The King condemns the ways of the Jewish leaders
23
📚Then Jesus spoke to the crowd and to his disciples,23:1 The following denunciation of the religious leaders of that day was spoken somewhere openly in the temple compound. See Matt 24:1.⚜
2 📚saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees 📖 sit in Moses' seat. 3 📚Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe it and do it, but do not do according to their works, for they say, but do not do.
23:3 Insofar as they truly taught the law of God given through Moses the people of Israel were obligated to obey them, even though they did not themselves obey the law. Compare Rom 2:17-24. Practicing what one preaches must be the constant aim of every Christian leader (1 Tim 4:12; 1 Pet 5:3).⚜
4 📚For they tie up heavy burdens, hard to carry, and lay them on men's shoulders. but they are not willing to lift one of their fingers to move them.
23:4 For sinful men (and all men are sinful) the law of Moses was a burden hard to be carried. See Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1. Israel's religious leaders made it even harder to bear by interpreting it very strictly and adding a great number of rules and regulations. How different is the way of the Lord Jesus – Matt 11:28-30!⚜
5 📚“But they do all their deeds to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries 📖 broad, and enlarge the borders 📖 of their cloaks, 6 📚and love the places of honour at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 📚and greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’
23:6-7 Here is another common error among religious leaders in general (including Christian leaders). Many love to be regarded highly, to have the places of honor, and to be called “reverend” or “doctor” or “bishop” or “father” or “master”. Let us all beware of this. Let us remember the teaching of the Lord Jesus in vs 11,12; Matt 18:4; 20:25-28. Denying self, not exalting self, must be our practice (Matt 16:24; Luke 9:23).⚜
8 📚“But you must not be called Rabbi, for one is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brothers.
23:8 Rabbi means a respected religious teacher. The one teacher all Christians have is Christ (v 10). He appoints human teachers to teach His people (1 Cor 12:28; Eph 4:11; 1 Tim 2:7; Heb 5:12), but they should recognize that their authority and teaching come from Christ alone, and not exalt themselves.⚜
9 📚And do not call any man on the earth your ‘father’, for one is your Father, who is in heaven.
23:9 Jesus is not speaking of ordinary family relationships. We all have fathers and may call them such. But He is speaking of religious matters and is warning against the error of allowing a human being to usurp the place only God should have. There is always a tendency among people, even religious people, to make too much of men, too little of God.⚜
10 And do not be called teachers, for one is your Teacher, the Christ.
11 📚“But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 📚And whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
13 📚“But woe 📖 to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves, nor allow those who are entering to go in.
14 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a show 📖 make long prayers. Therefore you will receive the greater condemnation.
15 📚“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around sea and land to make one convert, and when he has become one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
23:15 They did not try to turn men to God, but to themselves, and to make converts to their own group. This is an empty and foolish thing which men do for their own glory. It has no part in true Christianity. Compare Acts 20:30; 2 Cor 4:5. The Pharisees had great zeal, but it was misdirected and its results were disastrous. Their “converts” became worse than themselves. See what Jesus calls both teachers and converts – sons of hell. Compare John 8:44.⚜
16 📚“Woe to you, blind 📖 guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever swears 📖 by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17 📚You fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 And, you say, ‘whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 📚You fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20 Therefore whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. 21 📚And whoever swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 📚And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.
23 📚“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithes 📖 of mint and anise and cummin, but you have neglected the weightier matters of the Law: justice, mercy, and faith. These you should have practiced, without neglecting the other. 24 📚Blind guides! You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
23:24 The gnat was the smallest of the animals regarded by the Jews as “unclean”, the camel was one of the largest. See Lev 11:4, 20-25. Pharisees strained their drinking water through a cloth to keep from swallowing a tiny “unclean” animal. In spiritual matters they paid much attention to tiny details but gulped down huge errors. In all this they were typical of many religious people.⚜
25 📚“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 📚Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside of them also may be clean.
23:25-26 Here is another example of how the Pharisees were careful about small things and neglected the great. They emphasized the ceremonial and formal matters of religion (the outside of the “cup” and “dish”), and neglected the vastly more important inner state of the mind and heart. Evidently they could not see that before God the outer things of religion are of no use whatever to the person who is corrupt in his heart. Greed, self-indulgence, and inner uncleanness cannot be erased by ceremonial washings or observances of religious rules and regulations. Compare Isa 1:11-18.⚜
27 📚“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 📚Just so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
23:27-28 Again Jesus points out the terrible error of emphasizing the outer things and neglecting the inner. He also revealed their purpose – they wanted to appear righteous to men (v 5), but they did not care what God saw in their hearts. All their religious activity was to impress men and gain their greedy ends. The result was that those men who were so anxious to avoid any “uncleanness” from without, were full of uncleanness within. And they made others unclean. See note at Luke 11:44. May God give us all the good sense to recognize this evil and avoid it.⚜
29 📚“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, 30 📚and say, ‘If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. 31 📚Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are the children of those who killed the prophets. 32 📚Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers.
23:29-32 Hypocrites and those who are ignorant of themselves may think they are better than others and that they are not the sinners their ancestors were. It is always a large error for anyone to think he or she is better than others (Luke 18:9; Rom 2:1; 3:9, 23). The Pharisees should have known from the Old Testament that all are sinners and that people of one generation are likely to do as their fathers did. Each generation adds to the sins of previous ones, and the mass of guilt in any nation continually increases. At last one generation “fills up the measure” of sin, and God will not permit them to go any further, and judgment falls (Gen 15:16; 2 Kings 17:7-23; 2 Chron 36:15-19). So it was with the Jews of Christ's day. They condemned their ancestors for murdering the prophets, but they themselves were plotting to murder the greatest prophet of all, the Son of God Himself.⚜
33 📚You snakes, you brood of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
34 📚“Therefore, now I am sending prophets, and wise men, and scribes to you, and some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will beat with whips in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
23:34 Jesus means the apostles, evangelists, and teachers He would send to preach and teach His gospel. Compare Luke 11:49. The Jewish leaders would treat them as their ancestors had treated the prophets of the Old Testament (Matt 10:17, 23; 24:9; John 15:20-21; Acts 5:17-18, 33, 40; 7:57-60; 14:19).⚜
35 📚so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. 36 📚Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
23:35-36 Abel was the first man ever murdered (Gen 4:8; Heb 11:4). There is no record of the murder of the Zechariah of Zech 1:1. Still he may be the one Jesus referred to here. Or Jesus may have referred to Zechariah the son of Jehoiada whose murder is recorded in 2 Chron 24:21-22. It is possible that this Zechariah also had an ancestor named Berachiah. “Son of” may mean descendent of (Matt 1:1). The murder of Zechariah occurred some centuries before the Pharisees lived. Yet Jesus charged them with it. In other words, they were one with their ancestors in those acts of wickedness. Their hearts and thoughts and attitudes were no better. They were the last generation of many which had persecuted God's servants, and they were the worst of all. And they would pay the penalty for it (Luke 13:34-35; 19:41; 21:20-24. See note at Ps 79:8).⚜
The King weeps over Jerusalem
37 📚“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you, how often 📖 I would have gathered your children together, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not have it! 38 📚Now your house is left to you desolate.
23:38 These words were spoken just before Jesus left the temple (Matt 24:1), and “house” probably means the temple. As happened once before, God was abandoning the Jews of Jerusalem to themselves (Ezek 10:4, 18, 19; 11:22-23). Once again they had rejected Him and once again would have to suffer the consequences. As far as we know Jesus did not enter the temple again.⚜
39 📚 📖 For I tell you, You will not see me from now on until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”
23:39 Ps 118:26. When Jesus entered Jerusalem a crowd of His followers said these very words (Matt 21:9). But the majority, including the leaders of the nation, refused to say them and rejected their Messiah. Jesus here speaks of His second coming. Then Israel will receive Him. See Zech 12:10-14; Rom 11:26-29.⚜