The Root of Spiritual Hypocrisy

Introduction

Last week we talked about the idea that the scribes and Pharisees were attacked, assaulted, full bore by Jesus in this particular chapter in Matthew’s Gospel. These verses continue this assault and turns up the heat on them for their duplicitous lifestyle. Jesus brings seven woes against these leaders, excoriating them for their hypocritical way of living.

To fully appreciate the severity of Jesus’ words against the scribes and Pharisees, you have to read this in the context of the book of Matthew and the surrounding and following events. The Gospel of Matthew was written to convince the Jews that Jesus was the true Messiah. He was the long awaited for heir to the throne of David. He was the fulfillment to the promises of Abraham.

We know from Scripture that Jesus was the mediator of a new and better covenant. Consider (they being the Aaronic priesthood)

Hebrews 8:5–6 ESV

They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

Hebrews 8:7 ESV

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

So, in order to prove the necessity, the fulfillment of the new and better covenant, Jesus begins to show the futility of the old covenant and those who were in charge of the old covenant. And if you are going to institute a new system, a new way, a new change, you are bound to upset those whose wealth, whose prestige and self importance, are dependent on the old way. They don’t want or like this change. They like the power they derive from their positions they have carved out under the old system and how dare anyone come in and upset their status.

But Jesus does exactly that. And this passage is a reminder to us that a religion of works, of keeping rules and regulations, will inevitably fail. It is a reminder to us that you and I are kings and priests before God and we don’t need to rely on individuals for our salvation. And it again is a reminder to us that if we are not careful, we can allow hypocrisy, duplicity, to ruin our relationship with God.

And so, we get into the text, and we see

I. Seven Woes pronounced against the religious leaders. v.13-32

The word woe here is used to make a powerful, but imprecise statement about the unhappy situation a person may find themselves in. It is not an exultation of that person’s status, but it is to make clear that they are in a bad spot and they need to quickly turn their situation around. It is an appeal, in some instances, a plea for you to heed and act upon the situation you find yourself in. And look at the woes Jesus pronounces in this chapter

Matthew 23:13 ESV

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Jesus condemns the attitude of the Pharisees that sees Gentiles, that sees outsiders and says, you don’t belong in the Jewish faith. You don’t belong as a part of the chosen people of God.

Matthew Religious Leaders Sometimes Do More Harm Than Good (23:13–15)

Jesus first accuses these religious leaders of “shutting” off the kingdom, using the image of a majordomo, a prominent official who carried keys (16:19; Is 22:22; Rev 3:7). This may allude to scribes’ purported authority to “bind” and “loose” by their knowledge of the law (Mt 16:19), here used to hinder would-be followers of Christ (

Matthew 23:15 ESV

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

This seems kind of contradictory to the previous woe, but the Judaizers were in fact making converts. The only problem was, when they made converts, they did not convert them to the true Jewish faith, they converted them to their perverted ways of the faith. Their strict, legalistic life that they imposed on others was detrimental to that person’s soul.

Growing up in Kansas, we had no little exposure to the Westboro Baptist Church with their hate fill rhetoric and their bombastic signs condemning homosexuality. I like what Craig Keener put in his commentary about this. (One thinks by contrast of the stone-drunk man who told D. L. Moody, “I’m one of your converts,” to which Moody reportedly replied, “I can certainly see you’re not one of the Lord’s.”)

Craig S. Keener, Matthew, vol. 1, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), Mt 23:13.

Matthew 23:16 ESV

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’

When you think about this, you realize the absurdity of a person swearing by the temple. What good is it to swear by the Temple you can’t collect on that. But a person can perhaps collect on gold that a person dedicates to the Temple. Arguing from the lesser to the greater, Jesus reverses that position. The temple makes the gold sacred, and the altar the gift (vv. 17, 19); so swearing by temple or altar is a genuine oath, and a more meaningful one than swearing by gold or gift. Not only is the reasoning of verse 16 invalid, but the whole view is flawed, for it takes no account of God—who gives the temple and its contents their meaning (v. 21).

J. Knox Chamblin, “Matthew,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, vol. 3, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 751.

Matthew 23:23 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Mint and dill and cumin, little spices, little things, but you are so meticulous that you measure out the smallest of things in which to tithe, but you never consider justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

Matthew 23:25 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

We’ve done it more times than we can count. We unload the dishwasher, put the cup in the cabinet, and pull it out the next morning only to discover that food was on the inside. Outwardly, it was clean, it looked fine. But yet, inside it was full of filth.

Jesus makes the same comparison in verse 27.

Matthew 23:27 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

Arlington National Cemetary is beautiful, the tomb of the unknown soldier ceremony is special, the eternal flame of JFK, the challenger shuttle memorial, and yet, it is all a reminder of death.

Lastly,

Matthew 23:29 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,

The Gospel according to Matthew 2. Jesus’ Denunciation of the Pharisees, 23:1–39

Jesus asserts that they give their consent to what the former generations did, for where their forefathers killed the prophets this generation completes the work by building their tombs. While it is not spelled out in quite the same way here, it is this kind of thing that Jesus is saying. The actions of the Pharisees at the tombs of the prophets does not show them to be better men than those who killed those great men of God. Rather, it aligns them with those who put those prophets into their tombs: the prophet killers and the prophet buriers belong together. Their very preoccupation with the tombs shows that their real interest is in the interment of those men who spoke from God, not in heeding the messages they gave. Their actions show that they are the true sons of the murderers of God’s messengers. There is a solidarity between the killers of the messengers and those who attended to their tombs.

Jesus pronounces these woes and then he elaborates even further. He tells the Pharisees my second point today.

II. The Rejection of Those who Warn the Scribes and Pharisees. v.33-36

Jesus pronounces these woes and then he tells them that they deserve the damnation of hell.

Matthew 23:33 ESV

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

The reason they deserve the damnation of hell is found in verse 34-36.

Matthew 23:34 ESV

Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,

Matthew 23:35–36 ESV

so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

What Jesus is saying is this. God sent to the Jews prophets over and over again, calling them to repentance. God sent messengers time after time, repent, believe, turn from your evil ways, come back to me. You can read through the historical books, and see the prophetic warnings. Read through the major and minor prophets and see the warnings.

And God says, I’ll send you more. Prophets, wise men, scribes, people who will continue to come and warn you to turn and flee from your sinful ways, and guess what. You will do the same thing today that happened back then.

We see this happening in world today. We wan to condemn the sins of the past and in the process, we commit the same sins. We are guilty of that which we so vociferously condemn.

Jesus pronounces this woe, and then he issues a final note of condemnation and judgment.

III. Jesus’ Lament over Jerusalem. v.37-39

Jesus finishes with a final lament, a final word of warning and judgment against the people of Israel.

Matthew 23:37 ESV

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

Matthew 23:38–39 ESV

See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

In saying these words, Jesus declares, gives a forewarning of what we will see in the next chapter. The complete destruction of Jerusalem will be prophesied about in Matthew 24. This will occur in A.D. 70, as Emperor Nero lays waste to the city and many believe that it is the finality of judgment against a sinful and wicked people that reject him over and over.

We have these woes, we have the pronouncement of judgment, of future doom due to the failure to recognize who the Messiah was. This passage speaks to the people of Jesus’ day, and yet is here so that we might glean and learn from it. So the question becomes, what is to be found in this passage for us today?

IV. The Roots of Spiritual Hypocrisy.

A. The Roots of Spiritual Hypocrisy begin when we begin to trust in our works over God’s grace.

The message from this passage of Scripture becomes evident to those who would hear. And that is this. There is a grave danger when we begin to place our hopes, our means of salvation in our works of righteousness over the grace of God.

When we think that by doing whatever it is that we are doing, and that somehow means that God looks upon us with more favor, that God somehow smiles upon us because of our actions or efforts, we are in grave danger of falling into the trap of spiritual hypocrisy.

Look again at these woes. The Gentile was not to be considered part of the Jewish heritage, and yet God provided a way for them to come in. God’s desire, his heart is for the world, not just the Jew. And yet, the Jews shut the Gentiles out, ignoring the story of Ruth, of Tamar, of Rahab, and so on. WE do the same thing if we are not careful. That druggie, that broken family, that whoever, all points to the church becoming an exclusive club, filled with only the special ones.

Or we get so caught up in making sure that I am giving ten percent of my gross over my net income. We debate whether you should tithe your income tax refund, on and on in our precision to honor God with our tithes. And we neglect mercy, we forget about justice, we could care less about faithfulness.

Or we are so consistent about being here every Sunday. We think you should come. You should carry a Bible, you should dress up and look all pretty, but as the illustration goes, we’re screaming at our spouse the whole time on the way, and then we step out of the car and we’re the perfect, happy couple. Look at us.

B. The answer to rooting out spiritual Hypocrisy is turning again to Christ.

This is the answer. Looking at Jesus, looking unto Jesus, fixing our eyes on Jesus, understanding that apart from His grace we have absolutely nothing. All our righteous deeds are as filthy rags.

That’s what Jesus is saying here in verse 37.

Matthew 23:37 ESV

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

Paul, in writing to the church at Galatia is pointing out the hypocrisy of the ones who are telling the Galatians, you must be circumcised to be a Christian. The works of the flesh. Paul says they simply want to boast.

Galatians 6:14 ESV

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Years ago Michael English came out with that song that says,

In Christ alone will I glory Though I could pride myself In battles won For I've been blessed beyond measure And by His strength alone, I overcome Oh, I could stop and count successes Like diamonds in my hands But these trophies could not equal To the grace, by which I stand

In Christ alone I place my trust And find my glory In the power of the cross In every victory Let it be said of me My source of strength My source of hope Is Christ alone