CONFRONTATION AND COMPASSION
BLOG HOST, 9-29-2010
HOST: JAY MARTIN
Matthew 23:23-39
23"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
Here, Jesus compares the ritualistic holiness from keeping technical portions of the law, which are easy to see and regulate, such as whether tithing on grown spices is occurring, but over-looking the hallmark principles of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. How could one count themselves as holy because they dropped a peppermint in the offering, and oppress the poor? Yet, that was what Jesus was pointing out was being done by the religious leaders. They worry about a tiny bug like a gnat, straining it out to make sure they didn’t swallow or ingest it in some way. Yet, while doing this, they swallow a camel. They have lost touch with the spirit behind the law.
25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Jesus begins two points of confrontation with the religious leaders. He calls them out for external holiness and internal darkness. Inside, they were full of greed and self-indulgence. Jesus tells them to repent, from the inside out.
27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
In this second confrontation, Jesus compares the external righteousness of the religious leaders to that of whitewashed tombs. They look beautiful, but regardless how good they look on the outside, inside they are full of dead men’s bones, and unclean things. This is a major indictment on the religious leaders. They look good, but inside, they are not righteous at all. Instead, they are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Jesus pulls no punches in taking on the religious leaders.
29"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 31So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
What a paradox. The religious leaders built monuments to the prophets, who indicted the religious leaders of their day in the way that Jesus was indicting them. They would never dream that they would do what their forefathers did, and yet they were getting ready to not just kill a prophet, but the Messiah Himself. Jesus says they will fill up the full measure of the sin of their forefathers. The sins of their forefathers still lacked a little room in the glass of murder and rebellion. Yet, after pouring in their murder of Jesus, the cup would be full.
33"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
Jesus calls the religious leaders snakes. I think back to the Garden of Eden—the snake is the one who caused Eve to eat, tempting her. The religious leaders are also causing people to eat of the forbidden fruit of disobedience. Jesus cries out—how will they escape hell? This was a serious matter. I believe Jesus is so confrontational for three reasons: 1. Those listening needed to hear God’s real heart about worshipping Him since the religious leaders were not presenting it; 2. Jesus knew that He was recklessly abandoned to God’s purpose, and after this confrontation, they would move to fulfill prophecy; and 3. Some of the religious leaders might yet repent. Jesus is like a surgeon who is radically removing a tumor. The tumor here is sin, and Jesus makes no apologies for presenting the truth clearly to the religious leaders. It is only through confrontation that they can escape hell.
34Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
Jesus finishes confronting the religious leaders by pointing out the sins of their forefathers and their sin, as well. In crucifying Jesus, they would become guilty of the righteous blood of every other martyr killed by their forefathers. They will continue the trend, but this time, they are killing God the Son. Imagine that. God sent Jesus to confront their sin, and instead of repenting, they kill God. This is amazing to me, and I have never thought about it on these terms. But they had to make no mistake, the truth had been explicitly made clear to them.
37"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 38Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'[d]"
At the end of the confrontation, we see Jesus with a broken heart. He is crying over Jerusalem—He is crying over every lost Jewish soul residing in the city. I believe after these strong words, He is also crying over the unrepentant hearts of the religious leaders. We see the tender side of Jesus after the confrontational side. It is God’s desire to gather His chosen people close to Him in intimacy, and yet, they refused to be gathered. Because of that, their house would be left desolate. Jesus came to Jerusalem—God Himself visited them, and they missed their visitation. Jesus would not return until the Triumphant Entry, and then He would be crucified at their hands.
How do we handle Jesus? We all have tendencies like the religious leaders. It is easier to kill the work of Jesus in our lives than to radically repent, and be transparent. My prayer is to be authentic—for Jesus to live vibrantly in my life, for the Holy Spirit to reside without measure. We have to kill that tendency of ours to be like the religious leaders—we have to crucify our flesh daily, as Paul said.
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