Hypocritical Modern-day Scribes and Pharisees
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Today it’s all about our hypocritical modern-day scribes and Pharisees. Recently I’ve noticed that a large number of our political and spiritual leaders have been claiming they’re Christians. They loudly proclaim themselves to be Christians, but in reality, they’re have been acting very much like the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes and Pharisees were the religious leaders in the Jewish community. They were religious and legal “experts” in first-century Judaism and were highly respected for their knowledge of the Law. The scribes were the professional interpreters and teachers of the Law, while the Pharisees were a political and religious faction known for their strict adherence to both the written law and oral traditions.
They were often in conflict with Jesus because of his teachings, which they viewed as a challenge to their authority and a departure from their emphasis on external rituals over inner righteousness. They’re hypocrites and Jesus calls them out. I believe it is our duty to do the same to our hypocritical modern-day scribes and Pharisees. These are the “leaders” of the faith. They are the pastors, the deacons, elders, Sunday school teachers, group leaders, and those politicians who claim to be “Christians” the governors, senators, representatives, school board members, any and all legislators. If they are what we call ‘legalistic’ and demanding, then they can and often are much like the old-school scribes and pharisees of Jesus’ time. If we understand what Jesus said about them, it will give us a much better understanding of how should think of them.
In Matthew 23:13-33, we find what are known as either the Seven or Eight Woes. In this section I believe that Jesus is dealing with two main themes. One is hypocrisy, which Jesus defines as a disconnect between a person’s outward religious practices and their inner reality. The other is his direct criticism of the Jewish leaders. Jesus directs his criticism toward the religious leaders of his day, the scribes and Pharisees, who held positions of authority but who have led the people astray.
One area that I’ve noticed over the years of study is how the 7 woes I want to touch on contrast with the Beatitudes we find in Matthew 5. Specifically, they highlight a difference between genuine spiritual living and the superficiality the leaders represent.
So let’s take a look at the 7 woes.
In Verses 13-14 we read, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven in front of people; for you do not enter it yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees for blocking people from entering the “kingdom of heaven”. It means they were preventing others from accessing spiritual truth through their own rigid and hypocritical interpretations of religious law, while they themselves refused to enter. They were preaching one thing but doing another and, in our world, today there are multiple examples of our political leaders doing just that.
Wondering if I know what I’m talking about, well pilgrims, let me give you just a couple of examples. In my home state of Texas the legislature has demanded that the 10 commandments be put in all schools, OK, well what could be bad about that? Many of those legislators don’t actually follow those commandments. In the most outrageous case, the Attorney General, who is threatening to go after any teacher or district that doesn’t follow his mandates, is being sued for divorce by his wife because of his multiple cases of adultery. I could go on, but let’s move to Verse 15 where Jesus says, “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.
I’m reminded of an organization called Turning Point which visits college campuses and tells young people that they should become Christians and many do. And that’s a good thing, but then they turn around and forget everything that Jesus taught about loving thy neighbor. They actively hate immigrants, they deny food to the hungry, and now they’re wanting to deny health-care. Meanwhile they seek power and wealth. They are proponents of Christian Nationalism, which says if you’re not a white protestant Christian you have no place in society. It is what led early Americans to try and wipe out the native peoples of the land and to grab all the land for themselves. Which takes us to Verses 16-19 “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.’You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold?8 And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the offering that is on it is obligated.’ You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering?
Now this one is for the prosperity Gospel preachers and teachers. They are the ‘name it and claim it crowd’. They believe that God is an ATM whose sole purpose it to give them wealth here on earth. So, they worship wealth, we see it, in our love of the billionaires that are currently running the country. In fact, one of them, Peter Thiel is going around preaching about the anti-Christ and how wealth is the answer to our problems and we need a one-world government lead by billionaires. They can’t say they believe in the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the prosperity Gospel because the two are complete opposites. They Verses 20-22 ”Therefore, the one who swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. 21 And the one who swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells in it. 22 And the one who swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.”
In other words, if you truly believe in Jesus and His message, these other false teachings have to go. Jesus reinforces how hypocritical they are in Verses 23-24 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin 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!
We see them all the time. They make a big deal out of pretending to follow Jesus, but they never really seem to do so. They forget the little people, they build mansions to themselves and leave their followers in hovels. I’m going to combine the next sets of woes; these are in verses 25-28 – tell me if you recognize any of your church leaders here.
First in Verses 25-26 “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 also become clean. And then in Verses 27-28 “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 people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Seen any mega-churches recently? You know the ones that look like stadiums or concert halls. Glitz and glamor, in fact, here in Texas there are two billionaire pastors, well actually there are several really rich pastors here in Texas, but at least two that I know of fund far-fight politicians. They actively use the earthly riches they’ve received by pretending to teach the Gospel to help enact laws that hurt the poor and the helpless. Now the last set goes back to what I brought up earlier about the current trend in the U.S. to put the 10 commandments in schools, to make every teacher use the Bible as a teaching guide, they’re all there only for show. Jesus was very much against doing that.
Verses 29-33 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 and you 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. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You snakes, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?
Now look, I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and I’ve done my fair share of sinning and not being a true ‘Christian’. The one thing I’ve learned over the decades I’ve been doing this, is that those who shout the loudest about the sins of others often are blind to their own. This is especially true of the church leaders. So I would suggest, that the next time your pastor, deacon, elder, political leader, or anyone in a position of authority tells you how to behave, please open up the Gospels and see what, if anything Jesus had to say about it.
I think that you’ll be surprised to find that by following the teachings of Jesus, you’ll end up more at peace, be a better parent, spouse, friend, or citizen of the world. God bless y’all and I’ll talk to you next time. This has been Living a True Christian Life.