures, and the scribes and later the Pharisees were right at the heart of that. So they were grounded in a heritage of commitment to scripture and the law of the Lord.
About 150 years BC, there was an attempt to force Greek education on the Jews, and in this period, the Pharisees became staunch defenders of the Jewish religion and traditions. In this cause, they developed a national system of education so that, in theory at least, all Jewish boys were taught the Torah. This development was of great importance, and it was their desire and intention that everyone in Israel achieve holiness through the study of the Torah. So we see that the Pharisees were committed to teaching and education, and the Pharisees consequently found their main function in teaching and preaching.
The purpose of their teaching was for people to achieve holiness, and to that end they believed that the application of Gods laws to one’s life was crucial. They were committed to holiness of living. The Pharisees sought to integrate the priestly standards of purity into their private lives.
So, we see that the Pharisees were commended by Jesus for their righteousness. We see that the Pharisees were devoted to the law of the Lord. We see that the Pharisees were committed to teaching and preaching, and involved in ensuring education for all. We see that the Pharisees were committed to purity of living.
And we, like Jesus, would have to commend them. For there is nothing here with which could disagree in any way. These are values to which we assent in this church today.
BUT… The Pharisees had become distracted from the law of the Lord to the details of the law. They had become diverted from service to status, and they had degenerated from holiness of living to an unholy mess of pretence. The Pharisee tendency had set in.
And this too is a danger for us. For I hope that we share the high ideals of the Pharisees. But also, like them, we share the potential for distraction, for diversion, and for degeneration. So although there may no longer be Pharisees, the Pharisee tendency is alive and well. I know that I can see elements of that tendency in myself.
J. C. Ryle says in the footnote to his commentary that he not resist the opportunity of expressing his firm conviction that Jesus sayings in this chapter were meant to bear a prophetic significance and to apply to corruptions which he foresaw would spring up in his church. That is to say, Jesus knew that that the Pharisee tendency would continue.
For like the Pharisees, we too can suffer from spiritual blindness. It is all too easy to limit our view to that which we already know. It is all too easy to limit our understanding of the way in which God works to a box shaped by our own experiences, by the kind of church we go to and our own churchmanship, and our own expectations. This is not just about old-fashioned traditions. Even new thinking has its own traditions and limitations. New music, worship, liturgy. It is all too easy to become spiritually limited, spiritually blind. We must open our eyes to the many and various ways in which God can be at work within us and amongst us. We must be prepared to consider different ways of doing things. We must be prepared to reconsider old ways of doing things lest we throw the baby out with the bathwater.
And like the Pharisees, we too can suffer from spiritual shallowness. We all too easily get wrapped up in the details, and ignore the principles. For example, we can debate at length and in great apparent depth how many spiritual gifts are detailed in the Bible, and ignore the real depth of the principle that it is God who gives whatever gifts he will for the benefit of the Christian community. At the other end of the scale, we can too easily develop a simplistic approach to God, which results in a loss of sacredness. We can too easily resort to the spiritual shallowness of the prejudged positions of our own churchmanship, and avoid using our minds and our brains to get to grips with the difficulties and depths of faith and life.
We can also suffer from the Pharisees tendency towards confusing depth with spiritual complication. One of the weaknesses of the Evangelical tradition can be that it results in a prescriptive approach to the way of salvation. It can become formulaic. And so we can end up in a position where we make judgements about the validity of someone’s faith by our perception of the steps that they should have gone through. And it doesn’t stop there. We can too easily become prescriptive and complicating about all sorts of issues. About prayer for example – the times, places and manner of prayer can become prescriptive. And this was the fault that the Pharisees had. Their prescription and their complication became a blocking activity, which made it difficult for people to engage with God. Blocking activities of this kind can take many forms, and are not necessarily limited to our preconceptions of them.
We can be like the Pharisees too in our own sort of spiritual ostentation. Perhaps we rate our holiness on the number of Christian events that we attend. Worse still, we may rate the holiness of others on the number of Christian events that they don’t attend. It is easy to develop a spiritual superiority complex. This applies not only to us as individuals, but this is particularly a danger in an apparently successful church like ours. We can easily see ourselves as better, more effective, more spiritual, than other churches. We can easily consider our churchmanship as more successful and more spiritual than others. And this can lead to problems where we become exclusive and isolated. We can too easily perpetuate activities and worship styles and attitudes which accentuate our attitude of superiority.
And the arrogance that arises from our spiritual ostentation and spiritual superiority can lead us, like the Pharisees, into spiritual selectiveness. We can easily lapse into a degree of partiality, where we become selective when we hear God’s word, and we become selective about applying it to our selves. We can all too easily find ourselves ignoring God’s prophetic words. Perhaps in our superiority we limit the people through whom we consider that God may speak. Perhaps we limit Gods prophetic word to people like us. Perhaps we limit Gods prophetic word to those who agree with us. Perhaps we limit God’s prophetic words to us because we expect prophecy to come in a particular form or formula. But just remember Elijahs still small voice (1 Kgs 19). We limit God’s prophetic words to us when we don’t like what he says and it does not agree with our preconceptions.
So the Pharisee tendency is alive and well even in our town, and even in this church.
But that wasn’t the end of the story for the Pharisees. For although Jesus was critical of the Pharisees, and judgemental of the Pharisees, he nevertheless loved them. He loved them enough to tell them to their face the condition they were in. His desire is not to see their destruction, but to see their restoration. And he reminds them that the love of God to the Pharisees has been shown time and again as he has sent prophets and wise men to bring God’s word to them. v34. His sadness for their condition and his love for them are clearly shown in those last few verses, as he talks about gathering them under his wings like a mother hen.
And so, just as that wasn’t the end of the story for the Pharisees, it’s not the end of the story for us. God continues to love us even when we adopt the Pharisees tendency. God continues to send prophets to speak God’s word to us. God longs to gather us under his wings like a mother hen and seek the restoration of a right relationship with us. And so we need to learn from the example of the Pharisees.
So what must we do in response to Gods judgement and his love?
First, we must acknowledge and repent of our Pharisee tendencies. I believe that we all can identify with aspects of the Pharisee tendency. So we all have a responsibility to acknowledge the relevance of Jesus judgements on us as much as the Pharisees. So must be prepared to say ‘this is me – and I’m sorry’. We must repent.
But being or saying sorry is not enough! We also need to remove and get rid of the attitudes and activities the follow on from the Pharisee tendency. We must reject the diversions and distractions. We must avoid complications and distractions that get in the way of our relationship with God, in the way of the Gospel, in the way of Gods word speaking to us.
For on the basis of our repentance and the active removal of the attitudes and activities of the Pharisee tendency, we are able to be restored to a right relationship with God - above all else. A relationship with God that allows him to truly be God – and work in his ways, not ours.
- that allows him to speak to us prophetically and be truly heard.
- that opens our hearts and our minds to the possibility that God can work in different ways to those we know.
- that enables us to have an uncomplicated, and unpretentious and yet profoundly deep faith.
For with that right relationship with God at the heart of faith and our lives, there is no need for the Pharisee tendency, no need for pretence, no need for keeping up appearances.
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