Year 2, Week 37, Day 1 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 37, Day 1

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Mark 12; Matthew 23.

Today’s reading consists of accounts from Matthew and Mark detailing several instructions from Jesus as well as interactions between Jesus and several different groups. Jesus has entered Jerusalem with much public praise, but that soon turns hostile as the Jewish leadership challenges Jesus’ authority. This hostile reception prompts Jesus to once again teach in parable. Mark 12, which parallels much of the previous day’s reading from Matthew 22 as well as a few elements from today’s reading of Matthew 23, however, Mark’s Gospel account includes a different parable then Matthew’s account (a parable that is found in Matthew 21): “And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country” (Mark 12:1). Most likely, several parables were told in this context, but neither Mark or Matthew recorded all of them. As with most of the parables told during the week leading up to Jesus’ death, this parable describes obstinate workers killing the master’s son: “He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours” (Mark 12:6-7). Matthew 23 records strong words by Jesus denouncing the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees: “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” (Matthew 23:13).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was Jesus’ unwavering and unequivocal assessment of the Jewish religious establishment: “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice” (Matthew 23:1-3). Some of what Matthew reports is expressly said to the Scribes and the Pharisees, and some is said about them, but what unfolds in Jesus’ scathing denunciation consists of pronouncements of “woes” and charges of hypocrisy. A “woe” is a warning and a rebuke. The woe says God will judge, and yet there is time to avert judgment. The Scribes and the Pharisees enjoyed immense influence over the Jewish people as they claimed the authority of Moses. But they become Jesus’ most vocal opponents because His teaching undercut their oral traditions and threaten both their authoritative position and their esteem among the people. Jesus recognized their official capacity to teach Scripture in a proper manner; but Jesus condemned them when they incorrectly interpreted the intent of the Scriptures and inappropriately supplanted its sole authority.

Jesus states several fundamental problems with the Scribes and the Pharisees. First, they fail to do what they say. They are hard on others but lenient with themselves. They say what must be done and do none of it, as if the saying were enough: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.” It is the disconnect between what they say and what they do that legitimizes the charge of hypocrisy: “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!…Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!…Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (Matthew 23:13a,15a,23a). A hypocrite can be someone who says one thing but does another. Oftentimes hypocrisy is deliberately deceptive, but there may be a sense in regard to the Scribes and the Pharisees that they are not fully aware of their hypocrisy. Their rigorous religious activity has blinded them from doing the proper thing: “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…For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” (Matthew 23:15b,23b-24).

Jesus addressed a couple more fundamental problems with the Scribes and the Pharisees. The Scribes and the Pharisees burden others with their regulations but would not lift a finger to assist them “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger” (Matthew 23:4). Jesus’ teachings consisted of hard sayings that were challenging to obey, but Jesus offered aid: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30); and Jesus offered kindness: "a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench” (Matthew 12:20, quoting Isaiah 42:3). The Scribes and the Pharisees also sought recognition and honor: “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others” (Matthew 23:5-7). While Jesus calls for humility and servanthood: “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:10-11).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe