I have read Matthew before but it never accord to me how liberal, hypocritical, and stuck-up Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law were.
It seemed to me they didn’t like anybody treading on their territory. Jesus was teaching people in droves plus he was healing people. Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law had to of been getting a jealousy complex because they weren’t doing it.
Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law were down right nasty in looking for any excuse to kill Jesus. They were evil and these were people that were entrusted with God’s word and law. One would expect this from Romans not people who were suppose to be of God.
I got a picture in my mind of these dudes strutting around like a male peacock showing off it feathers to a female. Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law thought they were important. They didn’t like being deflated by Jesus. Jesus was showing them how unimportant they were. Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law could be replaced with someone who could do the job right, the way God wanted.
Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law were adding man made laws on to biblical laws as Steve Finnell says on his blog A CHRISTIAN VIEW. The people that wanted to do right by God couldn’t, the Pharisees, Sadducees and the teachers of the law added so much man made doctrine the people weren’t sure rather to stand up or sit. Some people left because the burden of the laws too much. Jesus showed the people how easy it was and how Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law added more than what should of been.
Isn’t it any wonder that Jesus gave Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law a “woe”. Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law in our time should take heed to the “woe” too.
Matthew 23:13-32
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. [14] [b]
15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’
17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?
18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’
19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.
22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.
28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
38 Look, your house is left to you desolate.
39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
No comments:
Post a Comment