Thought for the day
Leadership is an issue in our world today: home, work, society, church. Two of our readings are quite stark critiques—the priests in the temple and the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. There’s plenty to reflect on for us today. Jesus does offer an alternative and we see that alternative in action in the second reading. Paul was a passionate pastor, who clearly loved those he served and gave himself fully to them and for them. He could be upset, as well, and angry at times, but always because he cared so deeply. For most of us not in leadership, the question is how can we help those in leadership to fulfil their role in a gospel manner? ove our neighbour. Love is not only the truth about human beings but also the truth about God, who is love itself.
Prayer
Good shepherd, bless the shepherds who care for us in your name. Help us also to know how we can enable truly Christian leadership in our time.
Gospel
Matthew 23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat; 3 therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it, but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. 4 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. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 6 They love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them rabbi. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. 9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father, the one in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Initial observations
The risk of a reading like this is to leave it comfortably in the past or to apply it to others in the present. In any case, nothing to do with me/us!!! There is also a risk that we may feel quite uneasy with the blunt attack on the Pharisees, given the history of Christian treatment of Jews. Even though this kind of writing undoubtedly encouraged later antisemitism, nevertheless, such critiques can easily be paralleled in the biblical prophets.
Kind of writing
Our reading comes from the fifth narrative section of the Gospel. The usual pattern is found: a narrative (19:3-24:2) followed by an extended discourse (24:3-25:46). The narrative unfolds in two parts as follows:
19:3-20:34 Household teaching
19:3-12 Divorce
19;13-15 Children
19:16-20:16 Money
20:17-28 Servants
20:29-34 Heart of discipleship
21:1-24:2: Judgment in the present
21:1-11 Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem
21:12-22 Day 1 in Jerusalem
21:23-24:2 Day 2 in Jerusalem
Day 2 follows this sequence:
21:23-23:39 Entering the temple
21:23-22:46 Jesus’ authority
23:1-39 Against the Pharisees
24:1-2 Leaving the temple
Chap. 23 itself breaks into the following moments:
vv. 1-12 To the crowds and the disciples
vv. 13-36 To the scribes and Pharisees
vv. 37-39 To Jerusalem
It is worth remembering where Matthew is coming from. Writing for a seemingly prosperous community in Antioch in Syria made up of Jews and Gentiles, Matthew is in competition with the “synagogue across the road.” The very sharp critique would in that case reflect the fact that the “Christian group” had only recently broken away from the parent religion. The bitter taste of a fresh schism may be detected in the writing. While there is some parallel material in Mark 12:37-40 and Luke 20:45-47, Matthew 23 seems to be largely the composition of the evangelist. Finally, the lectionary offers us vv. 1-12. Vv. 1-7 criticise the ostentation of the scribes and the Pharisees, while vv. 8-12 offer guidelines for distinctly alternative behaviour.
Old Testament background
On phylacteries
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut 6:4–9; cf. Exodus 13:1-10, 11-16; Deut 11:13-21.)
On fringes and tassels
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. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and you shall be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God. (Num 15:37–41; cf. Deut 22:12.)
Did Jesus wear such fringes?
Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak. (Matt 9:20)
After the people of that place recognised him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed. (Matt 14:35–36)
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18:1–4)
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matt 20:25–28)
New Testament foreground
Did Jesus wear such fringes?
Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak. (Matt 9:20)
After the people of that place recognised him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed. (Matt 14:35–36)
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18:1–4)
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matt 20:25–28)
St Paul
But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relationship to God and know his will and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, and if you are convinced that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth– therefore you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonour God by transgressing the law! For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Rom 2:17–24)
Brief commentary
Verse 1 The audience of this first section is identified.
Verse 2 It is unclear whether the seat is literal or metaphorical. Either way, it was a position of authority.
Verse 3 The authority of the Pharisees is (perhaps ironically) acknowledged and then Jesus notices the gap between saying and doing. Such a charge could be levelled against spiritual leaders of the time, such as the scribes or indeed the popular philosophies. There is a difficulty with the command to listen to what they say because elsewhere in Matthew the contrary is recommended as, for example, in Mt 15:3-9 and 16:11-12.
Prophets occasionally use such reverse commands to make their point more sharply. For example, the biting invitation of Amos: Come to Bethel—and transgress; to Gilgal—and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; bring a thank-offering of leavened bread, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel! says the Lord God. (Amos 4:4–5; cf. also Jeremiah 44:25-26.)
Verse 4 This is not unknown in other traditions! Contextually, the historical Pharisees were trying to bring the holiness of Temple into people’s everyday lives, by means of many rules and regulations. Such detailed prescriptions could easily end up on the obsessive end of the meticulous. Contrast Mt 11:28-30.
Verse 5a A general principle is given before the examples which substantiate it. Such hypocrisy is a risk affecting all religious external practice. Cf. Mt 6:2-6. A section of the Talmud was devoted to “the plague of Pharisees” in which one type is identified as motived by show. “King Jannaeus said to his wife, ‘Fear not the Pharisees and the non-Pharisees but the hypocrites who ape the Pharisees.’” (Talmud Sotah 22b.).
Verses 5b-7 The list is comprehensive, moving from personal appearances, to social engagement and ending with interpersonal interaction. The Pharisees were genuinely held in high esteem and the temptation to enjoy such status would have been great. A farmer in Doneraile once put it it to me thus, “we put priests on a pedestal and they enjoyed it.” Rabbi was generic before the fall of Jerusalem but after ad 70 it tended to be restricted to religious teachers.
Verses 8-10 The Matthean church has an embryonic structure made up of scribes (13:52; 23:34), prophets (10:41; 23:34), sages (23:34) and teachers (28:20; 5:19). People in those positions are warned here not to take titles like rabbi, father or instructor. Of course, the roles had to have names—so that people can refer to them. Furthermore, if we called absolutely no one “father” we simply would not be able to call God our father. Again, Matthew has taken aim at the leadership, no doubt including himself.
Verse 11 This teaching is found in the instructions on discipleship (see above). Leadership in the Christian context is always meant to be service, not power.
Verse 12 This verses then summarises the teaching in vv. 8-10 and looks back over vv. 1-12 as a whole. The proverb was known also in the popular philosophies of time: Zeus humbles the exalted and exalts the humble according to Diogenes Laertius (ad 180- 240).
Pointers for prayer
1. When our actions match our words about gospel values, then our words carry more weight. Recall people whom you admired for this quality. Perhaps your own experience at times confirms this.
2. Jesus also has hard words for those whose priority lies in cultivating flattery and attention. Even for the people honoured such words and gestures can have an empty feeling. How much better for us to be comfortable in our own skin, recognising our goodness, and acknowledging our limitations.
3. Our passage ends with a paradox. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. For Jesus, the way to greatness and a full life is through service of others. When have you found the way of service brought unexpected rewards?
Prayer
Sovereign God, we have no father but you, no teacher but Christ.
Conform our lives to the faith we profess, preserve us from arrogance and pride, and teach us in Christ the greatness of humility and service.
We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen
