Matthew 23:23-28

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Introduction

23 “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. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

25 “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. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

27 “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. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Over a month ago we started in on chapter 23 of Matthew’s Gospel, and today we pickup where we left off in the last half of the chapter, beginning in verse 23. There are seven oracles of judgement that Jesus pronounces over the scribes and Pharisees here in chapter 23 (notice Jesus’ use of the word ‘woe’), and we’re going to look at three of them today, the fourth, the fifth and the sixth. And Lord willing we’ll round out chapter 23 in our next time together with the 7th, and final oracle.
Now, before we look closely at the 4th oracle, let’s step back and take a minute to recall what’s come before it and lead up to it. We’re jumping into the middle of Jesus’ most scathing indictment against Israel’s religious leaders. In many respects chapters 21-23 are the climax of Jesus’ confrontations with the Israel’s leaders, particularly the scribes and Pharisees. It takes place during the Passover week, and only a few days before his crucifixion, one could argue that Jesus’ words here in chapter 23 are what finally get him killed, that they provide the final push for Israel’s religious leaders to deliver him over to Pilate.
It’s also chapter 23 that will set the stage for Jesus’ famous Olivet discourse in chapter 24, when Jesus sits down with his disciples on top the Mount of Olives, adjacent to the Temple Mount, to describe the coming judgement and tribulation against Jerusalem. That even many in their own generation will see these things come to pass, and that the Christians in Judea must remember to flee to the mountains when they see these things happening. And it’s chapter 23 that provides the grounds for that coming judgement, it’s chapter 23 that tells us why Jerusalem will suffer judgement, because they have rejected their Messiah, putting him even to death. It’s these statements of woe that describe God’s charge against Jerusalem’s religious leaders. It’s what he holds against them.
And while their rejection of Jesus is the chief reason for God’s judgement against them, these seven statements of woe lay out God’s broader case. These seven oracles of judgement flesh out the sin and rebellion of Israel's religious leaders, and ultimately demonstrate why they were unwilling to embrace God’s Son.

The first three woes

In the first woe Jesus tells us that God was angry at them because they stood in the way of others entering the kingdom of heaven, that they “shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s face’s” that they “neither entered [themselves] nor allow[ed] those who would enter to go in.” And how did they do that? They did so by their rejection of Jesus. In John 10:9 Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved,” but the Pharisees did everything they could to dissuade the crowds from following him. Even when he cast out demons the scribes and Pharisees tried to convince the crowds that Jesus had done so by the power of Satan.
And the second woe was like it, that the Pharisees traveled across land and sea to make disciples, but only to make them twice as much a child of hell as they were. And how did they do that? Again, by their rejection of Jesus, by discipling others into a theological system that had no room for Christ, and therefore no possibility of entering the kingdom of heaven.
Then the third woe, that God had rejected them because they distorted and added to the Law, and lead others even to sin. In verse 16 Jesus gives an example of how they did this, that they had added their own laws concerning oaths that ultimately created non-binding vows, oaths that, under certain circumstances didn’t have to be kept, thereby giving the people license to bear false witness, to give them permission to not keep their word.

The fourth woe

And it’s at this point we reach Jesus’ fourth woe there in verses 23-24, we read,

23 “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. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

Now, the point here is this, that the Pharisees have been meticulous about keeping the smallest points of the law, yet they neglect what’s most important, the weightier things. In short, they’re majoring on the minors. And it wasn’t that Jesus was saying that they shouldn’t be meticulous about keeping the smallest points of the law, it’s that they neglected the weightier aspects of the law despite meticulously keeping the other smaller points!

The tithe

Now, concerning the tithe, we read in Deuteronomy 14:22 that,

22 “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.

and then again in Leviticus 27:30 that,
30 “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD’s;
And based on these texts the Pharisees had gone so far as to tithe even their window gardens, herbs of mint, dill and cumin. The imagery here is of them counting even the seeds and leaves of their herbs to ensure that they had tithed 10% of them as commanded by the law. Today, we might equate this to finding a dime on the street and making a note for ourselves to add a penny to our weekly tithe.
The Pharisees were apparently very scrupulous with their tithing, and Jesus doesn’t condemn them for it (quite the opposite actually), but Jesus contrasts their diligence to tithe, even seeds and leaves, with their neglect of doing justice and mercy and faithfulness, that’s where the disconnect is, and it’s why Jesus calls them hypocrites! Their meticulous tithing of herbs gave everyone the false impression that they were keeping the law, and keeping it more strictly than anyone else. However, their understanding of the law was distorted, they had a legalistic view of the law, a view that emphasized the letter of the law, but neglected the spirit of the law. And it was their legalistic understanding of the law that caused them to swallow camels!
You see, gnats were essentially the smallest of all the unclean animals in the OT, and the camel was the largest of all the unclean animals. So when Jesus says,

24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

he’s saying that the Pharisees would go the extra mile to strain out a gnat that may have made it into their wine or water, but then turn around only to swallow a camel! In other words, what’s the point of straining out the gnat if you’re going turn around and swallow camels!

Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?

Now, I want to give you a prominent example of this, found all throughout the Gospels. One of Jesus’ regular conflicts with the Pharisees included performing miracles on the Sabbath. There are at least 7 separate accounts throughout Mark, Luke and John where Jesus heals a person on the Sabbath, and in 5 of those accounts he encounters resistance for doing so. And the question we should ask is, ‘Why do Jesus’ miracles, performed on the Sabbath, generate so much opposition from the Pharisees?’
And the answer to that question is because the Pharisees had a very narrow understanding of the Sabbath laws. Again, they possessed a very legalistic view of God’s law, which typically caused them to overlook the intent of His law. This is the error of legalism, focusing on merely the letter of the law at the expense of the spirit of the law. In fact, Jesus spends a large portion of his Sermon on the Mount correcting this error of legalism taught by the Pharisees, demonstrating to the people that merely following the letter of the law is not enough, that we must also follow the spirit of the law.

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

On the surface it’s possible for us to give others the impression that we’re following the law, when in reality, under the surface, we’re breaking it. Whenever we’re attempting to follow the mere letter of the law, we will almost inevitably break the spirit of the law.
Which is what we see happen when Jesus puts the Pharisees to the test by healing people on the Sabbath. In fact, this is why he puts them to the test in this way, to expose their hypocrisy. This is why he would sometimes lead with the question, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”, his intention is to draw them out. So let’s look at one of those examples together. Turn with me to Mark 3:1-6, we read,

A Man with a Withered Hand

3 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Notice, specifically, verse 4,

“Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

Why were they silent? They were silent because they couldn’t answer him, they had no way of answering him. Jesus puts their legalism to the test by pitting it against the spirit of God’s law, against some of those “weightier matters” like “justice and mercy and faithfulness.” You see, the Pharisee’s understanding of the Sabbath was so narrow that they couldn’t conceive of a scenario where one could do good to another without breaking the law. Whereas God’s command to rest was never intended to bar his people from doing good to one another or to show compassion toward one another.
In fact, their legalism, in John chapter 5, when Jesus heals a lame man by the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, drives them to conclude that Jesus is a lawbreaker, and therefore disqualifying him as the Messiah. So their legalism has no room for him, and so they unwittingly conclude that the Lawmaker himself must be a lawbreaker. Their meticulous attempts at “keeping the law” has caused them to miss the weightier things of the law such as mercy and compassion, and Jesus has no patience for it.

The fifth woe

Now, let’s continue there in verse 25 with Jesus’ 5th woe,

25 “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. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

Again, Jesus strikes them at the heart of their legalism, which prioritizes a mere external conformity to the law. In other words, the Pharisees were primarily concerned with how they looked on the outside, and how others perceived them. In fact, they seemed to be obsessed with getting the externals things right, so much that they even added their own traditions to follow. However, Jesus says that they while clean the outside of the cup, inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
You see, their shallow understanding of the law concluded that external conformity was enough. That washings and cleansing rituals were sufficient, and an end unto themselves. They could not see that such rituals were intended to point them toward their need for spiritual cleansing, that it was their sin that defiled them, not certain foods or touching certain things, but there sin. And that’s not to say they weren’t commanded to perform such rituals and to abstain from certain foods, but for them to miss what those law and rituals symbolized and were intended to communicate was deadly.
It was like washing the outside of a cup but leaving the dregs behind. Most of us have experienced pulling what looks like a clean dish out of the cupboard only to find that the inside of the dish is dirty. Maybe it wasn’t placed in the dishwasher properly, but it doesn’t matter, you’re not going to use that dish until it’s been cleaned both inside and out. And this is what the external conformity of the Pharisees looked like. Their lives were hypocritical, the outside told one story while the inside communicated something else altogether.

Without faith it is impossible to please God

And the OT had always made this clear, from the very beginning, that outward conformity was never enough. As early as Genesis in the story of Cain and Abel, when we witness the first acts of worship. Both Cain and Abel brought sacrifices to God, but Cain’s sacrifice was rejected, while Abel’s was accepted. Some have said that maybe it was because of the kind of sacrifice that Cain brought verses what Abel did, but the writer of Hebrews clears it up for us when he writes in chapter 11, verse 4, that,

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.

What was the difference? Faith! The bare fact that Cain brought a sacrifice to God was not enough, it was only a shell of worship, it was hypocrisy. Cain was giving God lip service but was not engaging in authentic worship. They both observed the form of worship, but Cain’s worship was empty, while Abel’s was motivated by faith. This is why Hebrews says, just two verses later, in chapter 11, verse 6, that “without faith it is impossible to please [God]”.
Therefore, Jesus’ concludes in verse 26,

26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

The sixth woe

Then, in his sixth woe, Jesus continues his contrast between the inside and outside by saying there in verse 27,

27 “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. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

The Jews had cemeteries but families often had private burial sites, and because the OT prescribed strict purification laws concerning the dead the Jew were very careful when they buried their loved ones. In the book of Numbers chapter 19 we’re told that whoever touched a dead body would be unclean for seven days, and that they must cleanse themselves with water on the third and seventh day. However, if they didn’t cleanse themselves on the third and seventh day, they will become unclean and cuff off from Israel, and cut off from the midst of the assembly. In other words, because the OT took contact with dead bodies so seriously, the Jews took contact with dead bodies seriously. So seriously that they would typically use a solution of lime and water to whiten the tombstones. The idea was to make the tombstones visible enough that a neighbor or sojourner wouldn’t accidentally come in contact with the grave. While many gravestones around the world are still whitened in a similar fashion today, it’s usually for aesthetics, people like the look of it.
And so Jesus compares the Pharisees to these whitewashed tombs, in one sense they appear beautiful, but in another sense the whitewash was a sign of a rotting corpse. In Luke’s Gospel he actually records Jesus like this,

44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

In other words, the Pharisees appear holy, pious, and zealous for good works, but really, inside, they’re full of dead man’s bones. And like unmarked graves people walk over them without even realizing it! Like a sojourner without knowing walking over an unmarked grave and defiling themselves! Their outward appearance is deceptive, they appear righteous to others, but within they’re full of hypocrisy and sin.

Conclusion

Now, as we close I want to mention a few takeaways. 1) God isn’t opposed to external forms, he isn’t opposed to liturgy, or rituals (assuming those forms are rooted in and don’t conflict with the Scriptures), but 2) God is not pleased by mere conformity to external forms, liturgies, or rituals. God is fiercely opposed to hypocritical worship, any worship that isn’t motivated by faith and love. Therefore we must be careful that our worship is always done in spirit and in truth. 3) Let us be on guard against legalism, careful not to think we’re immune to it. Legalism is deadly to our worship. Theologian Geerhardus Vos once said, “Legalism lacks the supreme sense of worship. It obeys but it does not adore.” And lastly, 4) let us be on guard from majoring on the minors. While we should care about the totality of God’s law, may be we be careful not to emphasize one aspect of it while neglecting weightier matters.

Prayer

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