Commentary - Matthew 23:1-12

Bird's-eye view

In this opening section of Matthew 23, the Lord Jesus Christ turns His attention to the crowds and His disciples to deliver a crucial piece of instruction. Having systematically silenced the challenges of the Jewish leadership, He now dissects their character for all to see. This is not yet the formal pronouncement of the seven woes; rather, it is the preamble that lays the foundation for that covenant lawsuit. Jesus makes a sharp distinction between the office and the office-holder. He acknowledges the legitimate authority of the scribes and Pharisees insofar as they teach the Law of Moses, but He utterly condemns their hypocritical practices. The root of their corruption, He reveals, is a deep-seated pride that manifests itself in oppressive legalism, a lust for public recognition, and a love for honorific titles. He concludes by establishing the foundational principle of His kingdom: true greatness is found not in self-exaltation, but in humble service.

This passage serves as a permanent warning to the Church against the leaven of the Pharisees. It teaches us to distinguish the authority of God's Word from the flawed character of those who may teach it. It exposes the rotten heart of all performative religion, which is done "to be noticed by men." And it sets forth the radical, upside-down ethic of the Kingdom of God, where the way up is the way down, and the one who would be first must become the slave of all.

Outline

Context In Matthew

This discourse immediately follows the series of confrontations in the temple courts recorded in Matthew 21 and 22. Jesus has just comprehensively defeated and silenced the chief priests, the elders, the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees. They have thrown their best questions at Him, and He has answered with such divine wisdom that "no one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him any more questions" (Matt 22:46). Having established His absolute authority, Jesus now goes on the offensive. Chapter 23 is the result. It is His final public address, a blistering denunciation of the corrupt leadership of Israel. These first twelve verses set the stage for the seven woes that follow. He is explaining to the people and His own disciples why this judgment is coming. It is the moral and theological justification for the covenant lawsuit He is about to prosecute. This entire chapter, in turn, provides the rationale for the prophecy of Jerusalem's destruction in the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24-25).

Key Issues

The Chair and the Hypocrites

Before a judge pronounces a sentence, he first reads the indictment and lays out the evidence. That is what Jesus is doing here. He is about to pronounce a series of covenantal curses, or woes, upon the religious establishment. But first, He turns to the listening crowds and to His own followers and explains the fundamental problem. The issue is not with the Word of God, which the Pharisees teach, but with the Pharisees themselves. Their religion is a sham, a performance, a play acted out for the cheap applause of the marketplace. And the central theme, the driving engine of their hypocrisy, is pride. They love the honor of men more than the honor that comes from God. Jesus dissects this pride and then presents the alternative: the radical, self-effacing humility that is the hallmark of His new covenant community.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1-3 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and keep, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.

Jesus begins with a crucial distinction. The "chair of Moses" refers to the seat of teaching authority. When the scribes and Pharisees read from the Law of Moses and taught its precepts, they were handling the very Word of God. In that limited sense, their office had a legitimate authority. Jesus, upholding the authority of Scripture, tells the people to obey the Word of God even when it comes from the mouth of a hypocrite. The truth of God is not nullified by the corruption of the messenger. But He immediately follows this with a severe warning: "do not do according to their deeds." There is a massive chasm between their words and their walk. They are signposts pointing down a road they themselves refuse to travel. This is the very definition of hypocrisy: saying one thing and doing another.

4 And they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

Here is the first characteristic of their corrupt leadership. They were masters of legalism. They took the good law of God and festooned it with an impossible array of man-made regulations and traditions, creating a crushing weight of religious obligation. These are the "heavy burdens." But the indictment is twofold. Not only did they create these burdens, but they felt no obligation to bear them themselves. More than that, they showed no compassion for those struggling under the weight. They were unwilling to lift a finger to help. Their religion was a tool for controlling others, not a path to righteousness. It was about power and domination, not grace and truth.

5 But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments.

Jesus now diagnoses the root motive behind their hypocrisy: vainglory. Everything they do is for show. It is a performance for a human audience. He gives two specific examples. Phylacteries were small leather boxes containing Scripture verses, worn on the forehead and arm in obedience to Deuteronomy 6:8. Tassels were worn on the corners of garments to remind the Israelites of God's commandments (Num 15:38-39). Both practices were biblically commanded. The sin was not in the wearing, but in the broadening and lengthening. They turned these aids to piety into billboards for their own righteousness. It was like praying on a street corner with a megaphone. The goal was not to honor God, but to attract the applause of men.

6-7 And they love the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the marketplaces, and being called Rabbi by men.

The love of human applause manifests itself in a craving for public honor. They jockeyed for the head table at dinners and the front-row seats in the synagogue, not out of a desire to serve, but out of a desire to be seen. They savored the moments when people would greet them with deference in public and address them by the honorific title "Rabbi," which means "my master" or "my teacher." These things were the currency of their ego. Their sense of self-worth was not derived from their standing before God, but from their status before men. This is the heart of worldly ambition, and it had thoroughly infected their religion.

8-10 But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. Do not be called instructors; for One is your Instructor, that is, Christ.

Jesus now turns this lesson directly upon His disciples. The status-seeking and hierarchical structures of the Pharisees must have no place in the community of the redeemed. He forbids them from adopting these titles of spiritual superiority. This is not a wooden prohibition on calling one's earthly parent "father." The context is clearly about religious titles that create a clergy/laity distinction and elevate one man over another. The reason is profound: in the church, there is only one Teacher, one Father, and one Instructor. These roles belong uniquely to the persons of the Trinity. All believers are simply "brothers," on equal footing at the foot of the cross. The church is to be a family, not a corporate ladder.

11 But the greatest among you shall be your servant.

Having torn down the world's model of greatness, Jesus erects the standard of His kingdom. Here is the great paradox, the divine reversal. Greatness is not found in being served, but in serving. It is not found in titles and honor, but in humble, self-giving labor for the good of others. The one who wants to be truly great must take the lowest place and become the servant of all. This is the exact opposite of the Pharisaical spirit, which used people to build its own prestige.

12 And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

This is the fixed law of God's moral universe. It is an axiom of the kingdom. The man who puffs himself up, who seeks his own glory, who climbs the ladder of human ambition, is on a collision course with divine judgment. God Himself will bring him low. But the man who humbles himself, who acknowledges his dependence on God, who takes the low place in service to others, will be lifted up by God Himself. This is not a strategy for getting exalted; that would be a false humility, which is just pride in disguise. True humility serves without any thought of reward. But the promise stands: God is the one who exalts, and He reserves that honor for the humble.

Application

The warnings of Jesus in this passage are as relevant to the church in the twenty-first century as they were to the crowds in the first. The spirit of the Pharisees is a hardy weed that can grow in any religious soil. We must constantly be on guard against it in our own hearts and in our churches.

First, we must learn to respect the Word of God, even when it is taught by flawed men. But we must never follow anyone into hypocrisy. Our standard is the Word of God, not the behavior of our favorite preacher or teacher. Second, we must be ruthless in examining our own motives. Why do we do what we do? Do we pray, give, serve, and worship to be seen by others? Or is it all done in secret, for an audience of One? The moment our piety becomes a performance, it becomes an abomination.

Finally, we must embrace the radical, counter-intuitive ethic of the kingdom. Our churches should not be places where people compete for titles, positions, and influence. They should be communities where greatness is measured by the towel and the basin, not by the title on the door. The path to true honor is the path of humility and service. This is not natural to us. Our fallen inclination is to exalt ourselves. The only cure is the gospel. Jesus is the ultimate example of this principle. He, being the greatest, humbled Himself and became a servant, even to the point of death on a cross. Therefore, God highly exalted Him (Phil 2:5-11). When we are united to Him by faith, His humble, servant-hearted life begins to be formed in us by His Spirit. He frees us from the exhausting work of self-promotion and enables us to find our joy in serving others for His glory.