MATTHEW 23 There were a number of Jewish sects during the time our Lord Jesus Christ was here. These groups developed during the years between the closing of the Old Testament and the time of the New Testament. The roots of the sect of the Pharisees began about two hundred years before Christ was born. They accepted the Torah as the truth and also accepted as inspired and authoritative, the things that were passed on as oral traditions. That meant that the opinions of certain men were as important to them as the inspired word of God.
Much of what the Pharisees believed was quite good and consistent with the scriptures. They believed in angels and demons; free will and divine sovereignty. They also believed in human equality and the resurrection of the dead. The big problem was that their teaching was simply ethics; rather than the unchanging word of God. Their teaching was adaptable to whatever they wanted to believe at that particular time. Consequently, what they taught was only an outward form of acceptance of their own doctrine. Even the practices of the teachers were inconsistent with what they taught themselves. They were satisfied with an outward show, rather than an inward heart for God.
Sadducees interpreted the law of Moses more literally than the Pharisees and were very exacting in maintaining the purity of the priesthood. They were the priests at the time of Christ. To them, free will was the reason for everything. They did not accept divine sovereign will, to have authority over the affairs of men. They did not believe in life after death in angels and demons; or even in a spiritual world of any kind. The other two prominent sects were the Essenes and Zealots, but they were not the focus of this chapter of Matthew.
Sadly, the attitude of the Pharisees and Sadducees permeated the whole city of Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus Christ mourned over the city because of the lost souls who would be in hell and who lived there and didn’t want Him as their Messiah. He could see beyond the privilege and favor of the city to the fact that it would soon be destroyed.
The Pharisees exposed, v. 1-12 This chapter begins with an open warning against the practices of the Pharisees. The problem with the Pharisees whose laws were not all bad and some were even beneficial, was that they took their own rules as seriously as the laws of God. They told people to obey their rules when they didn’t do that themselves. Further, they obeyed their own rules just to the extent that made them look good before people, not in obedience to God. The teaching of the Pharisees was not the real problem. The Lord Jesus condemned them for who they were. They were hypocrites who were only concerned with looking holy, not being holy. They wanted the praise of men and were not concerned about the praise of God. They were looking for the people to honor them rather than honor the Lord Jesus Christ.
Attitudes that we have, and the actions we take, expose who we really are. It is possible for us to study the Bible, preach its truths to other people, and tell them what they should do for the Lord, and not match our own teaching and beliefs with our actions. It is fundamental to Christian testimony, for us to live by the standard of love for God and the people around us. To know the truth and not practice it from our hearts is hypocrisy. Greatness in the kingdom of God comes from serving, not from being served.
Seven Woes on the Pharisees, v.13-36 The Pharisees and other religious leaders in Israel at the time when Christ was here, were the most powerful, influential, and respected leaders in Jerusalem. Religion had greater authority over the Jews than business and government because those three areas of life, plus personal life, were all controlled by the public practices of religion. Those men had a lot of power and wanted more. They wanted a Messiah who would lead them to more power, money, and status than they already had. Their craving for those things, made them lose sight of God. They were willing to make changes in their doctrine and teaching to suit their own aims. Even more sadly, their own spiritual blindness spread to the whole nation as the “blind leaders of the blind,” led them into a ditch.
The first of the seven woes in this chapter, was because not only did they not enter the kingdom of heaven themselves; they were keeping other people from entering by their hypocritical teaching and actions.
Further in the Lord’s indictment of the Pharisees, was the fact that the Pharisees were very zealous in getting converts to their beliefs, and were attracting people to what they believed instead of to God. The small details and the “nit-picking” of their regulations, and the man-made additions to God’s laws; pointed their converts to them, not to God. Pressure to accommodate to their rules made new converts more zealous and willing to go further in their wrong actions, than other contemporaries or even their teachers. Saul of Tarsus was an example. He said himself that he lived as a Pharisee after the strictest sect of their religion.
So, this second woe was pronounced on them because of their zeal in converting others to follow the Jewish leaders and leading them away from God. The consequence was their converts became more hell-bound than those who taught them. The woe was because of the results of their misguided zeal, more than the fact that they were zealous.
When the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, the “blind guides,” took an oath; they made a difference between what was a binding oath and what was considered not binding because in their minds it was of less importance. That was their way of evading “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” The Lord Jesus called them blind fools for making such evasive oath- taking. It made the whole practice valueless. Jesus insisted that people simply tell the truth always, and abolish taking an oath.
Therefore, this third woe was pronounced on the Pharisees for commanding people to make superstitious and frivolous vows. The Pharisees were blindly leading people to follow them and their man-made traditions instead of following the word of God. To emphasize outward forms of religion instead of new life from within, and glad obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ; leads people to eternal woe and dark damnation.
Jesus didn’t criticize the Pharisees for observing the law, but for the hypocrisy that was involved in their interpretations of the law and the practices of their own lives. They were preoccupied with the petty rules they had made and ignored what were real scriptural principles that were to be followed. It is possible to be concerned about the little things and refuse to commit ourselves to those things that are important. Justice, mercy, and faith are much more important than how much money you give to support people, or who cuts the grass and who moves the seats in the assembly building. Little things need to be done, but to strain on them and make them a major issue is not right. That is especially true when false doctrine is being taught or unscriptural teaching is allowed to go uncorrected. Moral sin overlooked in the lives of believers is of greater importance than the temperature in the main auditorium. Some things may be overlooked because of a position a person has in society or in the local church.
So, a fourth woe was pronounced for neglecting the weightier matters of the law and ignoring what was important, and focusing on minor details that have no real consequences one way or another.
Then the Pharisees were really concerned about what the people thought when they saw their outward appearance. They made a point of looking like they were holy and very saintly so they would be well thought of and given respect by other people. Inwardly, however, they were not pure. Religious appearances are only to be seen by people. God looks on the heart. The outside of cups and dishes may be clean but that does not make them clean. The thoughts of our hearts are affected by what we feed our minds and spirits on. To look at immoral things on a computer or a television set can leave an indelible impression on our minds, and that makes us unclean inside. Greed and self-indulgence can control the mind and will of people even though they may appear holy and pure outwardly.
What we feed our souls on and what we take in through our senses, doesn’t leave. However, we can keep our fellowship with the Lord real and vital, by confessing and forsaking sin. The outward person can then reflect that inward purity. The fifth woe was because the Pharisees were keeping up outward appearances of being holy, while inwardly and privately they were corrupt.
The sixth woe of the Pharisees was because they were acting like they were spiritual, to cover up the sin in which they were indulging themselves. Hypocrisy makes a point of looking good no matter what is going on in private or in one’s own soul. The Lord said that is like whitewashing a tomb to make it beautiful outside, but it doesn’t change a thing within.
“How are you today?” is a common greeting, and is most often answered with, “Just fine, thank you!” even though it may not be true. To tell the truth about what is happening in our lives can be humiliating and so light-weight responses to lightweight questions are not really the truth as to what is really happening. When we ask a question of another person, it is important that it is a thoughtful and meaningful one. Then the answer may be more real. Living out our faith in Christ as a believer who is clean on the inside and who is in happy fellowship with the Lord, makes outward cleanliness real. If we live with only an outward show of Christianity, that is a sham and blatant hypocrisy.
The seventh woe was because the Pharisees pretended to have learned lessons from their forefathers, but in reality, they were unspiritual “sons” of their ancestors who killed the prophets in old times. Abel was the first person murdered and Zechariah was the last one we read about in 2nd Chronicles 24, the last book of the Old Testament in chronological order. Even as the Lord was speaking to them, they were plotting and planning to kill Him. The Lord knew they would do the same to those who followed Him after He was gone. He told them in scathing terms that they were condemned to hell because He already knew they would be persecuting, scourging, and killing those believers who would not follow their hypocritical ways. The Pharisees were guilty of shedding innocent blood. To claim to be God’s people and do what they were doing was hypocrisy.
There is no way the practice of Pharisaical hypocrisy can be ever considered a righteous way for believers in Christ to practice their faith. Laws and traditions must never take the place of love, justice, grace, mercy, and forgiveness in the lives of God’s people. The Lord Jesus Christ was not being peevish or filled with animosity when He pronounced all those woes on the Pharisees. He was just looking ahead and could easily see the results of such an attitude on the part of those who held that attitude, and on those who followed their leadership. That was one reason why He was so grieved as He looked over Jerusalem.
The Lament over Jerusalem, v. 37-39 The heart of the Lord Jesus was still tied to His people, and even to the city of Jerusalem. It was the capital city of God’s chosen people and was important to Him. The temple was there and it was still considered the place to go to worship the true God collectively. It was supposed to be the place where justice and mercy met. Peace and thanksgiving should have emanated from the courts of the temple, but instead, there was confusion, greed, and open covetousness. Jerusalem had become blind to God even though it was a city of people whom God loved. The character of the city had changed with the change of character in the people. Instead of being a place of peace that should have been sensitive to the spiritual needs of God’s people; it had become a covetous, greedy, ungodly place of business and intrigue without any redeeming factors to be found there.
Jesus grieved over those people and would have protected them from coming judgment, but they didn’t want Him. Even though people are loved and God wants to help and comfort those who need Him; He does not force or impose Himself on those who want their own way. People reject Him because they don’t want Him personally in their lives, or because they don’t think they need Him. Those of us who know who we really are and who have gratefully and gladly come to Him and put our faith in Him; know that “Without Him how lost I would be!”