^{Matthew 23:13-39}

¹³ “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. ¹⁵ 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.

¹⁶ “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.’ ¹⁷ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? ¹⁸ 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.’ ¹⁹ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? ²⁰ So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹ And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. ²² And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

²³ “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. ²⁴ You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

²⁵ “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. ²⁶ You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

²⁷ “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. ²⁸ So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

²⁹ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ 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.’ ³¹ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. ³³ You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? ³⁴ 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, ³⁵ 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. ³⁶ Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. ³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸ See, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” ^[i]

This section seems to cry out for another illustration from CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Mr. and Mrs. Beaver tell the four children that Aslan (the Christ-figure) is a lion, Susan replies, “Ooh! . . . Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” “That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there is anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.” “Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy. “Safe?” said Mrs. Beaver… “Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”[ii]

I think the church today has lost some of its sense of what it means to worship the Lion of Judah. We may believe that he is good. We may believe that he is king. But we don’t always understand that a good king doesn’t always mean a safe king. When was the last time you came before Jesus in private prayer or public praise with your knees knocking?

This text is an experience of the gentle presence of a fearful king. This sustained denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees is the rolling thunder of Christ’s wrath. They are like thunder in their unanswerable severity, and like lightning in their unsparing exposure. They light up the night while they strike. And yet the only image we see of him in this terrible text is not that of a storm or a lion, but that of a mother hen, an earthly feminine image for the heavenly Son:

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

Jesus is The Lion King. Jesus is the mother hen. Those two images blend perfectly together in the God-Man Jesus Christ. If we miss that mixture, we will misread and misapply this knee-knocking, anything-but-safe passage.

PROPER READING

At the time of Jesus, the Jewish religious authorities could be divided into four major groups: the priesthood (comprised of the priests, chief priests, and high priest), the religious parties (the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians), the scholars (the scribes), and the Councils (the local synagogue councils and the supreme council, called the Sanhedrin). In our study of Matthew we have already met many of these men; by the time we are done with Matthew, we will have met them all. Here Jesus singles out the two most influential groups upon the populace—the scribes (the expert Bible teachers) and the Pharisees (the super-spiritual Bible keepers). They are the “you” in verse 13 and throughout. Every “you” and “your” is about or includes them.[iii]

Because Jesus is not directly addressing you and me, this text has been abused by many throughout Christian history. The “you” (“y’all”) here has been over applied against the Jews. Adolf Hitler quoted this text in Munich on April 12th, 1922, as part of his anti-Semitic campaign. However, God does not intend that we use this text to spread the poison of Nazi racism. Jesus was a Jew. He was not fighting against the Jews. He came to fulfill their law, not to abolish it. He came for them and for their salvation. His heart’s desire was for them that they would be saved (Romans 10:1). We see that quite clearly in verse 37. However, we also see his judgment, not based on race, but on their unbelief and violent rejection of God’s servants and of God Himself.

This text is not directly about us, but about the scribes and Pharisees. Nevertheless, it is indirectly about us since all human beings are born into the condition of Adam’s sin and we all naturally behave in the same way toward ourselves and toward God. Picture yourself standing behind Jesus as he confronts them. Behind them is a mirror in which we see the face of Christ looking at them and beyond them, to us his people. We will use his seven woes as our warnings, in which we find four categories.

THE FIRST WARNING

The first warning is against zeal without knowledge. In Romans 10:2, 3 Paul writes of his fellow Jews—those who have rejected Jesus, “I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” Paul goes on to say that righteousness comes through faith in Jesus as Christ and Lord.

In 23:13–15 Jesus starts with a similar assessment, adding a more severe judgment. In the Old Testament the phrase “woe to you” is almost always used of divine judgment. Jesus speaks not merely like the prophets of old— railing against Israel’s hypocrisy —but like God himself, pronouncing a judgment upon apostasy. Thus says the Son of God: 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. (vv. 13, 15)

With each woe Jesus paints a vivid word picture. Picture of a door. It is the door to the Kingdom of heaven. The scribes and Pharisees stand at this door though they refuse to enter. What is worse, when people are about to walk through it, these self-appointed doormen close the door in people’s faces. They perform this evil thinking they are doing something good. They believe they are protecting wandering souls from this fake Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

The second woe also exposes their zeal without knowledge. Not only do they block the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven, but they also “travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte,” and they make this one convert “twice as much a child of hell” (23:15). They shut people out of heaven and open the trap door to hell. And their followers fall further into their false teaching. Their converts double their zeal and fall further into their false teaching.

In Hosea 4:6a the Lord says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Don’t underestimate the importance of right knowledge in the church, and don’t underestimate the danger of uniformed enthusiasm. Matthew has made his Gospel clear on who Jesus is and what he has done. If we run to the mission field without first bowing before Jesus as Lord and without knowing what his Law and gospel are that we are to teach others, we are in danger of falling into the same pit as the scribes and Pharisees did.

The scribes and Pharisees had religious zeal. Mormon missionaries have religious zeal. Muslim jihadists have religious zeal. Religious zeal is not an indication of truth. Woe to us if we have zeal without knowledge. We need both.

SECOND WARNING

The second warning is against majoring in minors, found in verses 16-24. Jesus attacks their legalism of taking oaths. Regardless of the intent of the oath, if the words are not perfect in every detail, the oath is invalid. The same is true for their tithes. They tithe the herbs from their herb garden but neglect the matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It’s not that they should neglect the lighter things, but that they ignore the larger commands of the law. In doing so they strain the gnat but swallow a camel! Both were unclean animals under the Mosaic Law and consuming them would be a defilement (Lev. 11:4, 23, 24, 41).

They strained their wine through muslin cloth to avoid accidentally consuming small insects. But their lack of love and humility made them ignore the needs of the blind, the lame, the poor, the starving. So, they might as well have had a giant camel feast! God values the heavy commands of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness (23:23). He still values the lighter ordinances as well, such as tithing even from an herb garden and taking oaths.

Just like last week, their big mouths come into play. The word “swears” is used seven times here and the word “say” is used twice. Again they are talking while devaluing plain talk and true talk, and they neglect doing what God most wants done: loving God and neighbor.

As the church, we are to major in the majors, without neglecting the minors. Tithing matters. Truth-talking matters. What you do with your money and your mouth matters. But what matters even more is “the weightier matters of the law”—what Jesus lived out and calls his followers to embody— “justice and mercy and faithfulness” (v. 23; cf. Micah 6:8; Zechariah 7:9). The love of neighbor: be fair and merciful toward all. The love of God: be faithful to him and all his commandments.[iv]

THIRD WARNING

The third warning is against outward appearances. In verses 25 through 28 Jesus thunders and strikes:

²⁵ “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. ²⁶ You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. ²⁷ “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. ²⁸ So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

The word “hypocrites” is used only 14 times in the New Testament, 12 of those here in Matthew, 6 of those times in our text, two of those times in verses 25-28. A hypocrite is someone who puts on a mask and pretends to be what he or she is not. In other words, it is pretending to be better than you are and performing for the approval of those around you. You want other people on your side so that you can prove you’re not as bad as your conscience and God’s perfect Law testify that you are. It relies on the public approval of the people around you as your justification.

Jesus gives two images of their outward false righteousness and inward festering. The first image is that of spotless dinnerware. They eat only from apparently-clean cups and plates, more appropriately “bowls and mugs.” They are meticulous about keeping the ritual purity laws. But they never clean what’s inside the vessels. Consequently, whatever new meal they add to their dinnerware is nasty because they’ve never bothered to wash the most important part of the dish. It’s a humorous and grotesque picture.

The second image Jesus gives is that they are “like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness” (23:27). In the springtime before Passover, it was the custom to whitewash the roadside tombs so no Pilgrim to Jerusalem would mistakenly touch a tomb and be rendered unclean for the seven days of the feast (Numbers 19:16). The outside of the tombs looks clean and minty white, but inside there is rotting flesh.

The warning should be obvious given the striking imagery: watch out for keeping up outward appearances while neglecting inward holiness. Pretending and performing before our neighbors does not fool God. It’s not that outward appearance doesn’t matter. It’s that it matters less than inward holiness. If our hearts are full of idols that we are certain will bring us contentment, then we are worshipping things and people other than God in the depths of our hearts. That is the rottenness of which Jesus warns. We grow mature in the faith primarily by seeing and repenting of our sin more quickly and trusting into Christ’s power more readily.

FOURTH WARNING

The 4th warning is against the inexcusable excuse of unbelief. In verses 29 through 36 we arrive at the final woe for them, which is also a warning for us. This is the 7th woe. The numerology might be intentional, as the number “7” symbolizes completeness or fullness and often appears in judgment texts (Genesis 4:24, Leviticus 26:18, Proverbs 6:31, and the Book of Revelation). These religious professionals have tried God’s patience.

The other detail to note as we read the text is the judicial language.

²⁹ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ 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.’ ³¹ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. ³³ You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? ³⁴ 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, ³⁵ 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. ³⁶ Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. ³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸ See, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

This final woe is chock full of courtroom imagery. Jesus is the divine judge, speaking here only as God would speak in the Old Testament. Jesus says he himself sent the prophets and wise men and scribes whom they and their fathers have killed. Jesus pronounces judgment in his own name, he speaks the judgment into existence so that it is certain to come to pass. He laments over the judgment, as he would have much rather gathered them all to himself as his beloved children. But yet again, the party poopers have refused the invitation and can only await the coming condemnation. The Christ has spoken not as a prophet speaking on behalf of God, but as God himself!

The Old Testament prophets were God’s prosecutors, calling Israel to account for the numerous ways in which they constantly broke their covenant with YHWH. In our text, Jesus puts them on trial for the crimes of unbelief and murder. They refuse to come to Jesus for life. Instead they put him to death, along with the prophets before him and the servants who follow him. Jesus pronounces them guilty as charged and promises them a flattened city and the ever-rising flames of hell.

The most serious charge, and the most pertinent warning to us, is that of unbelief. Trust into Jesus doesn’t matter because I say it matters. It matters because Jesus says it matters. If Jesus Christ said that he is “the way, and the truth, and the life” and that “no one comes to the Father [God] except through” trusting into him (John 14:6), I hold that statement to be true. I also hold it to be self-evident. I know by faith that Jesus alone satisfies the inquiring mind and heart because he alone—as the dominant theme of all revelation, the key to all of world history, the ultimate interpreter of God to men, and the final judge of the living and the dead—is the only remedy to the tragedy of sin and death.

The world around us hates the exclusive claims of Christ and Christianity. Some say, “A good God should let everyone into Heaven whether or not they believe in Jesus.” Others say, “A just God will at least let good religious people into Heaven.” But tell me, who exactly is Jesus judging here? He is judging men who regularly attended worship services, were overseas missionaries, made religious vows, tithed their income, meticulously tried every hour of every day to observe God’s Law, and even built magnificent monuments to the heroes of the faith.

Surely such people get into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus says, no, they don’t. Why? The answer is their crime of hypocrisy, pretending and performing. The answer is their murder of the Messiah. The answer is their rejection of Jesus as Christ— “you were not willing” (v. 37). Only the party-poopers go to Hell. And they go willingly, shaking their fists at God’s one-way love for all eternity.

Matthew didn’t include chapter 23 in his Gospel so we would be appalled at how un-Christian Christ acts. He wrote it so the church would listen afresh to her Lord’s woes as warnings, and so we might see Jesus for who he really is.

Is he safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you. He’s the good King who lovingly accepts and protects all who come under his wings for refuge. He is, in the words of Exodus 34:6, 7a, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”

^[i] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 23:13–39.

[ii] C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), pp. 79, 80.

[iii] O’Donnell, 684. Crossway. Kindle Edition.

[iv] Id., 688.