4 February

Matthew 23New International Version (NIV)

Jesus attacks the religious leaders of his day with strong language: ‘You snakes! You brood of vipers!’ (v.33). This language would have come as a complete shock to the people. Our image now of ‘scribes and Pharisees’ is very different to how they were perceived at the time. They were highly regarded, respectable people.

The scribes were lawyers. They preserved and interpreted the law. They were authorised to act as judges. They had been ordained after a course of study. They were experts in the Scriptures. They were teachers who gathered pupils around them.

The Pharisees were laypeople. They tended to come from the middle classes (unlike the Sadducees who were more aristocratic). They were much respected for their piety. They prayed and fasted often. They attended the services. They gave regularly. They led ‘upright, moral lives’. They had a big influence in society. They were much admired by ordinary people.

Yet, Jesus criticises them for being hypocrites: ‘They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behaviour. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer’ (v.3, MSG).

Jesus’ ‘Seven Woes’ challenge us to aspire to seven characteristics of a good influencer:

• Integrity
  Jesus attacks the hypocrisy of the religious leaders (vv.3–4). He says, ‘They do not practise what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them’ (vv.3b–4). Integrity is the opposite of this, it means practising what you preach and making sure that your words lift people up, rather than weighing them down with guilt or other burdens.

• Authenticity
  Jesus attacks their superficiality (vv.5–7). He says to them, ‘Everything they do is done for others to see’ (v.5a). But what matters is who you are when nobody is looking. Jesus speaks about your ‘secret’ life with God. Seek to develop an authentic private life with God.

• Humility
  Jesus warns against loving titles and recognition (vv.8–11). Be on your guard so that you are not enticed by ‘prominent positions’, ‘public flattery’, and being given titles of one sort or another (vv.6–7, MSG). Jesus warns, ‘Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that’ (v.8, MSG). This is such a temptation but Jesus says, ‘For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted’ (v.12). Always seek to exalt Jesus, rather than yourself.

• Compassion
  Jesus attacks the religious leaders for putting stumbling blocks in the way of others (vv.13–15). He says, ‘You shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to’ (v.13). Leaders need to have the opposite spirit – one that is open and welcoming to everybody.
  
  Jesus himself sets an example of compassion. He says, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings’ (v.37).

• Vision
  Leaders should have big vision. Jesus attacks the small-mindedness and pettiness of the religious leaders (vv.16–22). The ‘ridiculous hairsplitting!’ (v.19, MSG). They could not see the wood for the trees. You need to concentrate on the important issues, pray for God’s vision, and don’t be sidetracked. Ask God to give you a vision that is so big that without him it is impossible.

• Focus
  Focus on what really matters (vv.23–24). Avoid getting caught up with minor details and becoming legalistic. Jesus says, ‘You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel’ (v.24). Rather we are to focus on, ‘The more important matters… justice, mercy and faithfulness’ (v.23). Fight against injustice and poverty; and demonstrate ‘faithfulness’ in your relationships with your family and others.

• Generosity
  This is the opposite of the greed and self-indulgence, which Jesus decries (vv.25–28). Their inner life is so different from the outer life. Jesus calls you to be yourself – for the inside to be like the outside (vv.27–28).

As Rick Warren has pointed out, ‘Criticism is the cost of influence. As long as you don’t influence anybody, nobody is going to say a peep about you. But the greater your influence... the more critics you are going to have.’

We too can easily fall into the trap of judging God’s people on a superficial basis, just as Elihu does. Beware of the dangers of criticising others.

Although it has been pointed out that no one ever built a monument to a critic, it does not stop us all wanting to be critics. Be very careful of what you say about other people. And if you are on the receiving end of criticism, don’t be surprised.