Life Project Blog

Matthew 23:1-12

In these verses, Jesus goes on the offensive against His foe, and it is important to recognize that His foe is actually Satan, and not the Jewish religious leaders who have been deceived into playing the role as Satan’s shills. I point this out again, because what these texts are really all about is the larger spiritual conflict; we have seen over and over again that these leaders were incapable of seeing the obvious right in front of them, and I have pointed this out many times in this study. For Jesus, the ball game is in His play to the disciples and the crowd; He knows that the Pharisees and teachers of the law aren’t going to change their minds because they have hardened their hearts. A few will understand and repent later… but precious few.

As for the crowds, many will respond in time, perhaps because of what they have heard Jesus say, but most did not. The disciples however are the real prize, for they are destined to lead the church forward in its infancy; they must hang on with Jesus, and as you will see, the next two chapters of this section are discussion between Jesus and the disciples alone. Finally, in our day, in our world, not much has changed from Jesus’ day, and often the battles we find ourselves in have similar dynamics as we must deal with people who are really not our foes, even though they are in our faces. In such cases, the battleground is really in the hearts and minds of those who witness the events as they unfold− we would do well to remember this.

Jesus, now in full Old Testament prophet mode, opens His assault by telling the people that they must do what their leaders tell them to do, acknowledging their position in the seat of Moses, and then tells the people not to do the things their leaders do, for they are hypocrites (23:1-4).

He explains their hypocrisy by reminding the crowds that everything their leaders actually do is for show; to impress people with their importance, their righteousness, and their positions (23:5-6). Then beginning in verse 7, Jesus asserts His divine authority, in my view as a preamble to what follows in 23:13 ff. They are not to call their leaders “Rabbi” or “teacher” for they have only one Teacher. They are not to call anybody “father” for they have only one Heavenly Father. They are not to call anyone “instructor” for they have only one Instructor, and He is the Messiah (who by the way is the One who is speaking).

I’m not quite sure what else He could have said that would assert His superiority over everyone present that would have done so more thoroughly than He did in these verses.

Then, a familiar refrain: “The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Personally, I think this was for the disciples’ benefit, since they have heard Him say this a number of times, and haven’t seemed to comprehend it before.

As verse 12 is reverberating across the Temple mount, Jesus is about to deliver God’s judgment upon the Jewish leaders, and all that they represent, but we must wait until next time to hear it!

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ⁴² “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.”’

If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Matthew 22:41-45

Jesus has sent three waves of frontal assault into headlong retreat; now His counter attack begins; it seems harmless enough, for He begins with a simple question about the Messiah’s paternity; the Pharisees who were there gave Him a clear and correct answer, at least from their point of view, the Messiah is the son of David.

By asking them this question, Jesus is actually giving them His answer to the authority question from 21:23, for what He is about to tell them is that He is much more than the just the son of David. He quotes Psalm 110, in which David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (“by the Spirit”) acknowledges this son as his Lord; how can that be if the son in question is merely David’s offspring?

That is the question that shuts everyone up, and as Matthew has pointed out in the text, no one dared ask Him any more questions, for in this quotation of David himself, is revealed the transcendent character of the Messiah, who sits at the very right hand of God Himself.

Jesus has come from God, full of the authority of God!

Of course, the Jewish religious leaders are now even more anxious to kill Him, because, whether they knew it or not, they were acting as the agents of Satan.

Next, I will give some background about what happens next in Matthew’s narrative, in which Jesus pronounces God’s judgment upon the religious leadership.

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:34-40

With the repulse of the second assault team comprised of the Sadducees, the third wave assault team advances, this time comprised of Pharisees. Unlike the first two waves of attack, this one included an “expert” in the law; they were bringing in one of their “big guns” at this point. It’s interesting to note a slight variation in Matthew’s account in relation to that of Mark 12:28 ff., Mark portrays the third wave as asking a genuine question, while Matthew, the eyewitness, indicates that the question was a test.

Yet in just reading the text, it seems like a fair question; where is the test? Here’s the “behind the scenes story”, as revealed in ancient rabbinic writings:

The Pharisees, sticklers about the law, identified 613 laws of Moses, 365 of which were negative commands, and 248 of which were positive. Of the 613, they differentiated between those they considered “light” and those they considered to be “heavy”, meaning that some of them were a bigger deal than others. However, just because one of these commands was “light” did not mean that it could be neglected, for as they wrote, “Be as heedful of a lighter precept as of a weighty one, for thou knowest not the recompense of reward of each precept” (m. Abot 2:1; Str-B 1:904-5).Since the whole idea of which commandment was greatest was commonly discussed and debated in Pharisaic circles, their trap was that Jesus, and notice they called Him “teacher” (Rabbi) when they asked, might give an answer that implied that one or more of the commands could be neglected, and in doing so could be charged with a violation of Torah that would discredit Him with the people− Back to our story…

Jesus not only avoided their trap, but He rejected their entire (unspoken) premise in mentioning the two love commandments; love God, love your neighbor. In fact, He stated these as the backdrop for His entire approach to the Law, for the Law must not be understood as simply a list of do’s and don’ts, ordinances and violations, but rather in relational terms, a concept that was as foreign to the Pharisees as it was appealing to the crowds. Sadly, it is foreign to a lot of Christians as well.

The third wave assault team was stopped in its tracks.

When we get together again next time, Jesus counter attacks; you won’t want to miss this one!

Matthew 22:23-33

The stage has been set for the second wave of the Jewish leaders’ plot to unfold. The second assault team, this time made up of a group of Sadducees, makes their advance on Jesus.

The Sadducees were a rival group to the Pharisees, they were an aristocratic bunch, in high favor with the wealthy, and Jesus was a clear threat to their high and lofty status in the land. Their attack centers upon the issue of the resurrection of the dead, something the Sadducees do not believe in.

They give Jesus their example of seven brothers, all of whom end up being married to the same woman, as each dies in succession without producing an heir. This is a reference to Deut. 25:5-6 and Lev. 38:8 which directs that when a man is married and dies without a child to be his heir, his brother must marry his widow and produce an heir for his dead brother. The premise of their question is that after the resurrection (that they don’t believe in) people remain married in the afterlife, and as it turns out, this is an entirely false premise.

Jesus tells them that “you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God”  He goes on to explain their misunderstanding of the power of God as He tells them about the complete transformation of people in the afterlife as they become “like the angels” in heaven with no further need for procreation. Then He demonstrates their lack of knowledge of the Scriptures in an interesting way, using an example from Exodus.

Citing Exodus 3:6 where God reveals Himself as “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” Jesus points out that these three men were centuries in the grave, while God spoke of them as though they were still very much alive, and drives His point home by saying “He is not the God of the dead but of the living”. It would seem that the extreme materialism of the Sadducees had blinded them to the truth contained in the Scriptures.

Matthew doesn’t record the reaction of the Sadducees, but the crowd was “amazed” at His teaching.

And the second wave of the assault fell back in defeat; the third wave assault team, this time comprised of Pharisees made ready to advance…

Matthew 22:15-22

The Jewish leaders, after being made to look foolish in public have withdrawn from the scene to plot. They really want Jesus dead, but they still fear their own people will react against them if they simply grab Him and take Him away; they don’t want a riot.

They scheme and plot in secret…

Later that same day, their plans begin to unfold; they will send surrogates to trap Jesus into saying something that incites the crowd. They attack in three waves, this being the first; the surrogates are an interesting little group of the disciples of members of the Sanhedrin and a delegation of Herodians. The Herodians were those who were allied with Herod, the Roman backed “king” of Judea. Herod wasn’t a Jew; relations between the camp of the Jewish leaders and the Herodians were always strained, but to get rid of Jesus was a cause that temporarily united them, and they advance on Jesus with their question about paying tax to Rome. We have already discussed how unpopular this was, so if Jesus would speak out against paying Roman taxes, He would be in deep trouble with the Romans, and subject to arrest. If He spoke in favor of paying the tax, He would lose the favor of the crowds and the leaders would have their opportunity to strike; either way, Jesus would be in trouble.

They begin with flattery, as though to make Jesus relax and think He was among friends. Here’s a tip for you: When you hear politicians, such as this delegation, engage in this kind of flattery, watch out! Jesus was not fooled by this rather thinly veiled tactic, and when they get to the question, He responds by calling them hypocrites. More than that, He demonstrated their hypocrisy when he asked for a Roman coin… and they produced one, right there in front of all the people.

What were these great spokesmen of Jewish virtue doing carrying Roman money around?

When Jesus induced them to acknowledge whose image and name were on the coin, they were finished, and I am reasonably certain they knew it. But Jesus wasn’t quite finished with them; He answered their question in a way that did not betray any obligation to Jewish Law or tradition; “give back to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and give to God that which is God’s.”

They couldn’t help but be amazed for remarkably, they hadn’t seen that one coming; they retreated in defeat. The stage is set for the second assault, a group of Sadducees is ready to advance; Jesus is waiting for them.

Matthew 22:1-14

This is the third of the three parables that Jesus delivers to the Jewish religious elite in the scene that began in 21:23…

In this parable, unlike the previous two, Jesus begins with ”The Kingdom of heaven is like…” This time, He will put His parabolic meaning into the context of the Kingdom of heaven, which has been His general theme ever since He began His public ministry some three years earlier. In the parable, God is the King, Jesus, although He has been mentioned as king many times in Matthew’s narrative, is the son of the king, and the banquet is the messianic banquet we have seen earlier in Matthew’s account (cf. 8:11; 25:1 ff.). The king (God) wishes to honor his son (Jesus) and has arranged this banquet. Invitations have been sent out. Everything is ready, and the king sends his servants to let the invitees know that it is time to come to the banquet hall of the king… and they refuse.

By refusing, they have given a gross insult to the king, for they have refused to join him in honoring his son. Surprisingly, the king sends his messengers again, but the invitees are too busy with their own affairs; some even attack the messengers; the king is not amused, and demonstrates his wrath.

The king then tells his servants to invite people off the street to attend, and soon the hall is full of guests. When the king enters the room, he notices a man who is not appropriately dressed for a wedding banquet and asks him the reason; the man says nothing, and the king has him tossed out of the hall, to a dark place where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. The phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” has serious apocalyptic significance, for it denotes the judgment of God upon a person or a people.

In the final verse, Jesus sums up what has happened when He says: ““For many are invited, but few are chosen.” The hall was full of people, but those who were first invited refused to attend; they were invited, but since they didn’t show up to honor the son, they weren’t chosen. The second group of invitees showed up, but one of them didn’t take his invitation very seriously, and was thrown out; he was also invited, but his lack of caring about that invitation resulted in his also not being chosen.

You might ask, “Chosen for what?”

The answer is a simple one: Chosen to remain in the presence of the king.

This parable demonstrates the messianic mission of Jesus in that when Israel, represented by their leaders, refused to honor Him, they rejected not only Jesus, but His Father as well; surely this sounds familiar to you for Jesus said this several times. Israel was the very first to be invited into God’s presence, but they were too busy, too hardened of heart to show up; some even attacked His messengers. The invitation then went out to the Gentiles, and many took advantage of the invitation, but even then there are those (of us) who really don’t take the whole thing very seriously, and who will come to judgment in the end.

This might be a point for reflection for all of us…

I really doubt that the Jewish leaders who heard this really comprehended the scope of what Jesus was telling them here, for as we have already seen, their eyes had been blinded by their stubborn hardness of heart; they were now doing Satan’s bidding, whether they understood it or not. From here on, their secret plotting will consume them…

Matthew 21:33-46

The second parable that Jesus told the religious leaders is the Parable of the Tenants; we are still in the scene that began in 21:23, which we discussed in Rising Tensions. If you missed that part, for best results, I would urge you to READ IT NOW before you continue.

OK, now that we are all on the same page, let’s have a look at what has just happened in our narrative. The Jewish religious leaders may or may not have gotten every bit of the parable, but they knew Jesus had just made them look bad; that much is clear. Beginning in 21:42, Jesus makes use of a quotation from Psalm 118 that was originally a song of thanksgiving for a military victory; it was often sung in Jesus’ day by pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem. For them, the “stone that the builders rejected” referred to Israel, but Jesus applies it here in a different way, for here He applies it to Himself; He is the stone the builders rejected. Interestingly, this imagery became a very important component of the teaching of the early church, as seen in 1 Peter 2:4-8 and Acts 4:12. As such, the stone rejected is identified as the capstone, the stone that holds the entire building in place; this cones together quite nicely with our earlier discussion concerning Matthew 16:18-19 wherein the Apostles are seen as the “foundation” of the church with Jesus as the “capstone”. To be quite clear, if you remove the capstone (sometimes called “keystone” today) the building crumbles.

21:43 ff. demonstrates Jesus’ emphasis on the fact that the Jewish leaders have forfeited their rights to enjoy God’s favor, God’s presence, which is also to say His Kingdom, by their stubborn refusal to receive their Messiah (the stone that was rejected) and thus, Jesus will build a new temple of a new people comprised of all ethnic groups as a new holy nation; His Church.

The Jewish religious leaders seem to have caught enough of His meaning to motivate them even more to silence Him for good. No, this simply would not do; they must kill Him as soon as possible! Yet, there was still the problem of the crowds who viewed Jesus as a prophet; what to do about the crowds? This was now clearly their problem, and to its solution they would turn their full attention in 22:15-40. Even so, Jesus wasn’t quite finished with them, for He has one more parable, and quite a parable it was. We’ll tackle it when we get back together next time…

After their first skirmish, Jesus tells the Jewish religious leaders three parables that combine to form a serious indictment of their continual, chronic and habitual refusal to hear God’s truth. If you have not read the previous section I would encourage you to do so before you read this one, since the context and scene are set in that post; this (and the next two as well) is a continuation of that encounter, in essence Jesus’ counter move.

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

Matthew 21:28-32

This parable is perhaps the easiest in Matthew to figure out; the sinners (tax collectors and prostitutes) are the son who said ‘no’ and then did as his father told him to do. The Jewish religious leaders are the son who said ‘yes’ and then disobeyed. The father, of course, is God.

Notice that Jesus told them this parable, and then asked them  which son did as the father wanted, and they were so blind that they answered without noticing that they were stepping into a trap; please think about that for a moment.

Who was on the offensive in this scene; remember that it began in verse 23 where they were demanding to know by what authority Jesus had done the things He did on the previous afternoon. They had come after Him to attempt to trap Him into saying something that would cause Him to become unpopular with the crowds, and so they could accuse and kill Him. In the previous text, they were plotting, scheming and calculating, and yet here, mere moments later, Jesus asks them an obvious question about a very straightforward parable, and they blindly step into His trap. Is it possible that they, brilliant as they were, really didn’t see the trap? You might remember that earlier in this scene when Jesus asked them what the source of John’s baptism was, that they saw the trap in that question (21:24-26).

So, do you recall when the disciples asked Him why He spoke to the people in parables? (13:10)

His answer was in 13:11-17, and essentially it was this: ”Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand” (13:13b).

This may be the most obvious example of what Jesus told the disciples back in chapter 13 in the entire New Testament; the Jewish leaders did not see the obvious, for they had not been given the ability to see, because they did not want to see at all.

So Jesus springs His trap in 21:31-32, and I’m sure it warmed the hearts of those leaders to hear they are worse than tax collectors and prostitutes…

This thrill-packed episode will continue next time; see you there!