Matthew 23:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Matthew 23:1

Comments

The time had come when the prophecies of the Old Testament regarding the provision of a true and faithful ministry for God’s people were about to be fulfilled. Isaiah describes the unsatisfactory situation: ‘His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. ¹¹ Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter’ (Isaiah 56:10-11). Ezekiel also mourns this situation (Ezekiel 34:2). But now these false shepherds are about to be taken away and faithful shepherds put in their place. ‘O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: ¹⁵ And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding’ (Jeremiah 3:14-15); and, ‘I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. ⁴ And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD’ (Jeremiah 23:3-4). Christ therefore denounces the scribes and Pharisees, and brings to a crisis his exposure of their failings. He exposes the weakness of that system, and in particular the hypocrisy of those who had claimed a place within that system, but were seeking something for themselves and not for God. This was their death knell, and signalled the end of God’s toleration of their inadequate ministry. The time of Moses was now over and no Pharisee could ever sit in the seat of Christ.The weakness of the Old Testament system of instruction was that the people were often being taught by hypocrites. Could they learn anything from them? Yes, says the Lord, but only from their instruction, not from their practice; and only to the extent that they continued to teach what was given by God through Moses and other prophets. Their practice was strongly opposed to the standard which Christ set for his disciples and especially for teachers, among whom integrity was to be the rule: ‘Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:19). The Pharisees set the people no example, which discredited their ministry, and caused it to lack power. Three times in the Sermon on the Mount Christ referred to them as ‘the hypocrites’ (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16), and said that their example was to be ignored. But for the time being the disciples were still under the old covenant, and that covenant was made with national Israel and it tolerated a mixed multitude. It would have been very harmful for them to argue that because the scribes and Pharisees did not do what God commanded, they could be completely ignored. No, the Lord says, that is not the case. Although he came to expose their false ways, he did not come as a revolutionary, to prematurely tear down what he himself had setup. The scribes and Pharisees knew the letter of the law better than the common people and therefore the common people could learn something from them, but Christ is about to bring an end to that old covenant and establish a better covenant, and one respect in which it will be better is that it will have true shepherds and teachers over God’s people. The old covenant served its purpose, but it had a little way to go, and for now the disciples must respect it. God had established the law as a covenant, and only God could remove it. Only he knew the time when it was fulfilled and it was right for the types and the shadows to pass away, and with them the ministry that was attached to them. Of course there will always be hypocrites, but under the new covenant, these are to be exposed immediately and not tolerated as they were under the law.

Application

The hypocrite condemns himself by his own doctrine, for he shows that he knows perfectly well what is the right thing to do, and yet he does not do it. He wants to give himself a licence to sin which he will give to no one else. He shows favouritism towards himself, and says that his own sins are in a different category to everyone else’s sins.

Hypocrites make poor teachers, for the lack of an example makes them hard to follow. The impetus to learn has to come entirely from the pupil, for the pupil must convince himself or herself that the benefit of learning is of greater importance than the integrity of the teacher and the system of instruction. The student must turn a blind eye to the false motivation of the teacher, and must separate the wheat from the chaff by sifting the teacher and his instruction. This means that it will never be a comfortable situation; it will never be a situation that fosters love for the teacher and his instruction.

Questions

Does this contradict what Christ says in Matthew 16:6 – ‘Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees’? No, he does not in that passage tell the disciples to ignore their teaching, but to beware of it. They had added their own traditions to the law (Matthew 15:2-6), and these additions had no force at all. Sometimes they actually obstructed and opposed the commandments of God, but to the extent that they reproduced the teaching of the word of God, they were to be obeyed. They understood little of the law, and Christ constantly expounded the Scriptures, which they thought they understood, in a way that exposed their errors, and showed they had not understood them.

Is this then a lesson on how to put up with inconsistent teachers? While the disciples remained under the law, yes, it was exactly that, but that is no longer the case, and only in exceptional circumstances when we have no freedom to do otherwise – such as a child in a school – would we continue to try to profit from a teacher who is not themselves enlightened by the truth.

Is this passage parallel to Luke 11:37-54? Luke includes five of Christ’s rebukes of the Pharisees below, and also of the lawyers. Luke tells us however that Christ spoke these words on the occasion when he was invited to dine with a Pharisee, but Matthew implies they were spoken right at the end of his public ministry and just before his entry into Jerusalem. It is possible that Matthew records a different occasion, but he may also be bringing together material under a common theme, as he does elsewhere.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Matthew 23:1 Commentary and Bible Study