It seems that while the Pharisees are taking this information about Jesus’s yoke, Jesus doesn’t even give them time to set up a trap. Suddenly going on the offensive against the Pharisees now (it was the Sadducees earlier), Jesus gives them a real brain-teaser that apparently stumps the teachers so much that “no one dared to ask him any more questions.”
But Jesus isn’t about to let them off the hook. Having just made a minor public spectacle of some highly trained teachers, Jesus turns to the crowds and his disciples saying:
“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.”
It should be noted that Jesus does affirm the place of these teachers within Jewish society. He affirms their devotion to obedience and the soundness of their teaching, along with their commitment to the Text. The thing that Jesus appears to have a problem with is their interaction, expectation, and dealings with other people. He doesn’t like how they tie up expectations and load up the guilt without doing anything to help relieve people of their burdens. He also isn’t a fan of how they seem to put their righteousness on display in order to receive the approval of men. Instead, he’s wanting to call people to serve one another, not impress them.
However, Jesus has some tough things to say to the Pharisees in the crowd that day:
“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 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.”
Now, for the Jewish listener, the moment you heard a teacher prophetically give a list of woes, you are going to think of Isaiah immediately. In chapter 5, Isaiah gives his own list of woes.
Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field,until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:“Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”
Woe to those who rise early in the morning,
that they may run after strong drink,
who tarry late into the evening
as wine inflames them!
They have lyre and harp,
tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts,
but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD,
or see the work of his hands.
Therefore my people go into exile
for lack of knowledge;
their honored men go hungry,
and their multitude is parched with thirst.
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth beyond measure,
and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down,
her revelers and he who exults in her.
Man is humbled, and each one is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.
But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.
Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture,
and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.
Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood,
who draw sin as with cart ropes,
who say: “Let him be quick,
let him speed his work
that we may see it;
let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near,
and let it come, that we may know it!”
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,
and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of his right!
If one were to compare these two lists of denouncements, they would notice the kind of person described is quite different. Go ahead, take a second to look at Isaiah 5 and ask the question, “What kind of person is being condemned?” Then, ask the same question of Matthew 23.
What did you find?
I do this exercise with my students and they never fail to articulate the same thing. Isaiah’s woes describe a person who is wrapped up in selfishness and greed. It’s a disgusting picture of a person who has completely lost the plot of God’s story. They oppress others, serve self, and live for injustice. The woes of Matthew 23 describe a person who is self-righteous.
But did you notice? Extra credit to anyone who counted the woes.
In Isaiah, there are six woes; an appropriate number for woes that are denouncing sin, right? But in Jesus’s denouncement, there are seven.
Jesus’s point: “You have perfected the art of evil and sin.”
Do you know what’s even worse than a greedy person? A self-righteous person.
How can you possibly take sin and greed and take it to the next level? You can become a cold, self-righteous “know-it-all” who actually destroys the work of God. This is why self-righteousness is so significant. These people claim to speak for God, yet they put a completely counterfeit version of God on display to the world around them. It’s even worse than the sin of greed, because at least people know greed when they see it.
By inserting a seventh woe, Jesus says they have completed the sin of their forefathers. This is evidenced further by reading Jesus’s closing to this denouncement:
“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.”
Jesus says, “Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.”
In the NIV, Jesus says,”Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started.”
It’s a striking warning that I try to be reminded of frequently. I belong to a generation bent on restoring justice to the world we live in. We cringe at the idea of greed and the oppression of the weak. Yet, if we are not careful, we can be in danger of an even greater sin. We have been repentant of the greed and waste and destruction of our forefathers. We have seen the abuse of the earth, the abuse of aliens and slaves, the abuse of resources, the abuse of power. We must be very careful not to miss the pride that lurks under the surface of our self-righteousness. We must work to hear the words of Jesus warning us to make sure we see ALL people, help and serve ALL people, and pursue humility in our walk after God.
Let’s not perfect the art of sin.
Let’s not complete what our fathers started.
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