Pentecost 24     Matthew 23:1-12

Pastor Edward F. Markquart
Grace Lutheran Church
Des Moines, Washington 98198
http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/

The following Bible study is from a larger course entitled THE LIFE OF CHRIST: A Study in the Four Gospels. This 54 week course for the laity will be available for congregations in 2006.

Basic text for the course: SYNOPSIS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS, Kurt Aland, English Edition, P. 135-137.

Although the gospel text is from Matthew 23:1-12, it seems wise to preach on spirit of the entire chapter. The focal word is the word “hypocrisy.” The “woes” against the Pharisees are found in Matthew 23:13-36.

THE LARGER CONTEXT OF MATTHEW 23:1-12

TEACHINGS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP

• After the cleansing of the temple, there are several consecutive stories against the religious leadership. (SYNOPSIS OF THE GOSPELS, Aland, pp. 237-253))

      The religious leadership consisted of the Pharisees, Sadducees, chief priests,   

       scribes and others in authority.

• Jesus curses the fig tree.
• The chief priests and scribes seek to destroy him.
• The fig tree is withered (symbolic of the Pharisees)
• Jesus teaches in the temple with authority and challenges the Pharisees.
• Jesus tells the parable of the wicked tenants (Pharisees) who killed the servants (prophets) and also the Son (Jesus) of the owner. Jesus teaches that “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you (Pharisees) and given to people who produce the fruit of it (the tax collectors and prostitutes).” When the Pharisees heard these two parables (the two sons and the wicked tenants), they tried to arrest Jesus.
• Jesus tells the parable of the Marriage Feast where people offered flimsy excuses not to come.
• The Pharisees seek to entangle him in a debate about not paying taxes.
• The Sadducees try to entangle him in a debate about the resurrection. 
• A lawyer of the Pharisees try to entangle him in a debate about the great commandment.
• The Pharisees seek to entangle him in a debate about the Messiah and his origins.
• Jesus teaches his disciples about the phoniness of the Pharisees (Matthew 23).
• Jesus’ laments over Jerusalem. 

• We remember that Sessions 18-20 in the course LIFE OF CHRIST were also teachings against the Pharisees who represented the leadership of the temple.

• We remember that these religious leaders:

-Loved their religious traditions more than God and neighbor.

-Loved their interpretations of the Old Testament more than God and neighbor.

-Loved their money more than God and neighbor.

            -Loved their political power more than God and neighbor.

            -Loved their religious power more than God and neighbor.           

           - Talked a good line but did not live it.

            -Were the epitome of hypocrisy.

            -Were blind to God, God’s love, God’s Word, God’s truth, and God’s Son.

• Each individual section needs to be read as part of the whole section. The teachings in this section are persistently against the religious leadership e.g.
  the Pharisees perceived that Jesus told this parable against them.

We recall the parable/teaching of The Fig Tree. For Jesus, the barren fig tree was leafy but had no fruit. The barren fig tree symbolized the Jewish religious leadership of Jesus’ day. These religious leaders talked a good religious talk and used all the right “buzz words” and clichés but did not put their words into actions in their daily lives. The fig tree symbolized the Pharisees who appeared healthy and leafy (like a fig tree) but produced no fruit of love.

Today, this fig tree symbolizes any Christian life which talks the talk but does not walk the walk. The apparently healthy fig tree without fruit symbolizes an apparently healthy Christian life that does not produce actions and behaviors that God wants from us. 

The tree looks healthy but it is not. A religious life looks healthy but it is not. A Christian can use all the right buzz words, read the Bible, attend church and do all the churchy things but lives a lie and does not demonstrate the love of Christ in daily actions.

#284. WOES TO THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES      Matthew 23:1-36; Mark 12:37b-40; Luke 20:45-70

We have studied this section earlier in the LIFE OF CHRIST when we studied the Pharisees in the Gospel of Luke. Earlier, we dedicated three sessions to the study of the hypocrisy and hardness of heart of the Pharisees.

All three gospels place these teachings here in the life of Jesus.

In Matthew’s gospels, Jesus’ words are enormously confrontational. His words drip with intensity and scathing indictments. His words are consistent with his mood during the cleaning of the temple that we studied earlier in the previous lesson.

The following phrases reach a climax of intense anger towards the Pharisees.

-They preach but they do not practice.

-They lay burdens on others shoulders but they do not lift a finger to help.

-They do all their deeds to be seen by men.

-They love the places of honor at feasts and greetings in the market places and being called rabbi.

-The greatest among you is to be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Whoever humbles himself, will be exalted.

-Woe to you scribes and Pharisees for you shut the kingdom of heaven. You do not enter the kingdom and you prevent others from entering it.

-Woe to you Pharisees, you blind guides, you blind men.

-Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe on the trivia but neglect the weightier issues of law, justice, mercy and faith.

-Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for outwardly you appear beautiful but inwardly you are full of dead men’s bones.

-You are the sons of those who have murdered the prophets.

-You serpents and brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

PENTECOST 24A   Text: Matthew 23:1-12 

-Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, Jesus was not only addressing his disciples but the crowds as well. This debate and confrontation had been going on with these Pharisees from the earliest days of Jesus’ ministry and was now reaching the boiling point.

-"The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; The scribes and the Pharisees pretend that they have the authority of Moses. They pretend that what they do is the Law of God. The Pharisees imply that their words and actions have the authority of none other than Moses. There may have been an actual seat in the synagogue which was the teaching place for the local rabbi.

therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. This was the essential problem.

This particular text from Matthew 23:1-12 does not use the word, “hypocrite” but the text is all about hypocrisy. A sermon on this text needs to be about “hypocrisy.”

The Pharisees were a bunch of phonies who did not do what they preached. We recall the woes. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” Focus on the word, “hypocrite.” This whole section of verses in both Matthew and Luke is a commentary on Isaiah 29:13, “This people honors me with their lips (talk a good talk), but their hearts are far from me.” The big issue in Jesus’ day was hypocrisy, especially as embodied in the lives of the Pharisees. 

An important issue of our day is still hypocrisy.

The word, “Pharisee,” was synonymous with the word, “hypocrisy.”

We recall Mark 7:7 when Jesus spoke against the Pharisees, “Well did the Isaiah’s prophecy of you hypocrites. This was a very personal and direct confrontation and condemnation. Circle the word, “hypocrites,” and write the word, “actor.” The Greek word for hypocrite means “actor.” Sometimes, when seeing a play, an actor or actress is incredibly believable in their role. The actor or actress seems so authentic, so genuine, so real that it is hard to comprehend that it is all “make believe.” So it is with many people of faith: on the outside and the showy parts of their lives, they give a good performance of being a Christian, but it is all “a front.” Inside, their hearts are far from the love of God/Jesus and neighbor.

-They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.  We remember that the Pharisees counted and they counted 613 laws from the Old Testament that the people were to do in order to live lives that were pleasing to God. By focusing on these 613 religious rules and regulations, the Pharisees neglected the weightier issues of love and justice.

The lawyers and Pharisees had developed laws for every situation. These social regulations appeared to be religious; but from our perspective today, these social regulations (in the name of religious law) were profoundly ridiculous. For example, we recall the Pharisaic laws that regulated the observance of the Sabbath. The Pharisees taught laws that the Jews could not pick grain on the holy Sabbath nor heal a sick person on the holy Sabbath. The lawyers among the Pharisees developed laws that interpreted what it meant to do work on the Sabbath. All of these social regulations added up to immense burdens on the Jews for their day-to-day lives.

We recall Jesus’ earlier teaching about the yoke of the Pharisees. The yoke of the Pharisees was heavy. That is, the Pharisees placed enormous spiritual burdens on common people’s spiritual shoulders by telling others that they had to follow through and obey these 613 rules and regulations from the Old Testament, 613 rules and regulations that they tried to obey when others were watching.

Imagine the weight of your religion on your shoulders if you thought that you were “religious” only if you obeyed all those 613 rules from the Old Testament. What a heavy load. Imagine if you could not pull your oxen out of a mud hole on the Sabbath because it was against God’s law.

-They do not eat unless they purify themselves. This sentence is an example an burden that has been imposed on the common people. We recall an incident in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus was locked in verbal and theological combat with the Pharisees who noticed that Jesus’ disciples did not ritually and ceremoniously wash their hands before meals. The disciples did not properly purify themselves, according to the customs of the Pharisees. “For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders.” (Mark 7:3) Focus on the phrase, “tradition of the elders,” and remember the “Mishnah.” The Mishnah was the oral traditions and oral laws of the Jewish elderly leaders e.g. Hillel and Shammai. The oral traditions were not the laws of the Torah, not the laws of the Law of God, not the Ten Commandments. Rather, these were the traditions that had evolved over time. The Pharisees loved to do them.

A tradition in the ancient Jewish faith was that the Jews were to wash their hands before meals, with a cup of water the size of an “egg and a half.” The Jews were to hold their hand down, with fingers pointed downward, and drip that cup of water down their wrists and the water was to run off their fingertips. This was a tradition that had become holy and sacred and was to be done by all “good and faithful” Jews before mealtime. We can easily visualize the Pharisees ceremoniously pointing their fingers downward and letting the water drip off their fingers…as if such behavior was holy.

The Pharisees would eat when they were properly purified.

There are many other traditions which they observe: Underline the phrase, “many other traditions.” Yes, the Pharisees had many traditions which they observed, traditions which were written down in the Mishnah.

Today, in our Christian faith, we also have our traditions. We learn to love the “old traditions” that are part of our Christian faith. We love the “old favorite traditions” of Christmas, Christmas hymns, Easter, Easter hymns. Most congregations (and individuals) have numerous traditions that are not part of their constitution, by-laws, or any legal documents. Nor are these numerous traditions part of the Scriptures or even our denominational heritage. Rather, within the congregation, there are traditions that become holy, sanctified, and “don’t you mess with our way we of doing things around here.” In other words, don’t mess with our traditions. In fact, too many Christians will hold fast to our human traditions more than the commandments of God to love God and love one another. 

The washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze. The Pharisees were good at washing the outside of cups and pots and not the inside. After the word, “washing,” write in the phrase, “the outside.” In other similar teachings of Jesus, he emphasized that the Pharisees were good at washing the outside of cups, pots and other vessels.

At our house, the washing of dishes is a situation for potential conflict between my wife and myself. I like to wash the dishes but hate to dry them. As an experienced dishwasher, I am keenly aware of how easy it is to wash the outside of cup and plates. But it is another matter to wash the inside of kettles that have been used for cooking. The insides of those kettles and cooking dishes are occasionally blackened or crusty hard from the heat on the stove. Far too often, I will say to my wife, “Let’s let the kettles soak for a while and then they will be easier to wash.” My wife pulls out the scrubber and indicates for me to go to work and do the hard work of cleaning the insides of the pots and pans.

The Pharisees were similar: that is, they wanted to do the easy work of looking good on the outside and looking good in their public behavior. They did not want to repent and clean out the burnt crud from the insides of their lives. In other words, they did not want to repent and “be washed clean on the inside.” (as was demanded by John the Baptist). They were not willing to address the extortion, greed, rapacity and wickedness that were inside their inner hearts. 

-They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.  This was the fundamental motivating principle of the Pharisees. They loved to be seen by others. They were attention getting showoffs who tried to show off their religious manners and behaviors.

Phylacteries were made of leather. They were leather pouches with Bible verses from the Old Testament in them. We recall God’s commandment in Deuteronomy 11:18, “You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead.” The Pharisees wore these leather boxes on their foreheads and arms. Phylacteries were easy to see and proved right away how religious and devout you were. Common people like shepherds and fishermen did not wear them.

We talk about “wearing your religion on your sleeve.” The Pharisees literally wore their religion on their foreheads and arms for everyone to see.

They also liked to wear long tassels. Again, it was a means of showing off how religious they were. This is another example of them maximizing the minutia of the law and minimizing the great commandment for God and neighbor. From Leviticus 15:37-39, “The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes.”

The essence of the religion of the Pharisees was to maximize the minutia of the mandates from the Old Testament and to minimize doing mercy, kindness and justice (the love of God and neighbor.)

We realize that Jesus had a fringe on his garment and that a woman touched the fringe and was healed.

 -They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.  How we can see these Pharisees in our minds. They loved to have places of honor at banquets. We all know where the places of honor are at the banquets we attend. The Pharisees always wanted to be up at the front table. They also had the best seats in the house, there at the synagogue. We know the best seats in the house at basketball games and football games and concerts. The best seats in the house are the most expensive and most of us never sit there. The Pharisees loved to be greeted with respect at the marketplace, the equivalent of our shopping mall. They loved when people greeting them by calling them “rabbi.” There was a slight deference, a lilt in the language, subtle but noticeable elevation like when nowadays we are talking to someone who is obvious richer than we are. It would be like today someone being addressed as doctor, professor, pastor, president, etc.

-But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. Jesus wanted it to be known that he was the principle teacher of life. Jesus is our teacher and we are all his students. Another word for student is “disciple.”

We immediately ask the question, “Are we not to call the Jewish leader of a synagogue by the name of Rabbi (Abrahamson) when everybody else does?”

Let’s proceed to the next similar teachings and thereby answer our question. 

-And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. We immediately ask the question, “How about my father? My father wants to be called father. Lots of people can call my father by his first name but only we his children can call him “father.” That word is sacred in our family. The word, “father,” is one of the most sacred titles in the world, along with the title “mother.” Is Jesus teaching us not to call our fathers “father?” Is that what Jesus is teaching?

Obviously not.

Or how about calling a Roman Catholic priest a father? That is the title of the position of a leader of a Roman Catholic Church. Father Halloran. Or Father O’Malley. Or Father O’Brien. That is the proper way to address a leader of a Roman Catholic congregation. Is Jesus telling us not to call priests, Father So and So?

Obviously not.

-Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. Jesus wants us to know that he is our teacher, our instructor, our leader, our mentor, our guide, our shepherd.

-The greatest among you will be your servant.  And one of the greatest teachings of Jesus is that we are to be servants. The greatest Christian is the person who has learned to be a servant, to have the heart of a servant, the attitude of a servant, the actions of a servant. In the foot washing on Holy Thursday, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and shocked them all with his action and attitude of humility. Within himself, Jesus was the model servant and called us to be servants of one another.

-All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. This was the problem of the Pharisees of old and people in every generation and often people today like you and me. We want to exalt ourselves and make ourselves important. Sometimes, the greater the sense of “inferiority” inside our souls, the greater is the need to exalt ourselves and try to let other people know that we are important.

Rather than exalting ourselves as the Pharisees did, we are to be humble.

WE WILL EXAMINE OTHER GOSPEL TEXTS THAT REVEAL THE INNER HEARTS OF THE PHARISEES.

#194. DISCOURSES AGAINST THE PHARISEES AND LAWYERS  (PP. 176-178)

It seems that we are in Q again. That is, there are two parallel sets of “woes against the Pharisees.”

We notice that there are seven sets of woes.

Matthew and Mark handle the exact wording of the “woes” differently.

The sequence of the “woes” is different in Matthew and Luke but the ideas are parallel.

In the seven “woes” listed below, we are following the sequence of “woes” in Luke 11:3-52 and not the sequence of “woes” listed in Matthew 23:1-36.

Woe 1: Woe to you Pharisees for you clean the outside of the cup but inside the cup is full of extortion and wickedness.

As we work through this section, number the woes from 1-7.

+Matthew.

-Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Underline these words. Circle the word, “hypocrite.” This whole section of verses in both Matthew and Luke is a commentary on Isaiah 29:13, “This people honors me with their lips (talk a good talk), but their hearts are far from me.” The big issue in Jesus’ day was hypocrisy, especially as embodied in the lives of the Pharisees.  An important issue of our day is still hypocrisy.

-For you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside you are full of extortion and rapacity (and wickedness.) At our house, the washing of dishes is a situation for potential conflict between my wife and myself. I like to wash the dishes but hate to dry them. As an experienced dishwasher, I am keenly aware of how easy it is to wash the outside of cup and plates. But it is another matter to wash the inside of kettles that have been used for cooking. The insides of those kettles and cooking dishes are occasionally blackened or crusty hard from the heat on the stove. Far too often, I will say to my wife, “Let’s let the kettles soak for a while and then they will be easier to wash.” My wife pulls out the scrubber and indicates for me to go to work and do the hard work of cleaning the insides of the pots and pans. The Pharisees were similar: that is, they wanted to do the easy work of looking good on the outside and looking good in their public behavior. They did not want to repent and clean out the burnt crud from the insides of their lives. In other words, they did not want to repent and “be washed clean on the inside.” (as was demanded by John the Baptist). They were not willing to address the extortion, greed, rapacity and wickedness that were inside their inner hearts. 

-You blind Pharisee. Underline the word, “blind.” The Pharisees were blind to their own blindness and hardness of heart. The Pharisees could not see the truth about themselves, nor the truth about the love of God.

-First clean the inside of the cup and then the outside. The first thing that the Pharisees needed to do was to address the inside of their hearts. And then the outside. This is what the Pharisees were unwilling to do.

+Luke.

-Now you Pharisees. Highlight. Circle the words, “you,” and “Pharisees.” Notice that the Pharisee from verse 37 has become plural and Jesus is now addressing a group of Pharisees.

-You fools. Jesus is harsh in his direct confrontation and condemnation of the attitudes and behaviors of the Pharisees. By speaking this way, we Christians are to be aware that it is foolish on our part if we do not address the evil within our own hearts, repent and have that evil washed away.

-Give for alms those things which are from within. The Greek word for “alms” and the Greek word for “mercy” are the same word in the Greek language. Underline, “give for alms” and write, “give mercifully.” The phrase means: “Give mercifully from within and then other things that you do will be good/clean.”

Woe 2: Woe to you Pharisees for you tithe on trivialities such as mint, dill and cummin but neglect the weightier matters of the law such as justice, mercy, faith (and the love of God). You need to do them both. 

Highlight and circle all the important words in both Matthew and Luke e.g. “woe, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, faith, love of God.” The Pharisees tithed on trivialities but neglected the weightier aspects of true faith in God.  When the Pharisees were concerned about their religious traditions, there concerns were trivial. There was a connection between the trivialities of their traditions and the trivialities of tithing on their herbs. In the Old Testament, God commanded the Jews to tithe on their crops and livestock, but these Pharisees applied that law so the result was that they emphasized tithing on their herbs. The Pharisees trivialized the law of the tithe in the Old Testament law. Meanwhile, they neglected the weightier parts of the law such as justice, mercy, faith and the love of God.

In the New Testament, the word and concept of “tithe” is not used except for here. The Apostle Paul speaks about financial giving of offerings and he emphasizes giving out of the abundance of one’s heart and not because of any Old Testament law commanding Christians to tithe. (II Corinthians 8 and 9).

Woe 3: Woe to you Pharisees for you love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and salutations in the market places.

This is what really motivated the Pharisees: They loved to be treated deferentially, with respect, honor and propriety. They loved the best places of in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the town markets.

Woe 4:  Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are filled with dead man’s bones and all uncleanness.

Highlight and circle all the important words in both Matthew and Luke e.g. “woe, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, whitewashed tombs, outwardly beautiful, inwardly full of dead man’s bones.” 

Let Scripture interpret Scripture. Matthew’s version of the same teaching is clearer than Luke’s.

We can all imagine sparkling, glistening grave stones and imagine bones rotting beneath those grave stones, politely out of sight. Jesus’ image is graphic and clear. So it was with the Pharisees: outwardly they were righteous but inwardly, they were full of hypocrisy and sin.

-Full of phoniness and sin. Circle the word, “full.” The Pharisees did not have a little bit of hypocrisy but were full of that deadly sin.

Woe 5: Woe to you lawyers also for you load men’s shoulders with heavy burdens that are hard to carry but you yourselves do not lift such burdens with one of your fingers.

-One of the lawyers answered him: Teacher, in saying this, you reproach us also. Luke. Lawyers were the experts at interpreting the Torah, the Law, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. In Luke, the next series of woes are against the lawyers who are similar to the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew.

In their interpretation of the Torah, the lawyers developed more than 600 laws that needed to be obeyed. The lawyers and Pharisees had developed laws for every situation. These social regulations appeared to be religious; but from our perspective today, these social regulations (in the name of religious law) were profoundly ridiculous. For example, we recall the Pharisaic laws that regulated the observance of the Sabbath (p. 44-45). The Pharisees taught laws that the Jews could not pick grain on the holy Sabbath nor heal a sick person on the holy Sabbath. The lawyers among the Pharisees developed laws that interpreted what it meant to do work on the Sabbath. All of these social regulations added up to immense burdens on the Jews for their day-to-day lives.

Woe 6: Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you adorn the tombs of the prophets and say that if we had lived in those days, we would not have shed their blood. Your fathers killed the prophets and you have built their tombs.

Highlight and circle all the important words in both Matthew and Luke e.g. “woe, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, adorn the tombs of the prophets, killed the prophets.”

The Pharisees were blind about themselves, thinking that they would have been righteous like the prophets of old and thinking that they would have supported God’s prophets in the centuries past. The Pharisees thought to themselves, “If we had lived in the good old days of the prophets, we would not have killed them.” In other words, the Pharisees were blind about who they were and what they would have done. In fact, the Pharisees rejoiced when John the Baptist was killed and wanted the prophetic voice of Jesus to be killed.

Both of the Baptist and Jesus were contemporary prophets of God, and the Pharisees wanted both of them dead.

-This generation will kill some of the prophets and apostles. It is not only the prophets in previous centuries who were killed by the Jews; it is this current generation of Pharisaical Jews who will also kill prophets and apostles. Jesus’ words proved to be true: that is, within a few years, there were numerous martyrs of the church, those people who were killed and crucified because of their faith in Christ. The prophets were the leaders of the church of the Old Testament; the apostles were the leaders of the church of the New Testament.

Woe 7: Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, and lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge and have closed the kingdom of God to others. You did not enter that kingdom for yourselves and you hindered those who were trying to enter it.

The key to all knowledge is to enter and belong to the kingdom of God, the reign of God, to have God rule your life, your love, your family, your work, your values, your way of living and loving. The most important teaching of Jesus in the first three gospels is the kingdom of God, to be ruled by God’s love. This teaching is the master key of life. This is true knowledge: to know God and for God’s love to rule your life. The Pharisees did not enter this kingdom and even hindered other people from entering it as well. The Pharisees enticed religious people into performing religious traditions, as if these religious “man made” traditions were important.

Concluding comment in Luke: As Jesus went away from there, the scribes and Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him, in order to try to catch him at something he might say.

The plot and plans begin to develop rapidly: the Pharisees want to trap Jesus and to have him killed.

#195. THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES    Matthew 16, Mark 8, Luke 12

-Be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Circle the word, “hypocrisy,” and write, “the key to this section.” Leaven is the yeast in bread that permeates the flour and helps the bread to rise. Hypocrisy permeated every aspect of the life of the Pharisees. The word, “Pharisees,” becomes a synonym for “hypocrisy.”

DISCUSSION QUESTION; WHY IS HYPROCICY STILL SO OFFENSIVE TO US TODAY? WHY IS RELIGIOUS HYPOCRICY SO OFFENSIVE TO SO MANY PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH?

#225. THE PHARISEES REPROVED (Page 197)     Luke 16

-The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and they scoffed at him. Here we discover the inner motivation of the Pharisees: they loved money and what money could buy.

-You are those who justify (want to look good) yourselves before other people, but God knows your heart.  We have heard this before: the Pharisees were concerned about outer appearances before other people but their hearts were dead inside. This is the real issue: the hardness of the hearts of these people. This is the sin against the Holy Spirit, a heart that is hard to God and the love of neighbor. Remember Mark 3:5 (p. 45) and Jesus’ reaction to the Pharisees, “Jesus looked around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart.” The Pharisees were more concerned about their external appearances for others than their internal appearances for God.  They were most concerned about the quality of their appearance before others than the quality of their hearts before God. 

#252. ON DIVORCE AND CELIBACY (Page 215)     Matthew 19, Mark 10

We have studied this text previously, but this time, we are going to focus on the role of the Pharisees in this story.

-The Pharisees came up and tested him. The Pharisees wanted to trap Jesus and were looking for “loaded questions” and “loaded topics” by which they could confound Jesus and trap him if at all possible.

-Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives but from the beginning, it was not so. Verse 8. Underline the phrase, “hardness of heart.” This again is the key issue about the Pharisees and pharisaic people today: their hearts are hard to God and the love, mercy and compassion of God for all people.

#234. ON THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Page 201)

-Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming. The Pharisees thought that the kingdom of God was coming in the future. As has been repeated several times, the kingdom of God is the most important truth of Jesus’ teaching. The Pharisees did not understand this kingdom, were blind to this kingdom, had not entered this kingdom, and had hindered other people from entering this kingdom.

-Jesus answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed.” Some people will spend time looking for signs and indications in nature and history that the world is coming to an end. Such people will look for wars, rumors of wars, celestial planetary connections. These people will also spend time pondering which historical events are happening that indicate the end of the world is coming. Meanwhile…

- “Look, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” The reign of God is all around us, right now, in this moment, on this day, at this time. The reign of God is in us and is in people who are ruled by God. Where is God’s reign that is around us right at this moment? What are the signs that God rules a person, a family, a corporation, a school, a nation? What are the signs of the reign of God that is already part of our daily lives? Can you see the signs of God’s kingdom and reign in your midst at this very moment?

The Pharisees could not see the signs of the reign of God around them. They were so busy looking for the signs of the End of Time.

#194. DISCOURSES AGAINST THE PHARISEES AND THE LAWYERS     Matthew 15:1-9, Mark 7:1-9, Luke 11:37-54

There was a particular incident which provoked these teachings about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. That is, the disciples and/or Jesus did not ceremonially wash their hands in preparation for a meal, and the Pharisees were upset about this. We find a record of this incident in all three gospels.

+Luke’s version of the story:

One goal of this course is to try to get “into the heads” of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Since Jesus never wrote a single word, the closest that we can get to Jesus are the words about him from the four witnesses of the four gospels. Each of the four authors has biases, perspectives, and idiosyncrasies, and we are trying to discover the uniqueness of each author.

In this lesson, we will discover that Luke places the “woes against the Pharisees” here in an anti-Pharisee section rather than at the close of Jesus’ life in Jerusalem. We will discover that Luke’s “woes against the Pharisees” fit into Luke’s scheme of things.

-While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. Circle the word, “Pharisee.” This section of Luke is an anti-Pharisee section. That is, in the gospel of Luke, the “woes against the Pharisees” are located here in the earlier part of Jesus’ ministry; whereas in the gospel of Matthew, the “woes against the Pharisees” are located at the end of Jesus’ ministry, during his final week in Jerusalem, as the conflict with the Pharisees and Sadducees came to a feverish peak in Jerusalem. We also recall the story about the prostitute crying, anointing his feet with expensive oil, and wetting Jesus’ feet with tears in the house of Simon the Pharisee earlier in Luke’s gospel (chapter 7). Luke does not have any equivalent story during Jesus’ final week in Jerusalem as do Mark, Matthew and John. 

So…in Luke’s gospel, the two stories against the Pharisees (the woman with the ointment and the woes against the Pharisees) are located here at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry rather than at the end in Jerusalem as in the other three gospels.

Notice in Luke’s account of this story, the word, “Pharisee” is singular; whereas Matthew and Mark’s account record the plural e.g. the scribes and Pharisees. In Matthew and Mark, there are two groups of people present, and there are several members of each group.

-To dine with him. The Greek word for “dine” has a connotation of a banquet or formal meal. Some scholars envision this meal would be a Saturday night dinner, after the weekly Sabbath day worship, and at that meal would have been a large gathering of the family.

-So he (Jesus) went in and sat at table.  Circle the word, “sat,” and write, “reclined at table.” When we modern Western people read the phrase, “sat at table,” we think of a thirty-inch high table with chairs around that table. But in the first century and in that part of the world, Jesus would have “reclined at table.” That is, Jesus would have been sitting on a pillow, with feet stretched out behind him, and the table before him would have been about twelve inches high.

-The Pharisee was astonished to see that he (Jesus) did not first wash before dinner. A fundamental principle of Biblical interpretation is to let “Scripture to interpret Scripture.” That is, we first look at the parallels of a given verse to see if that parallel Scripture gives a clearer explanation/description of the event. We notice immediately that Mark gives a clearer and more elaborate description than Luke, and so we will go to Mark to study the meaning of this particular passage. We will also notice that in Luke, it is Jesus who does not properly and ceremoniously wash his hands before eating. In Matthew and Mark, it is the disciples who do not properly and ceremoniously wash their hands before eating. Once again, it is not the minutia of the details but the message that is important, and we soon will discover the message.

Luke’s account does not include the poignant Isaiah 29:13 quotation which helps unlock the meaning of the story. 

Not Q. Notice that there are three accounts of this story about the lack of washing of the hands. Q occurs only when we have parallel accounts in two gospels, Matthew and Luke. In the accounts of this incident, there are three parallel versions.

+Mark’s version of the story:

-Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem. Notice that the Pharisees and scribes are together again, as they are so often in the gospels. Notice that they had come from Jerusalem, the capital city, where they were concentrated.

-They saw that some of his disciple ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed. Luke says that Jesus ate with unwashed hands; Matthew and Mark say it is the disciples who did not wash their hands. We don’t get hung up on the minutia of the details; we are looking for the message to us from God.

-For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders. Underline the phrase, “tradition of the elders,” and write “Mishnah.” The Mishnah is the oral traditions and oral laws of the Jewish elderly leaders e.g. Hillel and Shammai. The oral traditions were not the laws of the Torah, not the laws of the Law of God, not the Ten Commandments. Rather, these were the traditions that had evolved over time.

A tradition in the ancient Jewish faith was that the Jews were to wash their hands before meals, with a cup of water the size of an “egg and a half.” The Jews were to hold their hand down, with fingers pointed downward, and drip that cup of water down their wrists and the water was to run off their fingertips. This was a tradition that had become holy and sacred and was to be done by all “good and faithful” Jews before mealtime. We can easily visualize the Pharisees ceremoniously pointing their fingers downward and letting the water drip off their fingers…as if such behavior was holy.

-They do not eat unless they purify themselves. There are many other traditions which they observe: the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze. Underline the phrase, “many other traditions.”

Today, in our Christian faith, we also learn to love the “old traditions” that are part of our faith. We love the “old favorite traditions” of Christmas, Christmas hymns, Easter, Easter hymns. Most congregations (and individuals) have numerous traditions that are not part of their constitution, by-laws, or any legal documents; nor are these numerous traditions part of the Scriptures or even our denominational heritage. Rather, within the congregation, there are traditions that become holy, sanctified, and “don’t you mess with our way we of doing things around here.” In other words, don’t mess with our traditions. In fact, people will hold fast to their human traditions more than the commandments of God to love God and love one another. 

-The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do you disciples not live according to the traditions of the elders but eat with hands defiled?”  Once again, we discover that the Pharisees were more concerned about religious traditions than the commandments of God to love God and neighbor. The preoccupation of the Pharisees was not with the Kingdom of God or being ruled by God and loving God and neighbor with all one’s heart, mind and soul. These values were not the focus of the Pharisees. Their focus was on externals, on incidents, on outward forms of piety.

-Well did the Isaiah’s prophecy of you hypocrites. Write “In Isaiah 29:13.” Circle the word, “you.” This is a very personal and direct confrontation and condemnation. Circle the word, “hypocrites,” and write the word, “actor.” The Greek word for hypocrite means “actor.” Sometimes, when seeing a play, an actor or actress is incredibly believable in their role. The actor or actress seems so authentic, so genuine, so real that it is hard to comprehend that it is all “make believe.” So it is with many people of faith: on the outside and the showy parts of their lives, they give a good performance of being a Christian, but it is all “a front.” Inside, their hearts are far from the love of God/Jesus and neighbor.

This lesson is entitled “the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.” There are three lessons about the Pharisees in this course. In Lesson 17, we studied the story about Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman (of the street) who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive oil. Simon judged her in his heart and magnified her flaws and imperfections and minimized his own. In Lesson 18, we studied the hardness of heart of the Pharisees, that their hearts were hard as stone and this is what it means to sin against the Holy Spirit. In today’s lesson, Lesson 19, we are studying the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and how they acted their religious roles out but their hearts were far from God.

-This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me. The Pharisees of yesterday and the Pharisees of today talk the god talk and talk the religion talk and talk the faith talk. But their hearts are far away from God.

-In vain do they worship me.  Such people do not really worship God. Even being at Sabbath worship or Sunday worship, their hearts are not truly worshipping God. Such people are more conscious of other things going on in church than worshipping God. They are most conscious of making a good impression.

-They teach as doctrines the percepts of men. Rather than teaching “to love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself,” they teach their own religious interpretations which have become doctrines for them. Their doctrines and interpretations are nothing more than their traditions that have become overly important to them.

-You leave the commandment of God. Underline. This sentence is enormously important. The commandment of God is the great commandment of Jesus to love God and to love neighbor. The Pharisees had let go of this great commandment.

-And hold fast the tradition of men. These Pharisees loved their traditions. The traditions of men also refers to the traditional interpretations of the Bible. For example, in the story of Tevye in the FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, Tevye had three daughters and the “matchmaker” made matches for the first two marriages. But Tevye’s third daughter defied tradition and she fell in love with a Bolshevik. This was too much for Tevye. He could only bend so far and then he would break. For his daughter to marry a Bolshevik without his blessing, was a violation of his tradition, of the way he thought and acted and lived. Therefore, his daughter was ostracized and declared to be “dead” to the whole family. Near the end of the play, we discover that Tevye is moving to the new promised land and will never see his family again. At this painful moment of separation, the ostracized daughter suddenly appears with her husband and wants to receive a blessing and loving caress from her father. Painfully, Tevye turns his back on his daughter and leaves. Tragically, Tevye loved his tradition, his traditional way of thinking, his traditional way of living, his traditional understanding of right and wrong more than his daughter, more than the commandment to love God and neighbor. The theme song of Tevye is “Tradition. Da. Da. Da. Da.Da. Da. Tradition.” Yes, people of all centuries and all religions have clung to their “man made” traditions more than the commandment of God to love.

-He said, “you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God (love God, love neighbor) in order to keep your tradition. Yes, there are many people who love their traditions and traditional way of life and their traditional way of thinking more than the commandments of God to love one another.

+Matthew’s version of the story

-Then the Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem.

- “Why do you sin against the commandment of God (underline) for the sake of your tradition? Highlight.

-Vs. 6, “For the sake of your tradition, you have made void the Word of God.” Highlight.

-Vs. 7, “You hypocrites.” Underline.


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