33. Matthew 23-25 (1) Jesus’ Final Discourse
With chs.23-25 we have Jesus fifth
and final discourse in Matthew. Wright summarizes where we have come so far:
“In all of this, Matthew is saying, we are to regard Jesus as being
like Moses, only more so. Moses (they believed) gave the people the five books
of the law; Jesus gives them the five books of the new covenant, the new
relationship between God and the world. Moses brought the people through the
desert and led them to the point where they were ready to cross over the Jordan
and go into the promised land. Jesus is leading his people through the desert
to the point where he will lead them through death itself and on into the new
world which God is going to make. Only, unlike Moses, he won't stay on this side
of the river, leaving someone else to take the people across. He will go on
ahead, like his namesake Joshua, and lead them himself into the new world.”[1]
Jesus started his kingdom ministry
with a description of flourishing life within it unfolded in eight stanzas
(5:3-12). He concludes it here with a series of eight “woes” against Jerusalem,
the temple leadership, and a prediction of the destruction and the city
(chs.23-25). The end has come, in very different sense for both Jesus and
Israel. The die has now been cast. The covenant faithlessness of the vast
majority of Israel, made evident in their rejection of Jesus, has apparently
crossed a threshold from which there is no return. Thus Jesus, as a prophet
greater than Moses, announces that the curses of the covenant (Dt.28) have come
upon the leaders of the people and those they were supposed to have led. Jesus
knows these “fightin’ words” he delivers will lead to his demise. But beyond
that, also to resurrection and new life. They also mean death for the nation,
the end of their viability as God’s Abrahamic people. But beyond that the
raising up of a new Abrahamic people (Jews and Gentiles). But for now, death is
front and center for both.
As we have seen earlier, the main
difference between Jesus and the Pharisees was not attention to the law (though
it is often posed that way as legalism vs. grace). But Jesus claims to promote
a righteousness greater than that of the Pharisees that attends to every detail
of the law (5:17-20). Both wanted to prepare Israel for the return of their God
to them. For the Pharisees, however, that entailed ever more careful attention
to keeping torah, especially those provisions that distinguished them as Jews
from Gentiles. For Jesus attention to torah meant loyalty to him as the goal of
torah, both its source and true interpreter.
And in rejecting torah’s true source
and interpreter, the Pharisees and other religious leaders have grossly violated
the covenant and proved the nation they lead to be the Egypt Matthew styled him
as in ch.2. Opposed to God and his ways they receive the fate such people are
promised. And Jesus delivers it in a rhetorically hyper-charged way.
His angry invective here, worse
than what we have seen earlier, testifies to the gravity of this moment and Jesus’
discernment the die had been cast both for him and for them. Leithart notes the
progression of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew through three stages[2]:
-He teaches the
way of life;
-when the Jews
resist, He begins teaching in parables;
-when they plot
to kill Him, He denounces them with woes.
At this point Jesus is the prophet
condemning incorrigible covenant-breakers announcing the curses for such on them
(a lá
Dt.28).
Jesus
Curses the Scribes and Pharisees (Mt.23:1-36)
Rationale
for Jesus’ Curses (Mt.23:1-12)
The heart of Jesus’ critique here is
couched in language reminiscent of the Sermon on the Mount: particularly hypocrisy
(6:5-18; 7:24-27); and failure to practice servanthood and family Jesus-style. His
condemnation of calling them rabbi, teacher, and Father (vv.8-9) is not a
repudiation of these offices as such but of their distortion for personal aggrandizement
by these leaders. Jesus condemns them for refusing to live as the Jews were divinely
intended to live and, thus, failing to bear the blessing of God to the world as
God’s Abrahamic people. “The greatest among you will be your servant. All who
exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted”
(v.12) is the summary rationale.
Eight
Woes (Mt.23:13-33)
Jesus pronounces eight Beatitudes
in the Sermon on the Mount and he matches that here with eight curses on the
scribes and Pharisees.[3]
Beatitude #1 is “Blessed are
the poor in spirit” which opens up the Kingdom to the poor. Woe #1 is against
the leaders who have shut the poor out of the Kingdom: 13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do
not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
Beatitude #2 is “Blessed are
those who mourn” for they will be comforted. Woe #2 is against the leaders who
distressed the mourners rather than comforting them: 14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you
devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore, you
will receive greater condemnation.
Beatitude #3 is “Blessed are
the meek” for they will inherit the earth. Woe #3 is against the leaders who
were not meek, but pompous fanatics who encompass the earth with their show: 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you
travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one,
you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”
Beatitude #4 is “Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” for complete satisfaction. Woe
#4 is against the leaders who make up a false righteousness by trickery: 16 Woe to you, blind guides, who say, `Whoever, swears by the
temple, that is nothing; but whoever, swears by the gold of the temple is
obligated.’ 17 You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or
the temple that sanctified the gold? 18 And, `Whoever swears by the altar, that
is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.’ 19 You
blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies
the offering? 20 Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the
altar and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple, swears both
by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven,
swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.
Beatitude #5 is “Blessed are
the merciful” for they will receive mercy. Woe #5 is against the leaders for
omitting mercy altogether for things of lesser importance: 23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe
mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the
law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should
have done without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides who strain out a
gnat and swallow a camel!
Beatitude #6 is “Blessed are
the pure in heart”. Woe #6 is against the leaders who were spotless on the
outside and without purity on the inside:
25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of
the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and
self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and
of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
Beatitude #7 is “Blessed are
the peacemakers”. Woe #7 is against the leaders who are full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness: 27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are
like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they
are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you, too, outwardly
appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness.
Beatitude #8 is “Blessed are
those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness”. Woe #8 is against the
leaders because of their actions of being the persecutors against Kingdom
people: 29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build
the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say,
`If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been
partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify
against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32
Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you
brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom
you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue
from town to town, 35 so that upon you may come all the
righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of
Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the
altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this
generation.
1st
Woe (v.13)
Just as Jesus promised the kingdom
of heaven to the poor in spirit in the Beatitudes (5:3), here he condemns the
scribes and Pharisees for not entering that kingdom themselves, not leading others
into it, and blocking those who try.
2nd
Woe (v.14)
This verse, omitted in the NRSV,[4]
reads “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’
houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive
greater condemnation” (NKJV). Craig Keener explains what “devouring widow’s
houses” might mean:
"’Devouring widows' houses’ may refer
to sponging off others' hospitality . . . or it may refer to exploiting legal
loopholes to their own advantage. Because widows might lack powerful legal
advocates, their property was more easily seized by persons of status . . . Jewish
hearers would in any case regard it as a terrible crime (e.g., Ps 146:9; Prov
15:25; Is 10:2; 2 Macc 3:10-13 . . . Jewish law demanded favorable treatment
for widows, but some scholars probably did take advantage of them.”[5]
Widows were among “those who mourn”
(5:4) and needed comforting. The scribes and Pharisees, at least some of them,
did the opposite, however, and earned Jesus’ prophetic censure for it.
3rd
Woe (v.15)
The scribes and Pharisees drive to
proselytize drove them to scour the world for recruits. But instead of leading
those converts into the kingdom of heaven, they make them fit only for hell.
4th
Woe
N. T. Wright explains the bottom
line of this woe:
“Basically, he accuses them of getting things the wrong way round.
They are valuing the gold above the Temple, and the gift above the altar. They
are placing higher worth on the objects that human beings have brought into
God's presence than on God's presence itself. But if the gold and the gifts mean
anything, it's because the Temple and the altar mean something. And they mean
what they mean because of God's promise to be present there. In other words,
the teachers are taking God's name in vain. They are guilty of breaking the third
commandment. And they are covering it up with slick arguments about what counts
and what doesn't.”[6]
5th
Woe
Here Jesus condemns the scribes and
Pharisees for majoring in minors while forgetting the majors. Twice Jesus has
told us in this gospel how close mercy is to God’s heart (9:13; 12:7). But
mercy along with justice and faith these leaders have neglected in their
scrupulosity to keeping the lesser matters of the law. When Jesus requires an “excessive”
righteousness of his followers in 5:20 it is this sort of thing he has in mind –
exceed the majoring in minors by majoring in both in proportion to their importance
in participating in God’s work in the world.
6th
Woe
If purity of heart (the 6th
Beatitude) spoke to a single-minded commitment to and pursuit of God’s kingdom,
the scribes and Pharisees are full of “greed and self-indulgence” while professing
to be wholly in for God.
7th
Woe
This woe is similar to the last one.
The inside is a direct contradiction to public appearances. But here, in tune
with the corresponding Beatitude, “blessed are the peacemakers,” it’s the (mis)treatment
of others that seems at issue here.
8th
Woe
As the last Beatitude spoke of the
persecution of Jesus’ followers as of the prophets of old, this woe condemns the
religious leaders for carrying that woeful practice to its sad end (v.32). The “righteous
blood” of those so killed testify against them and their fate shall overtake them
in “this generation.”
Jesus Weeps over
Jerusalem (Mt.23:37-39)
In contrast to his scathing
denunciations of its leaders, Jesus tenderly and passionately expresses his concern
for the nation. “There have been,” Wright tells us, “recorded instances of a
mother hen, faced with a fire, collecting her young chickens under her wings to
keep them safe. Sometimes she is successful: when the fire has done its worst and died
down, you may find a dead hen with live chicks underneath its wings.”[7]
That is just the image Jesus uses here, casting himself as the mother hen desiring
to shield her hens from the coming trouble. But they would not have it and
their house is left desolate.
The temple is that house left
desolate. And the temple is the sign of God’s ultimate purpose. The pointer to
the reality of God’s universal presence in his creation with his creatures in
loving fellowship. The Jews, Abrahamic Israel, were the bearers of that promise
for all humanity. Their failure catches up the totality of human failure to be
who they were created to be since creation. That’s why Jesus mentions the blood
of Abel. In judging Israel, and redeeming Abrahamic Israel through that
judgment God redeems the world and restores it to his ultimate purpose for it. But
that temple and its people must be judged. And that judgment pains Jesus (and
God). And that is its immediate prospect. And it leaves Jesus yearning that
things had gone differently for the people and for him.
To that judgment we turn next in
ch.24.
[1] Wright, Matthew for Everyone: 98.
[2] Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew: 2712.
[3]
https://timtimmons.com/8-beatitudes-8-woes-2/.
[4]
This verse is omitted in the NRSV because some major
manuscripts omit it and Matthew does not include the Widow’s Mite episode in
his gospel. Other manuscripts retain the verse. I incline to keeping it based
on the parallel with the 8 Beatitudes.
[5] Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew,
864.
[6] Wright, Matthew for Everyone: 102.
[7] Wright, Matthew for Everyone: 109.
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