Blinded by Self-Righteousness

Matthew 21:23-32

As we return to Matthew 21 this morning, we find ourselves at a watershed moment.

The pressure is turned up, the gates open, and they release the flood of hard words of Jesus toward the self-righteous religious leaders, culminating in the dividing line created by the judgment he pronounces on them, and the tears He pours out over Jerusalem at the end of Chapter 23.

Jesus, through His actions, teachings, miracles, and parables has been pointing to His Kingdom, and Matthew is seeking to draw the reader to the person of Christ so they would believe but also to be equipped to make disciples of all the nations.

But Jesus isn’t always overt. He displays, proclaims, and speaks of His Kingdom in sometimes very subtle and strategic ways.

And here in our text today, we come to another classic clash of the righteous One and the self-righteous ones, the holy and the ones who think they are holy.

The self-righteous chief priests and elders who are so sure of themselves and are no doubt shocked by what Jesus did the day before by clearing out the temple, have their blindness of the authority of Jesus revealed. Their blindness causes them to miss the Kingdom of God.

Main Point: Self-righteousness is a disease that blinds us and will cause many to miss the Kingdom of Christ, but trusting the person of Christ alone brings the healing we need.

Let’s contrast the symptoms of this disease with the perfection of our savior. The self-righteous…

Care about credentials, but Christ Cares About Heavenly Reality vv. 23-25

I’m gonna tell you something that may be shocking. You may not even believe it. But I cannot dunk a basketball. My mom and dad bought a new basketball hoop for my kids and I lowered the hoop real low and Good news, I can dunk! See, I can’t dunk a ball, what I can do, is lower the hoop to give the allusion that I’ve achieved the standard.

This is what we’re seeing take place in these first few verses. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day have imposed upon God’s law a bunch of merely human standards. The hoop of God’s law was far to high, but they liked to lower and soften the standard. So human credentials and human education was everything to them. It gave an illusion that they were obeying God’s law and they were truly holy.

The priorities of the Self-righteous (Read vs 23)—Picture what’s happening. The man who just condemned the faulty worship in the temple by wrecking havoc on the outward practices of the people, walks right back into the temple.

The religious leaders might think, the nerve of that guy!

So they walk right up to Jesus, right in the middle of his teaching, and they blurt out, “By what authority…?”

They were seeking to trap Jesus. To them, credentials matter. “Why were you storming through the temple like that? Who gave you the right?”These priests and leaders could probably point to some rabbi that they apprenticed under.

They could probably point to their pedigree and education which drives the things they do. They were hoping to hear the same from Jesus. They were essentially asking 2 things—What kind of an authority did Jesus have to teach, heal and clear the temple? Was it earthly in nature? Was it heavenly? and where did said authority come from? Who gave it Him?

Maybe they thought that if he appealed to an earthly authority, they would be able point out how He was wrong, if He appealed to heavenly authority, they could accuse Him of blasphemy and accelerate His execution right then and there.

In doing this, we see their hypocrisy and self-righteousness. The justice of God fell right upon them as Jesus called out their worship problem, but instead of thinking, “Was Jesus right?” they turned it around and said, “Who gave YOU the right?”

This is how it is with self-righteous today.

People care very much about their credentials and we let this seep into the church.

People show up the very first week: Well, of course I should be added to the music team, i’m the best at what I do.

Don’t you know i’ve studied at this school and that school?

Or I know this happens and maybe will happen as a pastor: You call someone out on their sin or give counsel they don’t like—what’s the response? “Where did you go to seminary? Well you know my uncle’s cousin’s brother went to seminary and showed how the greek says that my sin isn’t so bad.” As if that’s even a talking point in the conversation.

We like to be appear as self-sufficient. We appeal to traditions, forgetting that Scripture holds ultimate authority. We appeal to our expertise, forgetting that experience isn’t the same as effective humble, service. We appeal to letters after our name, not realizing that education is not the same as wisdom.

We can create illusions of holiness all day long, but God sees to the heart.

The Priorities of Christ (Read vs 24-25)

Jesus prioritized other things, heavenly things. The self-righteous religious leaders ignored Jesus’ righteous judgement. He simply quoted God’s law to them which they should’ve been familiar with, but instead of receiving what Jesus says and coming to Him in repentance, they dig their heels in and their first thing to do is to appeal to earthly wisdom and challenge Jesus’ authority.

But as we see here in Jesus’ response that He is both strategic, and focused on what is most important.

Christ answers a question with a question. Very classic as you read through the gospels. And it’s conditional, if they answer His question, He will tell them about the nature of His authority.

If you look at Jesus’ question closely, you’ll notice what He sees as supreme so as to reveal the blindness of the religious leaders.

He’s pointing to his cousin, John the Baptist. John came to Israel as a fulfillment of God’s promise to send a prophet/forerunner who would prepare the way for Christ. He prepared the way by calling the people of Israel to repentance. It was during John’s ministry that Jesus came to Him to fulfill all righteousness and be baptized Himself.

So Jesus challenges them with this question of what KIND of baptism John had. and as we’ll see later, they didn’t want to admit that it was from heaven—That He was fulfilling God’s role and God’s command.

Notice the parallel—Jesus is asked what KIND of authority He had and points to the KIND of baptism John had but what the religious Leaders don’t see is that by talking about John’s baptism He essentially answers their question. Because the consensus back in this time, as the texts subtly points out, is that John was a prophet sent from God. So Jesus is in a sense revealing that His authority is from His Father in heaven. But they’re blind to this kind of parallel.

Self-righteousness makes man the focal point, but the Spirit of God exalts the person and work of Christ.

True faith, true hope must never be in how educated one is or what kind of credentials they possess. The heavenly authority of Christ and His revealed Word is what we must prize and cherish—But when we’re self-righteous we point to ourselves and what we possess so that many will see how great we are. Jesus is revealing that heart in His opponents today.

Shift attention to others, but Christ reveals the heart vs 23; 25b-30a

Notice again with verse 23—Instead of dropping the gavel upon themselves and dropping to their knees upon feeling the weight of their condition, they stand tall and point the finger elsewhere.

The conversation should’ve been about how deeply they need repentance but they make the conversation about Jesus instead.

This again Reveals the utter blindness of a self-righteous, legal spirit.

When we’re putting trust in our own goodness, our own ability to improve our own lives, our own accomplishments, we tend to shift the blame to others.

It’s utter self-righteousness, and self-reliance to never admit that we’re the ones in the wrong.

The non-christians you share with in the street, they’re fine talking about God, they’ll gladly pontificate about the meaning of the universe and the grandure of a higher power, but as soon as you seek to have them to admit they’re a sinner in need of a crucified savior, they have the greatest resistance. And what’s sometimes the hardest push back? “Well, i’m not as bad as my neighbor. Well, who are you to tell me this? You have no idea what i’ve been through, don’t try to judge me!”

This goes back to the very first sin at the very beginning. Adam, unable to reckon with His own failings, seeking to cover himself up, he shifts the focus—”The woman you gave me, Lord!”

And we do it too, don’t we? I know i’ve done this.

In a fight with my wife, instead of owning what I need to own as far as my own sin, I’ve said, yeah I maybe shouldn’t have said that but YOU…”

Or in the church, when someone calls you out on your sin, or when, unbeknownst to the preacher, the Holy Spirit names your sin from this very pulpit, your first thoughts go to not to how heinous and offensive your sin is before God and how you committed spiritual adultery on the love of your soul, but you go to how your friend needs to hear this. You immediately think, yeah, but thank goodness i’m not like that guy.

But here’s Jesus’ tactic. He doesn’t let the self-righteous lay comfortably in the bed of their self-reliance. He reveals the heart.

Jesus reveals the heart. Look at the last part of of verse 25

He challenges them, not with the answer to their question but with his own question about the baptism of John. What was the origin?

and the religious leaders discuss amongst themselves—If we say from heaven, then he’ll come back at us with “why didn’t you believe Him?” but if we say from Man, the people will get after us because they think John a prophet! Alright, we got this, here’s our best answer: We don’t know. What did they think would happen?

Jesus tells them, well then I won’t tell you the origin of my authority.

The Gospel of Matthew: The Triumph of the King, (Matthew 18–28), Volume 2: An Expositional Commentary The Challenge to Jesus’ Authority

This was not an evasion on Jesus’ part. It was a brilliant exposure of the leaders’ moral bankruptcy. They were asking by what authority Jesus was doing what he did, asserting their ability to judge in his case. But they were forced to confess their inability to make a judgment in the case of John the Baptist and therefore in Jesus’ case as well- Boice

Here it is—Boice says it well. Moral bankruptsy and inability to make a judgement.

They are too blind to see that John’s baptism was from God, and Jesus reveals the heart to show that they are too blind to see that Jesus’ bears a divine authority.

See this is what we mean this morning by spiritual blindness. That can be somewhat vague when we speak of this. And I acknowledge that word is not in the text, but this is demonstrably seen in these leaders. The bible elsewhere calls the self-righteous blind guides. Spiritual blindness is a condition that we primarily attribute to non-Christians. It’s moral and spiritual condition of the heart.

It’s when the heart cannot conceive of the glory and beauty of Jesus— they cannot favorably look at Christ, His Kingdom or His law. A Spiritually blind person is lost, having absolutely no ability to remedy this condition unless divine grace comes in and opens their eyes. But the scary part about this kind of self-worship, is that it can work for a time. It can fool a lot of people and even give some kind of impression of morality.

But you look a little closer and you recognize it’s been mere words, and outward practices that they’re doing really well at that have been added on to the law of God, but they’re not the law of God. They’ve lowered the hoop and they’re dunking all day long and everyone around says, “WOW!”

A similar kind of blindness, the Bible indicates elsewhere, can actually show up faintly in true believers as well! As Christians, the grace of the Holy Spirit applied Jesus Christ to our souls so as to remedy, for eternity, our condition of blindness. But because we’re not yet perfected, the blind spots come from time to time. Our spiritual eyes are not yet perfected. Thankfully as believers in the church, Christ is committed to revealing our self-righteousness, cleaning the filth out of our eyes, and giving us the good lens of His word to look through.

Often how he reveals hearts is through a parable—a story with a deep spiritual meaning, normally missed by those who already have hard hearts—Jesus now tells a parable, a parable of two sons. (Summarize vs 28—30a)

He’s revealing the heart by showing a contrast between two kinds of people—Those sinners who at first say they won’t go to the vineyard, and then repent, and those who speak great words of obedience, but do not repent.

Speaking of words, that leads to the next symptom, our next point…

Mask their condition with words, but Christ prioritizes repentance & faith vv. 30b-31

The religious leaders no doubt are seeing themselves in this story.

He challenges them with another question: which one these two sons did the will of their father?

But notice the answer: (Read vs 31)

They know the right answer. They know who it is who do the will of the Father.

The self-righteous often manifest their condition by saying the right things. In this story, without hesitation they look at God’s law and they say, “I will go!”

But the problem is, though they prop themselves up to be teachers who can announce great truths with next to perfect oratory skills, they never follow through with true faith. The object of their faith and thus the object of their worship is always the same: It’s themselves.

I love how Paul reasons with self-righteous in Romans 2—It’s brilliant

English Standard Version Chapter 2

know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth

He goes on to say, you say “do not commit adultery” Do you commit adultery? You’re against stealing, do you steal? You who boast in the law, dishonor God by breaking His law—Do you see the logic?

You say you’re a guide to the blind, but guess who’s blind? It’s you. You say you’re a light in the darkness, but you’re the one in darkness! You say you’re an instructor of the foolish, but who has become the fool? You have.

We see what Christ cares about? we see in our text that it comes down to the object of our faith.

So often we manifest things with our words because words are easy. And subtly, if we’re not careful, we can have faith in our words or professions but we haven’t transferred our total trust to Christ, throwing ourselves completely upon His mercy for His righteousness to cover us. We have faith in faith, rather than faith in Christ. I seek to still establish my own righteousness even by my words. I know I fall into this.

Even for the kids in the room, right? How many times have you done what this passage lays out? Have your parents asked you to clean something or get something done and the first response is, “Yeah, I’ll do that, mom/dad.” Only for your parents to come back two hours later to find your room not cleaned, or the trash not taken out?

But here’s the contrast, Jesus prioritizes true repentance and true faith that receives Him. In the later half of verse 31 Jesus points out that those who are considered outcasts, are brought near to Christ in His Kingdom.

The Kingdom of God has been defined as God’s rule through God’s people over God’s place. And this Kingdom has been inaugurated or has begun now, with the first coming of Christ. Christ is revealing His Kingdom through changing hearts by His work on the Cross. This Kingdom will one day be consummated when He comes again for His own and makes a new heaven and new earth.

He does this by working in them true repentance and faith. We said last week that someone can be sincere in their faith, but their faith can be resting on the wrong thing.

And Matthew’s whole point in composing this gospel account is that those who read, both jew and non-jew would see Jesus, place their whole trust in Him, and repent of their sins as they feel the weight of God’s law.

Jesus is hinting at the upside down nature of His Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is not something we achieve by our own goodness and our own acts of submission to the King, but it’s for those who acknowledge that they have not submitted well enough. They have not pledge allegiance genuinely enough. Doesn’t Jesus indicate this? He didn’t come for those who think themselves to be righteous, but for the unrighteous. Not for those who are well, but those who are sick.

But the condition of these leaders is worse than we thought…

Are intentionally blind, but Christ rejoices in the repentance of the weak vs 32

(Read vs 32) We noted earlier how they are intentionally blind, they knew the right answer to the parable. They knew that those who do the will of the Father is not those who just talk a great talk, but those who follow through with true repentance & faith.

Jesus in our final verse today reveals to them John the baptists true origin and in doing so, he ties this whole exchange all together by showing the next layer of their blindness.

Not only did they know they answer to His question earlier, but the next layer of blindness is that they are intentionally blind.

their spiritual condition is not merely an ignorance of the Word of God or of God’s promises, but that when God begins to fulfill those promises through the sending of John and the transformation of sinners, they still don’t believe. Their blindness is an intentional blindness.

It’s like when I was at in-n-out with my family this last Thursday. My Mother-in-law asked for iced tea while she was in the car and I walked in and was staring at the drink options. I took out my phone to call my wife and tell her, hey, there’s no iced tea here. And I’m the worst at looking for things and her response was, “Johnny, may the Lord help you.” and I was like “What?!” And then… I saw the iced tea… right in front of my face. It would be different next time if I went in and did the same thing again—this is intentional blindness now!

The religious leaders like the cold darkness their blindness brings. They find comfort under the blanket of their own goodness. But in doing so, they look with disdain on those tax collectors and prostitutes who come to Jesus for forgiveness and repentance.

Look at the contrast. Jesus rejoices over the lost who come to Him in repentance. No matter how vile, no matter how weak. They outpace the religious leaders who think they are holy and they enter the Kingdom.

Conclusion.

Do you feel vile, you feel like a sinner? Own it! You are! but Jesus Christ loves to save sinners! You feel shame? Good news, God in His love sent His own son to bear that shame on the cross and cover you with a righteousness not your own. By His resurrection from the dead and His defeat of sin, you have freedom. This is all yours if you embrace Him and entrust yourself to him by believing and changing your mind about your sin and His law.

But Oh, Self-righteous one. I turn to you. Do you feel confident in yourself?

Do you prioritize earthly credentials over eternal things?

Do you shift the attention to others instead of looking within to see your condition?

Do you like to mask your condition with many nice words and fine speech?

I want you to think of the worst person in your life. the person you just can’t stand. The person who has done the worst things to you. I want you to now picture that person embracing Jesus Christ with a repentant heart, and the arms of the Father being opened to them. I want you to picture rejoicing in heaven over that person. How does that make you feel?

Do you inwardly shake your head? Do you get angry? Do you hope that never happens? When sinners come in from off the street and they were to repent and believe, do you look on with the raised eybrow? This is the legal spirit. This is intentional blindness. When God brings a sinner to Himself and we sit back and say, “We’ll see. Let’s see how they perform. If they perform like me they should be fine.”

I call you today, to repent, self-righteous, self-sufficient man/woman.

The remedy for both the legalist who is trusting their own works and the vile sinners is exactly the same. The playing field is leveled. Recognize that you are NOT Self-sufficient. Take that burden that you are carrying, that burden of keeping up a veneer of your own righteousness and goodness and cast it at the foot of a blood stained cross where our Savior bled for the needy and the ungodly. That burden is so only that it will drag you down into hell. Cast it off and see how He, the only righteous one to ever live, became sin, took the burden that we might be declared truly righteous.

This Kingdom is not achieved. No, it’s received through faith. Today, self-righteous one, and one burdened with the filth of your sin can recieve the Lord Jesus and be set free. And you believer can find rest in your soul once again. Self-righteousness is a disease that blinds us and will cause many to miss the Kingdom of Christ, but trusting the person of Christ alone brings the healing we need.