TEXT: The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew 23:1-13

This passage has been considered one of the most hard hitting passages in all of Holy Scripture. From my perspective, I have always read this passage with a seriousness that did not easily gloss over any of its central points.

We dare not gloss over any of the points that Jesus makes here, even though the time we have is limited to address them today..

The Lord Jesus Christ shows here the severe side of Divine Justice (Righteousness) that is a hard hitting condemnation of the Pharisees of his day for failing to live up to their own teachings.

It is the passage that indicates in no uncertain terms that God does not like hypocrisy!  This has the strongest message for those in our midst today who proclaim themselves to be Christians, yet, fail to live according to the light in Christ that they have.

Yet, in speaking this way, Jesus shows us Mercy in allowing the hearers of these words to experience and decide upon repentance.  In short, we are re-echoing the call of James to become doers of the word and not hearers only. . .(cf. Epistle of St. James chapters 1,2).

1 Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples,
2 "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat;
3 so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.
4 They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.

The authority of the Pharisees was never questioned by Jesus.  They were part of the hierarchy of the religious leadership of the Jewish nation.  Their leadership task was difficult, because Rome had bound the people up into political knots, and the religious of the Jewish people were accommodatingly trying to survive that occupation force from Rome.  The Pharisees thought that by applying interpretations of the Law (Torah) in the manner Jesus describes, ["They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders;"] they were preserving what God had delivered to the Hebrew people of old.

However, the Lord Jesus sets the record straight here.

Jesus shows all by his very life and ministry that what God has actually delivered through Moses was not binding laws and rules that tied people up in knots like the Roman laws.  The Divine goal in Jesus would be that Mercy desires to and does DELIVER people from their sins.

The Pharisees from a theological viewpoint would have agreed with our Lord Jesus on many points.  Yet, their practical theology had fallen on "the hardness of their hypocritical lives."  Tragically, this is the problem for most people today.

Many seem to go to great lengths to do anything to keep from practically living out the Gospel’s call (vocation) fully!

Their PRACTICAL living falls on the hardness of where they live, and their "fallow ground" must be broken up in order to plant the seeds of the truth where Mercy can take hold and fruits can be born out in real life.

It was "Hosea" --> a most similar name in meaning tothat of  "Jesus," which said in Hosea 10: 10-12, also speaking to the same classes of people in his day in Israel (bold italics mine) --

"I will come against the wayward people to chastise them; and nations shall be gathered against them when they are chastised for their double iniquity. Ephraim was a trained heifer that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will put Ephraim to the yoke, Judah must plow, Jacob must harrow for himself.  Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain salvation upon you."

What a passage, beloved!

STEADFAST LOVE is "chesed" in the Hebrew and is exactly the opposite of how the Pharisees were acting toward the people under their care.

Their hearts were hardened in hypocrisy, and the "fallow ground" oftheir hearts needed to be plowed by Judah.  Interestingly, it was Jesus, from the tribe of Judah who was plowing when he spoke this message to the Jewish people here.

Jesus was their Salvation, and he still is for all who will come to him in faith through baptism.

In other words, when we come to Mercy for Salvation, we are called to Righteousness and a life of  praxis that follows the life of Jesus Christ!

There is more.

5 They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,
6  and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues,
7 and salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men.
8  But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren.

At issue here is the intent and motives of the Pharisees.  Their FOCUS was on the selfish, according to the words of Jesus.  They wanted to be seen of men.  They wanted fame and popularity.  He knew their hearts and their hearts were on doing -- "all their deeds to be seen by men."

Broad phylacteries were not the problem.

Sitting in the first seat and place of honor was not the problem.

Being called "rabbi" was not the problem.

The real problem was that they "LOVED" it (their areas of selfishness) and were not practicing "STEADFAST LOVE," the chesed of God toward God and others according to Deuteronomy 6: 4,5 and Leviticus 19:18.

Instead they were manufacturing ways to control the people through their applications of the Law that Moses wrote from the hand of God.

They were not pastoring the sheep, they were pestering the sheep!

The sheep were their brethren and they were binding greater burdens upon them than God had commanded.  The Lord Jesus re-emphasized the LIVING of the LAW by behaving rightly toward HIS BRETHREN in the words -- 8  But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren.

Jesus was the RABBI on that day, the "one teacher."

By emphasizing this issue of  PRACTICAL LOVE and not self-aggrandizement, Jesus spoke to the issue of HUMILITY in these examples that follow,

9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
10 Neither be called masters, for you have one master, the Christ.
11  He who is greatest among you shall be your servant;
12  whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

See the direction?  St. John Chrysostom was quoted by St. Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on Matthew XXIII as saying -- "The Lord had charged the Scribes and Pharisees with harshness and neglect; He now brings forward their vain-glory, which made them depart from God."

This is the direction then,

Call no man father on earth, not even our parents?

Call no one master, not even the boss of the job?  Or, the master teacher?

No man?  No one?
What is the issue?

We have our Father who art in heaven!  No man can usurp the authority of God the Father!  The Pharisees had done this.  Jesus was setting the record straight.

It is the greatest among men who will be the servants among the people of God.

JESUS completely turns the world upside down.

The person who exalts himself by motive and intent shall be humbled.

The person that does the opposite of the Pharisees of his day, will be exalted!

Jesus was the Supreme Example.  He is exalted!

Following Jesus completely, the Mother of our Creator, Mary, was the perfect example of the virtue of  humility we should seek in becoming as the chaste virgin (cf. II Cor. 11:1-6) and spouse of Jesus -- Mary is our "Mother of Humility."

Therefore, she has been exalted in her Assumption and Coronation, the Queen of Heaven!

What glories await us if we follow in the footsteps of Jesus and Mary, forsaking the paths of the Pharisees?

Mercy calls us to the vocation of being authentic in our Christianity.

How shall we walk then?

Shall we walk as Jesus and Mary did?  Or, shall we follow the bad examples of the Pharisees and come to find out what God really thinks about hypocrisy?



Deus et Sanctissima.