What Did Jesus Say about the Rabbis' Predecessors? Part Three: Matthew 23

[The first two parts of this series discussed Why Jesus Appeared and the Sermon on the Mount. They may be read here and here.  This third part discusses Matthew 23.]

Jesus’ appreciation of the Pharisees as given in the Sermon on the Mount is confirmed in Matthew 23.   Matthew quotes Jesus as delivering a list of “woes to” directed at the Pharisees.  Woe, the equivalent of a curse, means a condition of deep suffering.  To wish woe on someone is extremely serious, especially in Jesus' time.  This delineation of woes gives a still more precise understanding of the gravity of Jesus’ rejection of the Pharisees' ideas and leadership.

Jesus' discourse was given some time after the Sermon on the Mount.  Pharisees were undoubtedly present.  One can imagine their reaction as Jesus speaks to them point blank.  First He gave some advice to the Israelites about the Pharisees’ hypocrisy.

“The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat;  so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do;  for they preach, but do not practice.  They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders;  but they themselves will not move them with their finger.  They do all their deeds to be seen by men…”  (Matthew 23: 1-5)  

Then He addressed the Pharisees directly …

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men;  for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.”  (Matthew 23:13-14)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you traverse 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.”   (Matthew 23:15)

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If any one swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if any one 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?”  (Matthew 23:16-17)

“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 faith…You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.”   (Matthew 23:23-24)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity.”  (Matthew 23:25)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.   So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”  (Matthew 23: 27-28)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!...you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.”  (Matthew 23:29-31)

“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”   (Matthew 23:33)

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you!...Behold your house is forsaken and desolate.”  (Matthew 23:37-38)

Jesus did not mince words.  To review:  He said of the Pharisees that they prevented people from going to heaven (!), that they turned recruits into children of hell (!), that they valued wealth over sincerity (!), that they neglected law, justice, mercy, and faith (!), that they were full of extortion and rapacity (!), that they were full of uncleanness, hypocrisy, and iniquity (!), and that they murdered the prophets (!).  Finally He called them serpents, a brood of vipers.

It is important to remember that this is the Son of God who is speaking.  He has characterized the leaders of those chosen to be priests to the world.  For Jesus to declare such extreme curses, can only mean that God no longer has a use for this leadership.  Jesus' exhortation constitutes an utter repudiation of the Pharisees, of their laws, actions, and behavior. Obviously He does not consider them qualified to be His priests.

The Pharisee's forsaken and desolate attitude toward their God-given mission became codified in the Talmud that was developed after Jesus' earthly lifetime.  Indeed the basics of the Talmud already existed in the plethora of man-made Pharisee rules and 'laws', and Pharisees' interpretation of them.

Because Jesus’ message is love and compassion, it can be tempting to try to make excuses for the Pharisees, and to see them somewhat sympathetically as light-weights and of no consequence.  Jesus did not look upon them in this manner at anytime during His ministry. 

Jesus intransigence stems from His utter disappointment in these 'leaders' of God's chosen people.  God gave them a commission that they altogether transformed into its very opposite and thereby denied.  Thus when Jesus called them serpents, the reader should be fully cognizant of what Jesus means by serpents and by what they represent. His point of reference is the garden of eden and He meant that the Pharisees were of the devil.  His judgement is final and complete.

[Part four of this series will discuss the tyranny of the Pharisees.]

What Did Jesus Say about the Rabbis' Predecessors? Part Two: The Sermon on the Mount

[The first part of this series dealt with the question of why Jesus appeared when He did and where He did.   It may be viewed here.  This second part discusses Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5:3-7:29)]

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus presented a clear and succinct picture of the character of a God-fearing person. The description has been a guide to Christians ever since, but what is not often considered by commentators is what He said by implication about the Pharisees, who undoubtedly were present and listening to him.  The commentary in this chapter emphasizes what Jesus said in the Sermon about the Pharisees and the mission of the Israelites. 

The contrast in the sermon between Jesus’ picture of sanctity and the Pharisees’ beliefs was palpable and direct.  Jesus seemed to make his points in just such a way as to heighten the contrast.  One can imagine the Pharisees becoming more and more uncomfortable, even outraged, as the sermon progressed.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit”.  Jesus was looking at two groups of people --those who would be priests to the world and those who are proselytized.   In both cases a quality that is needed is the desire for spiritual growth, a drive for union with God.  To be poor in spirit is to be His follower and to be a lover of God.  He made this point to the multitude to show them how they ought to act toward others if they are to be priests to the world.  Those present undoubtedly knew exactly who did not have this quality --  those who knew they were very rich in spirit and always made sure everyone saw their fine spiritual state; those who were full of themselves, full of pride in their spiritual achievements, and full of self-importance – in other words, the Pharisees.

“Blessed are those who mourn”.  Those who aspire to lead the world to God ought to be like Him especially in the qualities of compassion and acting from the heart.   A test of these qualities is death itself because genuine mourners for the dead do have emotions and compassion for the departed, just as Jesus did at Lazarus’ tomb.  Jesus here makes a pointed, implied criticism of the Pharisees who were so ritualistic in matters of death that they had no room for acting from the heart. 

“Blessed are the meek”.  When one contemplates the incomprehensible – that is, who God must be – the experience engenders a basic humility.  One stands meekly in awe of the Almighty and His Son.  Those who hunger for God will of necessity have this meekness.  Jesus made the point to show that the Israelites must have this character if they expect to be God’s people and his priests.  Indirectly, Jesus condemned the prideful, arrogant, and aggressive Pharisees who by mocking meekness display their disregard for God.  No one could miss the point. 

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”.   A qualitative difference exists between righteousness and self-righteousness.  No hunger or thirst is involved in the later which was a Pharisee speciality.  The Pharisees were smug and self-satisfied in their knowledge of the law and substituted their own self-importance for righteousness.  In contrast Jesus pointed to God’s admiration for those who humbly seek Him out and who love God with all their heart and soul.  Jesus was entirely contemptuous of those whose love of God was confined to ritual. 

“Blessed are the merciful”.  The Pharisees structured society around fulfillment of the law.  The Pharisees’ judgment of people was an evaluation of whether one had fulfilled the law, most of which were man-made and worthy of Jesus’ condemnation.  Mercy and compassion had little to do with this system.  You either observed the law or not.  Jesus is denounced this way of life.  He wanted his followers, the priests to all mankind, to be merciful from the heart to others .  At another time he said to the Pharisees, “Learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’”.  (Matthew 10:13). 

“Blessed are the pure in heart”.  When Jesus first encountered the apostle Nathaniel, He said (John 1:47), “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.”  Jesus seemed to state this as a surprise, as if to say, ‘what a unique thing, a Israelite without guile.’  Such is the legacy of the Pharisees’ mis-education of their followers.   The Pharisees' exclusiveness and attitude of superiority had led them to become manipulative with an ‘agenda’ toward others, often with the aim of maintaining a separation from the 'unclean'.   Jesus made the point in this beatitude that spiritual leaders must be pure of heart, utterly without guile, if they want to fulfill God’s wishes. 

“Blessed are the peacemakers”.  When resurrected Jesus appeared after the crucifixion he stated at one point, “Peace be with you.”  (Luke 24:33)  God created man to be peaceful and peaceable.  Jesus desires humanity to make its way back to this state.  He expects His human leaders to be men of peace because they cannot lead others to peace by being otherwise.  The implication is that the Pharisees  lacked a peaceful nature.  They engendered into the populace the constant anxiety of figuring out if one had fulfilled the law.   The Pharisees were hardly peaceful with their practice of running around telling people that they lacked holiness if they failed to uphold some rule that the Pharisees had made up.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake…,”and “blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my [Jesus’] account”.  Jesus, of course, knew what was to transpire at the hands of the Pharisees and those they influenced – his own crucifixion and the persecution of His followers.  He taught that a believer in God must be prepared to face such persecution to bring about God’s kingdom.  In blessing those who are prosecuted He was preparing them for their purpose and also warning the Pharisees that their intent to kill and disrupt his followers was known, and thereby exposed. 

Fulfillment of the Law

Continuing his exhortation, Jesus goes on to explain, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets;  I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  (Matthew 5:17)  This statement was an answer to the Pharisees’ criticism that Jesus did not obey the laws, that He wanted to do away with them.  Jesus made clear that He not only is for the laws, He is for what is behind them: compassion and action motivated from the heart, in a word, righteousness.   He made sure the fundamental nature of this point was understood by saying to the multitude, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:20)

Jesus elaborated by illustrating how the law is fulfilled from the heart.  He recited the commandment thou shall not kill, but explained that what is in the heart is what calls for judgment.  He pointed to anger in the heart as an example.  Similarly He noted that prohibition of adultery is in the law, but He cautioned that lust in the heart is evil.  He made contrasts in other examples between what it means to formally observe the Pharisee traditions and to observe them from the heart.  His examples include the formality of divorce and the reality of separating what God had united, swearing falsely and speaking honestly, and the Pharisee penchant for revenge and the love that is in one's heart, including love of one's enemy.  

Jesus then turned to an outright attack on the Pharisees, repeatedly calling them hypocrites.  He said that their piety, praying, and fasting were for others to notice.  He accused them of collecting treasures, warning them that they cannot serve both God and mammon.  He said that they are full of darkness and therefore anxious about life, food, drink and clothes. Jesus reminded them that one should rely only on God.  “But first seek his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours.”  (Matthew 6:33)

He went on to denounce the Pharisees for presuming to judge others when they have so many faults of their own, citing the well-known analogy of having a log in their eye when they try to take a splinter out of someone else’s.  Instead of judging others He called on the Pharisees to observe the golden rule.  

He finished his oration by telling his listeners to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”  (Matthew 7:15)  Can there be any doubt what group He meant by 'false prophets'?  To call them 'ravenous wolves' was the talk of all-out war.  He told his followers to enter the kingdom of heaven by the narrow gate, implying that Pharisees’ lack of a genuine piety will not bring them to heaven. 

In summary:  Jesus' sermon on the mount illustrated that Jesus had drawn a line for all eternity between the kingdom of God and the Pharisees' outlook on life.  The sermon backed up His whole orientation to expose the Pharisees' evilness and hypocrisy to the masses of the Israelites, to demonstrate by words and example how God’s people should conduct their lives.  He underlined repeatedly that no similarity existed between the Pharisees' teaching and what God wants.  He said the Pharisees are pompous, prideful, anxious for recognition, hypocritical, ritualistic, evil-doers, lustful, full of darkness, ravenous and covetous of wealth.  His condemnation could not have been more thorough.

[The next part of this series will examine what Jesus says about the Pharisees in Matthew 23.] 

What Did Jesus Say about the Rabbis' Predecessors? Part One: Why Did Jesus Appear?

The Old Testament records several statements by God about the place of the descendants of Abraham in the world.  Perhaps the quote that best tells us what God expected is found in Exodus 19:5-6:  “If therefore you will hear my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my peculiar possession above all people:  for all the earth is mine.  And you shall be to me a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation…”

The message seems clear.  If the Israelites would listen to God and do His will, they would be His chosen ones who would have the mission to be priests to all peoples.  The Israelites were given the awesome responsibility to lead humanity to holiness and to God Himself.

God made this statement when the world was mired in paganism and various forms of Satanism.  Only a certain segment of the Israelites had a rudimentary comprehension of the nature of God.  He expected the Israelites to continue to develop their understanding by listening to Him and His prophets.  Doing so they would become the teachers and religious leaders of all other peoples.  The goal was to bring humanity step by step away from its diabolic post-fall past.

The Israelites’ mission was thus paramount:  to prepare the Kingdom of God on earth by making believers of its inhabitants.

The Israelites needed help, of course, because they too already had experienced excursions into paganism, notably during their exile in Egypt.  Other deviations into paganism were to come.  Our compassionate God stood by the Israelites, though.  He gave them the Ten Commandments and a body of rules to overcome temptation.  God preferred, however, that the Israelites live by faith and not to rely on laws and rules.  The prophets repeated this desire, Jesus expressed the same thought throughout his ministry, and  St. Paul elaborated on it in his letters.

Despite God’s generous efforts, the spiritual leaders of the Israelites were recalcitrant in absorbing and implementing the mission given to them.  They detoured into legalisms.  They accepted God’s gift of divine commandments and then incredibly became legalists, lawyers, who lived by the rules devoid of the compassion and love that God is. This detour grew more and more serious until the Pharisees at the time of Christ had developed a whole catalog of man-made rules that took precedence over God’s intentions and word.  The Lord was to comment bitterly and often on this priority of rules ahead of piety.

The Israelites under the leadership of the Pharisees failed to be the priests to the rest of the world.  Instead the Pharisees led them into an attitude of exclusiveness.  The Israelites (who evolved into the members of the tribe of Judah) saw themselves as the holy ones and scorned everyone else.  Instead of setting an example to others to help them to understand God, the Judaic leaders saw themselves as the God-chosen ones and saw non-Judaic peoples as unclean and to be avoided, even shunned.

Thus, God’s mission to the children of Abraham was perverted into its very opposite.  Instead of priests to the world, the Pharisees and their descendants made themselves into an legalistic arrogant elite who deplored those to whom they were supposed to be ministering.  In short, they became racial and theological supremacists.

God had repeatedly urged the Israelites to remain separated to maintain their holy purity.  He pushed in this direction not just for the sake of purity.  He wanted them to  be pure so that they could be more effective priests.  God intended for purity to lead to the development of authoritative and powerful leaders who could set an example that humanity would not miss.  The Israelites led by the Pharisees, however, separated themselves and lost sight of the reason for the separation.  They became only purists in the formality of the law.  They even took upon themselves ‘to improve upon’ the rules that God had provided,.  They developed a whole body of laws, rules, and oral traditions that contradicted God's desires and had little to do with His intentions.

Jesus’ incarnation was undoubtedly prompted by the Israelites’ perversion of their God-given mission.  Jesus came to try to save them from disaster.  He wanted to show them once again what their mission really entailed.  God had invested centuries of work in His chosen people and now Jesus came to make a last ditch effort to save them and return them to God’s favor.  

Jesus' statements indicate that He knew that the Pharisees had already evolved so far from God’s will that trying to save them was hopeless during His ministry.  Jesus therefore went over the Pharisee’s heads directly to the Israelites (Judaics) to offer them the opportunity to piously respond.

Jesus continually set an example for how the Pharisees should act, but He also simultaneously began developing an alternate pathway to the Kingdom of God.  He set about to form the nucleus of His future church that would have to take over the mission betrayed by the Pharisees.  Jesus spent three intense years teaching his disciples and followers what they would have to know to carry out this new task.

The four Gospels of the New Testament record what Jesus taught in these three years.  That teaching has at least two levels of meaning.  His words and example contain a universal meaning in faith and devotion to God that was designed to aid His followers over the centuries in building His church.  But, also, those words and example were meant to show the Pharisees what they were doing wrong.  Jesus’ entire ministry was in a way directed to the Pharisees and their followers to try to get through their hard heads and hearts to show them how a priestly nation ought to act. 

In his final words in Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus spelled out what a priestly people ought to do, “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…”   This entreaty set the church into being.

The Pharisees did not fail to see Jesus’ purpose.  They understood clearly that everything Jesus said and did challenged their privileged position and (erroneous) ideas.  The Pharisees refused to see who Jesus was and to learn from Him.  They tried without success to tempt, corrupt and refute Jesus.  Unable to disprove or assimilate Him, they decided that their only course of action was to get rid of Him.  And so they turned Jesus over to the Romans where they denounced Him to enable the crucifixion.

When the Pharisees arranged the killing of the Son of God, they definitively set themselves on a path of supreme diabolic evil.  Jesus, of course, foresaw their destiny.   A review of what Jesus said about them can help us learn today what He foresaw long ago about the Talmud and its Judaic believers.  Subsequent chapters will examine this topic.