Matthew 23 | mysite

Matthew 23 – Woe is Jerusalem

This passage is as follows:

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

“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.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, 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.’”

(End of passage)

Just previous to this passage, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem and he silences all his critics. Who can summarize what he has tongue lashed his critics with so far?

First, the chief priests come to him while he is healing in the temple and complain that the children are saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” Jesus tells them, “have you not heard, out of the mouths of babes, you have prepared praise?”

Second, chief priests and elders came to him and asked, “By what authority do you do these things?”

Thirdly, Jesus likens the chief priests to a story about some tenants that kill the master’s servants and even his son. When Jesus asks them what will happen to these people, they say that the master will put them to death and get new tenants. Jesus says this is why the kingdom of God will be taken away from them and given to others.

Then Jesus compares the chief priests and Pharisees to people invited to a wedding that didn’t bother to show up. He mentioned that those without a wedding garment were thrown into hell.

The Sadducees try to give him a trick question about the resurrection, but Jesus shows them that they know neither the power of God nor the Scriptures.

The Pharisees try to get him into an argument about the greatest commandment, but Jesus blows them away with his answer.

Finally, Jesus asks them whose son is the Christ. They don’t want to admit who Jesus is, so they say he is the son of David. But Jesus points out that in Psalm 110, the son of David is called the Lord.

After all this, we get to Chapter 23, and Jesus has seven woes for the Pharisees and one woe for Jerusalem. He gives this to the crowds and to his disciples.

Before Jesus gives a woe, he has a summary.

Verses 1-12,

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Right off the bat, Jesus says to do what the Pharisees tell you to do, but don’t do what they do. So far in Matthew, Jesus has been telling his disciples to “beware of the teachings of the Pharisees,” and, “you have heard it said, but I say to you.” Why does Jesus tell them this?

One reason was because they sit on Moses’ seat. What does this mean? Synagogues in that day would have a stone “Seat of Moses” in it. Below is a picture of one.

In Exodus 18, Moses was growing weary of sitting in judgment of the people of God. His father in law, Jethro, came to eat with him before God (Ex. 18:12). The next day, “Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening” (Ex. 18:13). The Hebrew word for “sat” is yâshab, which means, “to sit down, specifically as judge” (Strong's Concordance, H3427). This seat is where Moses sat to judge the people, but this was too much for one man to do (Ex. 18:18). Jethro then gave Moses advice to avoid growing weary of dealing with all the people. His suggestion was to, “provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens” (Ex. 18:21). This is the beginnings of the Levitical Priesthood, who was to judge the people of Israel. “Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens” (Ex. 18:25). These men sat in “Moses seat” throughout the land to judge the people with God's law. As Israel grew, there was greater need for more than just Moses to sit in judgment, which is why others were chosen. Moses sat in judgment in the Tabernacle of God to judge “great matters” (Ex. 18:22) and “hard causes” (Ex. 18:26), but the others sat in “Moses seat” throughout the land in smaller “tabernacles” so to say to judge “small matters” (Ex. 18:22, 26). The book of Exodus explains the need for more than Moses to judge the matters of the people (Ex. 18:21) (http://answerethamatter.org/biblical_articles/articles/the_seatofmoses.htm). So the seat of Moses refers to the position of judgment for those that judges those that broke the law or had disputes. It is not equated with the giving of the law itself. We must note that Jesus also told them not to do the works they do. The various corruptions of the law that Jesus warned them about are being referred to here. The giving of the law is still corrupted by the Pharisees, but Jesus is telling them to be obedient to the civil authorities.

What are some examples of the Pharisees’ bad behavior that Jesus gives?

They give people heavy burdens, but they are not willing to lift a finger to help.
They put on a big show on the outside.

Now Jesus mentioned that the Pharisees would wear broader phylacteries to show off. This is something that Moses told them to do. The idea for phylacteries comes from Deuteronomy 11:18, “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” Here is an example of someone wearing a phylactery:

And they have different sizes too.

Now, when I was living in New York City, I went to the Brooklyn library every day. I would see Jewish men walking around with these big fur hats that were circular, but had a broad flat rim. Like this one below.

So, I was wondering if these hats had any related significance to the lesson today. These are called Shtreimels. A traditional story has it that an anti-Semitic political figure once issued a decree that male Jews must be identified on Shabbat by “wearing a tail” on their heads. Although the decree was an attempt to mock the Jews, the Hasidic rabbis considered the matter seriously, in keeping with the universally accepted Jewish law stating the Law of the Land in which Jews live is to be upheld so long as it does not obstruct Jewish observance. They arrived at a plan that complied with and even exceeded the decree by arranging to make hats such as worn by royalty, encircled by a ring of tails, thereby transforming an object of intended ridicule into a crown. Further, they instituted that the number of tails follow Jewish numerology, symbolizing the wearer's sacred intentions (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/shtreimel).

Now when I was in New York City, driving through Brooklyn, I noticed that some shtreimels were much larger than others. I was in awe that they could balance these hats on their heads. Here are some pictures of people wearing their shtreimel.

So, wearing a shtreimel has certainly become a matter of pride and showing off. I have seen shtreimels bigger than any of these, some going as wide as the wearer’s shoulders. There is nothing wrong about being proud of wearing a shtreimel, or a phylactery. Jesus criticized the Pharisees because even though they wore the phylacteries with God’s commands inside, they didn’t keep those commands in their hearts.

Now, some people use the statement of Jesus to infer that Jesus said that we should always enforce Old Testament Law. Three things counter this idea. Two are things that Jesus says in this passage.

Jesus says, “but not the works they do.”The teachings of the Pharisees had gone off the rails.They have contaminated the Old Testament Law itself with their teaching and the way they applied it.Yet, they had to obey the judgments given, even though some of them may have been wrong according to a true understanding of the Old Testament Law.So, it would not have been the Old Testament Law that was followed, but just the fact of civil obedience.
Jesus says, “You have one teacher,” and “you have one instructor, the Christ.”Who is the Christ?Jesus, of course, is the one teacher.He is the Christ.This is one of the amazing things about the gospel.Jesus never wrote down his teachings.He never told his disciples to write down his teachings.Yet they wrote them down, and they have survived all these years.Even today, we have one teacher.We can look up what Jesus taught and live by his teachings.
Jesus said he would complete / fulfill the Law, yet this had not been accomplished until he sealed the New Covenant with his blood on the cross.When he died on the cross, he said, “It is finished.”Hebrews 9:11-22,

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

And on the night before his crucifixion Jesus said in Matthew 26:28, “for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” This is when he announced the New Covenant, which was sealed by his blood the next day.

What modern idioms do we have today that come from Matthew 23:1-12?

Practice what you preach.
Does not lift a finger.
Do what I tell you and not what I do. (My mom said that a lot).

I wonder if we could find a modern day idiom for verses 11-12, “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Maybe, “Karma is coming”).

The first woe is in verses 13-15,

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”

Somehow the Pharisees had devised a method of stealing the homes of widows. At all times, unscrupulous people will try to take advantage of the elderly by a variety of economic tricks and “con” games. However the Pharisees were “religious” people. They had to devise a way to use their religious influence and position to convert widows’ houses (likely their main asset) to an asset controlled by the Pharisees. The Pharisees did not have to rob widows of their houses via some strong-arm technique; they could easily “devour” their houses via another maneuver. They could simply talk widows into deeding their houses to the Pharisees in their wills. When the widows died, their properties would go to the Pharisees instead of to the widows’ rightful heirs among their own relatives. This could all have been made to sound very religious as the Pharisees hawked their schemes to aging widows, but the bottom line is that the Pharisees could transfer assets away from widows and their heirs to the accounts of the Pharisees, and they could do it all legally (https://stevenmcollins.com/devouring-widows-houses/).

Do you think such a thing could happen today? There are many scams today that take advantage of the elderly. The Pharisees used their religious influence to do the same.

According to the Securities & Exchange Commission and a federal indictment, the pastor of one of the largest Protestant churches in the country, along with his crooked broker sidekick, defrauded his own congregants. Together, this scheming pair sold $3.4 million worth of worthless bonds to his trusting church goers, the SEC alleged in a civil complaint last week. Separately, a federal grand jury returned a 13 count indictment against the pair. You may wonder why people who attended services there would want to buy bonds, falsely represented as being worth millions of dollars from their pastor. The accused, Kirbyjon Caldwell, senior pastor at Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, was looked up to, trusted. They followed him and believed in him. But as the SEC tells it, he cooked up a scheme with a broker-dealer who had already been barred from the business and an equally dishonest lawyer to get the money from his unsuspecting flock.

If this were the first time we had ever encountered a church allegedly ripping off an elder, that would be one thing. But this isn’t the only case. At AgingParents.com, we see a lot of strange things, including fraud by a trusted religious organization. In that case, an alarmed daughter came to us, worried about her 90-year-old mother. The mom had been an active contributor to their church all her life. The mom made modest donations, totaling about $1,000 a year. Suddenly, during the “building fund” time, her contributions rose to almost $100,000 in a year. She had limited means, enough to support her but not to wildly donate to anyone. It was clear that the mom had dementia and that she would soon need full-time help. She wandered off, got lost and the church had a record of having to get her off the street and take her home more than once (https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolynrosenblatt/2018/04/04/do-churches-rip-off-aging-parents-too/#2cf4b57d3ebe).

God will certainly humble such people. Now for the second woe. Verses 16-22,

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.”

Apparently, the Pharisees made up some rules similar to the modern day saying of crossing your fingers. If you cross your fingers behind your back when you make a pledge, then the pledge is not valid. This is the kind of thing the Pharisees were doing. This is childish. If you make any sort of pledge, you should always keep it.

God will certainly humble such people. Now for the third woe. Verses 23-24,

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”

Now pickles have been around since at least 2,000 B.C.. Even one of the servants of a Pharaoh was found to have been preserved in a pickling solution. So, here are the Pharisees, making sure that they tithe every little spice, but they neglect justice and mercy.

God will certainly humble such people. Now for the fourth woe.

Verses 25-26,

“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.”

What is Jesus saying here? He is simply saying that the Pharisees go a long way to make themselves look righteous on the outside, but on the inside, they are full of greed and self-indulgence. When people see their greed and self-indulgence, they don’t look so righteous on the outside anymore.

God will certainly humble such people. Now for the fifth woe.

Verses 27-28,

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

What is Jesus saying here? This is much like the previous woe. On the outside they make themselves look beautiful, but on the inside they are full of death and disease. They are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

God will certainly humble such people. Now for the sixth woe.

Verses 29-36,

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.”

Imagine that! The Pharisees are saying that if they had lived in the days of the prophets they would not have taken part in shedding the blood of the prophets. Abel was killed because he offered to God what God wanted. Cain killed Abel out of jealousy. Thus, Abel was the first martyr. Zechariah was killed in 520 B.C. he is not the Zechariah of 2 Chronicles 24. He was the most recent martyr. Jesus was putting the blood of all the martyrs on the Pharisees. Notice also that Jesus says he sends them prophets, wise men, and scribes some of whom they kill. Here he is equating himself with God.

What have the Pharisees been doing lately? Who are they going to kill next? They have been plotting against Jesus, and in a few days, they are going to kill their own Messiah.

God will certainly humble such people. Now for the seventh woe.

Verses 37-39,

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, 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.’”

What is Jesus saying here?

First, he recaps what he just said about them killing the prophets. Second, he says how he would protect them, but they were not willing. Third, he says that the Israelites are desolate. The he says, “you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” What does he mean by this?

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” is a popular saying. It comes from Psalm 118:26. It is also from Matthew 21:9, “And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” This is when the crowd was recognizing Jesus as their Messiah. So, what Jesus is saying is that they will not see him again until they recognize him as their Messiah.

Song: Hosanna by Hillsong

Chapter BY Chapter

Live your life chapter by chapter as you discover God's guide for life chapter by chapter.

When: Sundays at 5:00 PM Where: Follow the Map >>>>>>>>>

Or join our Bible Study via video conference with this link: https://join.skype.com/KTORY1RedNI7