Matthew 23.1-12

The first part of this last sermon serves as a connection between the challenge to Jesus' authority and his sermon of preparation for the last days. Chapter 23 serves to condemn those that opposed Jesus and challenged his authority, but also to transition into how to handle living in the midst of this judgement on the Jews. It is divided into three sections:

Matthew 23.1-12--Introduction of the Pharisees' False Righteousness
Matthew 23.13-36--Confronting the Pharisees' False Righteousness
Matthew 23.37-39--The Epilogue, Transition, into the Next Sermon

Today, we are looking at the first twelve verses.

¹ Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ² “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. ³ So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
   ⁵ “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; ⁶ they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; ⁷ they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’
   ⁸ “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. ⁹ And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. ¹⁰ Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. ¹¹ The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹² For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.


As I stated earlier, the context of this passage is that Jesus claimed to have authority from God by the triumphal entry and cleansing the temple. Only the Messiah, the King, was supposed to do these things. Because of this, the Jewish leaders challenged his authority, Jesus affirmed it and now is condemning the leaders for their pride and hypocrisy. He addresses their pride first, for their pride is the source of their hypocrisy. 


In the first four verses, we see Jesus, sarcastically, telling his disciples to obey the teaching of the Pharisees, but not to follow their way of life. He says:


¹ Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ² “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. ³ So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.


The Pharisees had made up THOUSANDS of laws on top of all of the laws in the Old Testament that were supposed to keep them from breaking any of the Old Testament laws. These oral traditions were written down in a book called the Mishnah, which fills 1137 pages of rabbis arguing about how to obey all the commandments of Moses. This is the load that Jesus is talking about. The Pharisees had so many rules and regulations, that no one really knew what was right and what was wrong. So Jesus is saying, with a little tongue and cheek, to obey their teaching, to the extent that they teach what Moses taught. But don't live like them, for not even they practice what they preach. 


That is why Jesus says:  ⁴ They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.


These guys are dysfunctional, they are good teachers but bad examples, which ultimately makes them bad teachers. The reason why the disciples shouldn't live like them is because of their hypocrisy. They say one thing, but do another. They put on a show, and this is what Jesus accuses them of doing in this next section:


  ⁵ “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; ⁶ they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; ⁷ they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’


Pharisees do everything to be seen and applauded by others. This, according to Jesus, is wrong. He talks about their phylacteries and tassels. What are these?


According to Deuteronomy 6.8 and 11.18 which says, "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them on your hands and bind them on your foreheads." The Jews interpreted this verse to literally make small boxes with copies of Bible verses such as Exodus 12.2-16 or Deuteronomy 6.4-9, and they would roll them up, and put them in these small boxes and tie the boxes on the back of their hands and foreheads. They still do this today. It looked like this:

The bigger the phylactery, the more "spiritual" you were. This is what the Pharisees were doing. They were making huge phylacteries to put on their head to show that they meditate on God's law all day long. They also would make huge tassels. 


At the end of their prayer shawl, they would have tassels in which they tied knots. Each knot represented a certain prayer that they would pray, kind of like a rosary. The longer the tassel, the more time, apparently, the person spent in prayer. So the Pharisees would make these really long tassels to show off their "Spirituality". They look like this:

The main point is this, the Pharisees hypocrisy was wrapped up in what people think about them. That is why they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogue. That is why they love to to be greeted and to have people call them, "Rabbi", "Teacher" and "Father". 


Jesus condemns this entire hypocritical, arrogant way of life, and he teaches his disciples that:

¹¹ The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹² For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Jesus wants his disciples to see the pride of the Pharisees that leads to hypocrisy, which, as we will see tomorrow, ultimately leads to their condemnation. He wants his disciples to see this pattern, this road, and run away from it. He wants them to be humble, to be a servant, to humble themselves, for that is what citizens of his kingdom look like. 

This is a lesson we all need to learn. The way we are viewed by others does not achieve anything. We need to be content living for an audience of one, God the Father. And the way to please him is to humble  yourself and be a servant, unlike the Pharisees. 

So what does this look like for you?

Are you trying to make yourself into a certain image in order to receive applause from men or are you humbling yourself before God so that he can use you for his kingdom?