hope, then, did others
have?
Jesus condemns religious hypocrisy
In actual fact, there was
a real problem with the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees.
The heart of the matter was that their righteousness was defective in that it
was
external only.
They appeared to obey
the law to those who
observed them, but broke God’s law inwardly,
where it couldn’t be seen
by others.
Notice Jesus’ scathing
denunciation of their hypocrisy in making a
show of religion: “Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
you cleanse the outside
of the cup and dish, but inside they are full
of extortion and
self-indulgence For you
...
indeed appear beautiful
outwardly, but inside are
full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness
...
You also outwardly appear
righteous to men, but inside you are
full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness” (Matthew 23:25-28).
These self-appointed
religious teachers emphasized minor aspects of
the law while neglecting
more important issues. “Woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cum
-
min, and have neglected
the weightier matters of the law: justice and
mercy and faith. These you
ought to have done, without leaving the
others undone” (verse
23). Jesus was concerned that every part of the
righteous requirement be
obeyed, and angry that they were blind to the
“weightier” parts—the
major spiritual aspects—of the law.
While they were
fastidious with their ceremonial traditions, at the
same time they took
liberties to disobey God’s direct commands. In
some situations they
actually elevated their traditions above the clear
commands of God (Matthew
15:1-9).
Behind their actions was
the base motive of self-exaltation and self-
interest. They went
public with what should have been their private devotions toward God—prayer,
fasting and giving alms—all so they could be
seen and thought of by
others as righteous (Matthew 6:1-6; 23:5-7).
Religious leaders did not keep God’s
law
Immediately after His
statement that He had no intention of doing
away with God’s law,
Jesus proceeded to give examples of the traditions
and teachings of the
Jewish religious leaders that completely missed the
point or even
contradicted the spiritual intent of God’s laws.
The first example He gave
was the Sixth Commandment, “You shall
not murder.” All that the
Pharisees understood about this commandment was that the act of murder was
prohibited. Jesus taught what should
have been obvious, that
the
intent
of the Sixth Commandment
was not
just to prohibit the
literal act of murder, but every evil attitude of heart
and mind that
led to
murder—including unjust
anger and contemptuous
words (Matthew 5:21-26).
He did likewise with
their narrow view of the Seventh Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.”
The Pharisees of the day under
-
stood the physical act of
sexual relations with a woman outside of marriage to be sin. They should also
have known, as in the case of the Sixth
Commandment, that lust
for another woman was sinful because the one
lusting had already
broken the Commandment in his heart.
These are examples of the
“righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” that Jesus characterized as making
the outside of the cup and dish
clean, while on the
inside remaining “full of greed and self-indulgence”
(Matthew 23:25, NRSV).
Jesus instructed His
disciples that God’s law must indeed be obeyed
outwardly, but it must
also be obeyed
in the spirit and intent
of the
heart.
When Jesus taught such
heartfelt obedience to God’s laws, He was
faithful to what the Old
Testament taught: “For the
Lo r d does not see as
man sees; for man looks
at the outward appearance, but the
Lo r d looks
at the heart” (1 Samuel
16:7).
The prophet Jeremiah
looked forward to a time when God would establish a new covenant in which God
promised to “put My law in their minds,
and write it on their
hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). God’s original intent for
His law was that people
would observe it from their hearts (Deuteronomy
5:29). The failure of
human beings to obey God’s law in the “inward
being” (Psalm 51:6, )
inevitably led to outward
disobedience.
Jesus did not change the law
Jesus prefaced His
contrast of the scribes’ and Pharisees’ narrow
interpretation of the law
with its true spiritual intent using the words,
“You have heard that it
was said
...
But I say to you
...” (Matthew
5:21-22, 27-28).
Some erroneously think
Jesus’ intention was to contrast His own
teaching with that of
Moses and thereby declare Himself as the true
authority. They assume
that Jesus was either opposed to the Mosaic law
or modifying it in some
way.
Jesus’ Teaching on God’s Law
solemn and emphatic
proclamation of the permanence of the law and
emphasizing His own high
regard for it, would now
undermine
the
authority of the law by
other
pronouncements. Jesus
wasn’t inconsistent;
He honored and upheld the
law in
all
His statements.
In this passage He is not
pitting Himself against the Mosaic law, nor
is He claiming a superior
spirituality. What He
was
doing was
refuting
the wrong interpretations
perpetuated by the
scribes and Pharisees. This
is why He declared that
one’s righteousness must
exceed
the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees. Jesus was restoring, in the minds of
His listeners, the Mosaic
precepts to their original place, purity and
power. (For a better
understanding of these laws, request or download your free copy of the booklet
The Ten Commandments.)
It should also be obvious
that because the same God is the Author
of Old and New Covenant
alike, there can be no vital conflict between
them, and that the
fundamental laws of morality underlying both must
be and are in full
accord. God tells us in Malachi 3:6, “I am the
Lo r d
,
I do not change
.
”
Jesus and the Sabbath
Among those who claim to
follow Jesus, no biblical command has
aroused as much
controversy as the Fourth Commandment—God’s
instruction to remember
the Sabbath day and keep it holy (Exodus
20:8-11). Here in
particular we find that people’s interpretations of Jesus’
teaching are all over the
map.
Some argue that Jesus
annulled all of the Ten Commandments but
that nine were
reinstituted in the New Testament—all except the Sabbath. Some believe that
Jesus replaced the Sabbath with Himself, and
that
He
is now our “rest.” Some
believe that no Sabbath at all is needed
now, that we can rest or
worship on any day or at any time we choose.
Regardless of which
argument one uses, an overwhelming portion of traditional Christianity believes
that Sunday, the
first
day of the week, has
replaced the Sabbath, the
seventh
day of the week.
Can we find support for
these views in Christ’s practice or teaching?
In light of Jesus’ clear
teaching on the permanence of God’s laws, what
do we find when it comes
to His attitude toward the Sabbath day?
In studying the Gospels,
one of the first things we should notice is
that Jesus’ custom was to
attend the synagogue for worship on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16). This was
His regular practice.
On this particular
occasion, He even
announced His mission as Messiah to those in the
synagogue that day.
Interestingly, we later
find that Paul’s custom was also to worship and
teach in the synagogues
on the Sabbath day (Acts 17:2-3). Neither he
nor Jesus ever so much as
hinted that they needn’t be there or that they
should worship on a
different day!
Confrontations over how, not whether,
to keep the Sabbath
Where many people jump to
wrong conclusions about Jesus and the
Sabbath is in His
confrontations with the scribes and Pharisees. Yet these
confrontations were never
over
whether
to keep the Sabbath—only
over
how it should be kept.
There is a crucial
difference between the two!
For example, Jesus boldly
challenged the Jews concerning their interpretation of Sabbath observance by
performing healings on the Sabbath
(Mark 3:1-6; Luke
13:10-17; 14:1-6).
According to the
Pharisees, rendering medical attention to someone,
unless it were a matter
of life and death, was prohibited on the Sabbath.
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