Matthew 23:1-12 - Significant Teaching - March 10, 2021

We’ve all heard the saying “You are what you eat.” If you eat cream-puffs all day, you can be sure that you’ll end up looking like a cream-puff. Well, no disrespect to nutritionists, but while it’s certainly important to monitor what you are consuming with your mouth – it’s ultimately more important to monitor what you are consuming with your eyes and ears (Matthew 15:1-20). To modify the saying: “you are what – or who – you listen to.” Oh sure, we like to imagine that we are all perfectly impartial and independent thinkers – we’re not. What we are is a diverse stew of the messages and media, the stories and music and movies we consume. We are always consuming, always learning and therefore we need to be careful who our teachers are. Some are good and some are bad. Some we should avoid and some we should imitate. In our text for this evening, Jesus, the one Teacher, helps us differentiate between the two.

It’s Tuesday of Holy Week, just three days before Jesus is arrested, tried, convicted, tortured, crucified and buried. He chooses this moment to draw the attention of his listeners to the experts in the law and the Pharisees [who] sit in Moses’ seat. While the Old Testament doesn’t contain any details about anything specifically called “Moses’ seat,” it seems to simply be a reference to holding an office of teaching authority in the synagogue.

Jesus says regarding these teachers: Practice and observe whatever they tell you. But do not do as they do, because they do not practice what they preach. Jesus isn’t pulling any punches, is he? “Do what they say, not what they do.” As long as the teachers were simply reading and properly interpreting the Word of God, Jesus encourages them to listen carefully. But Jesus also makes clear that the application and the resulting behavior of these teachers didn’t align with the Word of God. In other words, they read one thing from the Scriptures, but the application they made in their sermons and their behavior outside of the synagogue didn’t line up with the Scriptures. There’s a term for this; it’s call hypocrisy. And where you have hypocrisy you almost always find self-righteousness. We’ve seen this in recent months when government officials who commanded average citizens to stay locked in their homes and not celebrate holidays with family were exposed as traveling internationally and celebrating holidays with their families.

Jesus goes on to describe some of their hypocritical practices: First, they tie up heavy loads, burdens that are hard to carry, and place them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to help them. What does that mean? Well, sadly, many Christians today know and experience exactly what Jesus is describing. The Pharisees piled 613 commandments on top of the 10 God had given – today teachers pile the 10 steps to a better marriage or the 5 steps to raising decent children on their listeners. The Pharisees elevated the actions of humans over the actions of God (Matthew 23:13-39; Mark 7:1-23) – today many teachers suggest that your decision, your response, your behavior is more important than what God has done for you. Worst of all, having burdened the people with law after law, they didn’t lift a finger to help them, that is, they didn’t preach the Gospel that God had promised to send a Savior to rescue them from the unbearable burden of the law. They never once said: come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).   

Second, they do all their works to be seen by people. They were 1st century virtue-signalers. Third, they make their phylacteries wide and lengthen the fringes of their garments. A phylactery was a small leather box containing quotations from Exodus or Deuteronomy. They were tied around a person’s forehead or arms. The fringes were blue strands that attached to the corners of their garments to remind them of the Ten Commandments. Because these customs had their origin in God’s Word (Numbers 15:37-41; Deuteronomy 6:8) there was nothing inherently wrong with them. What was wrong was that they made their phylacteries wide and their fringes long. In other words, they did it to draw attention to themselves. They wanted to be seen as superior to your average Jew. Fourth, they love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues. (Which was one of the reasons they despised Jesus – Jesus sat and ate with tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 9:9-13).) Fifth, they love…the greetings in the marketplaces, and being called ‘Rabbi” by people. Apparently ours isn’t the only era of “celebrity pastors.”  

Do not do as they do, Jesus says. But Jesus isn’t just hurling stones of criticism at his enemies here; in fact, he’s not even talking to the experts in the law or the Pharisees, he’s talking to his disciples. He’s warning his disciples because he knows that hypocrisy and pride are a temptation for anyone and everyone. Pride is a result of the sinful nature we’re born with. If you have any doubt at all that this is a natural human tendency, just spend five minutes on Facebook and see how many people promote how cute their children or dogs are, how great their craft or cooking skills are, how wonderful their vacations are – pride and self-promotion are everywhere. In fact, there’s a brand new line of work known as “social influencing” that consists of nothing but promoting yourself and your talents and your tastes to the world on social media.

Pride is not surprising when we see it in the world. But it’s sad when we see it in the church – because we, of all people, should know better. “How do we do this?” We work on a project here at church and nobody notices or nobody gives us any praise. So we throw a tantrum and vow to never volunteer again. Others get their names in the bulletin for the things they’ve done and we resent them because we haven’t gotten that recognition. We calculate how often we’re in church and Bible class and volunteering for various duties at church against others and we deem ourselves worthy of more and better blessings from God. At the root of all of those attitudes is hypocritical pride. We mistakenly think we deserve better than others because of what we do. “Well, pastor, that’s the way the world works. What’s the problem?” The problem is that when God looks at us he sees that there is no difference, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:22-24). That’s the greatest danger of proudly exalting ourselves over others – if I’m so busy comparing myself against others, who am I not looking to? Jesus! Those are attitudes Jesus tells us to avoid – in order to save us from ourselves.

Do not do as they do. So what should we do instead? You are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. Also do not call anyone on earth your ‘Father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. And you are not to be called ‘leaders,’ for you have one Leader, the Christ. But the greatest among you will be your servant. Jesus isn’t literally forbidding the use of these terms. What he’s saying is that since we are all equal before God (Galatians 3:28), no one should exalt themselves above others. Instead, the greatest in God’s kingdom are those who serve others. So here’s the question: why should we listen to Jesus? What makes him any different than the experts in the law and the Pharisees?

Remember, Jesus spoke these words on Tuesday of Holy Week – just three days before he would be falsely arrested, wrongly accused, illegally tortured, and unjustly crucified. Jesus has spent three years proving, by his behavior, by his preaching, by his miracles who he really is: the Christ, the Son of God. He proved himself as the one who is actually deserving of all glory, honor, and worship. And yet, as Paul says: though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant…he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8). Jesus is the only speaker, leader, preacher, pastor, teacher who ever not only said all the right things but did all the right things. He spent his life serving others in word and action, ultimately by serving up his life as the ransom for our lives (Matthew 20:28). By his humble life and his innocent death he has earned our attention, he has proven that he is the only one worthy of imitation.

Impossible, right? How can we possibly imitate Jesus’ humility and service, he’s the sinless Son of God? We can’t. By nature we are turned in on ourselves – always looking to place ourselves above everyone else. For us, pride and self-righteousness and hypocrisy aren’t just bad attitudes to be on the lookout for, they are hardwired into our very nature. From the cradle to the grave we are wired to believe that if we can just prove ourselves better than others that we can gain God’s favor. So what can we do about this genetic disease? There’s only one thing we can do: own it, confess it, repent of it – and look to Jesus to forgive the burden of our sin.

The good news is that Jesus’ death on a cross covers all our sin – even our own misguided pride and hypocrisy. The slate has been wiped clean – even if your Facebook page hasn’t been – so that no sin or guilt remain. Because of Jesus, God has removed them as [far] as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). The one who humbled himself by climbing down from heaven, into a virgin’s womb, and up onto a cross has cleansed us from our sins of arrogance and pride – so that after we have been humbled in repentance, he will exalt us through his forgiveness.

It’s always been true, but even more so in recent years that you must be very careful of who and what you consume with your eyes and your ears. Yes, you don’t want to get drawn into the “fake news” trap. But even more importantly, you don’t want to listen to anyone who makes it seem like your status before God relies on you and your behavior. Instead, listen to Jesus. He humbled himself to the point of death so that we might be exalted to eternal life. We shouldn’t only listen to him and imitate him but, when we fail, we should unload the burden of our sin and guilt on him to be forgiven. To him, and him alone, be the glory. Amen.