November 5, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "Woe unto You, Scribes, Pharisees, and Hypocrites!"
Scripture: Matthew 23:1-12
(Other lectionary suggestions include Joshua 3:7-17, Psalm 107:1-7 and 33-37, and I Thessalonians 2:9-13.)
Matthew 23:1-12
Jesus Denounces Scribes and Pharisees
1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; 3therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. 4They 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 5They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 6They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, 7and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. 8But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. 9And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11The greatest among you will be your servant. 12All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Often in my sermons I have tried to stress that the Christian church has always said that Jesus was fully man as well as fully God. It is my opinion that we believers have preferred the fully God part and not the fully man part. And I have sort of taken it upon myself to emphasize the human side of Jesus lest we forget that he was like us in that he felt pain, felt grief, and YES, even felt ANGER! Look at today's Scripture lesson: I'd say Jesus sounds a little angry, wouldn't you? I mean, how do you call a bunch of people hypocrites with a smile on your face? You CAN'T! And in today's lesson – from Matthew 23 - I think we see a frustrated, angry Jesus. Matthew's Gospel has 28 chapters, and we're at Chapter 23......so not too far from the end. My own feeling is that Jesus knew that he didn't have a lot of time left, he knew a Cross awaited him, and maybe he was somewhat frustrated that what he was saying was not getting through. If you have a different opinion, that's fine. I'm giving you mine right now.
One of the things that really stuck in his craw was hypocrisy, especially the kind of religious hypocrisy that was big on SHOWING how religious one was when down deep he didn't give a rip about the true plight of others. Earlier in Matthew, Jesus quotes the prophet Hosea when he tells his listeners, “Go find out what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’” Jesus shows that he's in the Old Testament prophetic tradition in quoting Hosea, because that prophet and all the others were concerned about BEHAVIOR during the week and not just how observant you were on the Sabbath. In other words, don't simply wear your best clothes to church or synagogue on the Sabbath.....and then tell your neighbor to go to hell the rest of the week! Your actions toward your fellow man during the week should mirror your devotion to God on the Sabbath.
What was so "bad" about the Scribes and Pharisees? Not all of them were, but a lot of them get some "bad press" in the New Testament, especially in their dealings with Jesus. Why? One reason is that their idea of being religious differed from Jesus's idea. Most of the scribes and Pharisees were quite legalistic in their approach, and Jesus most certainly was NOT. The scribes and Pharisees, for example, thought that being religious meant the keeping of the minutia of the Law. There were over 600 rules to be kept, and Jesus countered with TWO: Love God, and Love your neighbor. And then he said, “On those two Commandments hang all the Law and the prophets.”
I think the point is that if you spend all your time trying to figure out what is permitted and what is NOT permitted, you will forget to be compassionate. And what is the point of religion if being compassionate isn't part of the package? Jesus makes that clear in the Parable of the Good Samaritan as told in the Gospel according to Luke. The two guys who pass by on the other side instead of helping the severely-beaten traveler aren't bad people. It's just that they knew they would be defiled by touching a dead body, and you couldn't be defiled if you were on your way to the Temple! That's a RULE that they were concerned with. And not a bad rule! In ancient societies antibiotics were not available to clear up disease - and the only way to stay clean was not to get infected or defiled in the first place. But look what happened: a Samaritan - a HATED Samaritan, I might add! - felt compassion toward the half-dead man and saved his life. And his compassion might have gotten him into trouble! What if the guy was only PRETENDING to be hurt, and once the Samaritan stopped, jumped him, and hurt or robbed him? When you are compassionate, you might take a risk. And what about the possible FINANCIAL risk the Samaritan took? He bound up the wounded man's cuts and bruises and took him to an Inn and told the innkeeper to take care of him and even gave him some money up front. “I'll be back,” he said. And he told the innkeeper if he spent any more money than what he gave him, he would repay him whatever he spent. What if the INNKEEPER was a crook and said he spent money on the wounded man that he didn't actually spend? When you are compassionate, you may take all sorts of risks.
Anyway, Jesus was about compassion first, not keeping a bunch of rules. Yes, we need laws and we need rules. But the first thing we need to be is compassionate. Jesus had HEART; the scribes and Pharisees did not. For them, loving God meant the impossible task of keeping all the rules. For Jesus, loving God meant to be compassionate, and to love one's neighbor, regardless of what he looks like or what his religion is or what his ethnicity is. Or how STUPID the traveler was for traveling that dangerous road between Jerusalem and Jericho ALONE! Jesus had had it with the scribes and Pharisees and anybody else who claimed to be religious without showing compassion. Maybe THAT is why we feel his anger in today's Scripture reading!
One more thing: the last portion of today's Scripture reading mentions mint, dill, and cumin. What is Jesus getting at? The Jews of Jesus's day were urged to give away 10 percent of their earnings to the Temple. We Christians today also try to give away 10 percent, or a "tithe". What Jesus is accusing the scribes and Pharisees of doing is giving away a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, which were SPICES, really Unimportant things to take a tenth from - and they ignored the REALLY important stuff, such as justice and mercy and faith!
THAT's why Jesus called them hypocrites: they pretended to do one thing, but actually did the other. They were so interested in keeping the RULES - give away a tenth of everything, even the stuff in the kitchen spice rack! WHO CARES, Jesus almost seems to be saying. Aren't there more important things to give away than spices (mint, dill, and cumin)? And yet you are so BLIND to what is truly important, says Jesus.
No wonder Jesus was angry, and sad, too, probably. The scribes and Pharisees were so stuck on keeping the RULES, which were man-made and not from God, that they quite literally had become idol-worshippers. They now worshipped what they themselves had created: those darn RULES. And that idol-worship had taken away any compassion they might have had for human beings, God's children. How sad when ANYBODY is so obsessed by his own creation that he forgets to respond with compassion to creatures that God created. Sorry! A sad ending to a sad sermon. Amen.
Pastor Skip
