Matthew 23:1-12
Jesus Warns Against Hypocrisy
1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
Jesus tells us that we are all brothers and sisters...But certain people and leaders should not be followed, because they do not practice what they preach...Their lives are not good examples for us to follow...Some leaders tell you to do things, but they don’t do those things themselves...They make strict rules that are hard for people to obey...They try to force others to obey all their rules...But they themselves will not try to follow any of those rules and their rules are not based on love...“The only reason they do what they do is for other people to see them...They make the little Scripture boxes they wear bigger and bigger...And they make the tassels on their prayer clothes long enough for people to notice them...These men love to have the places of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues...They love for people to show respect to them in the marketplaces and to call them ‘Teacher.’...“But you must not be called ‘Teacher.’... You are all equal as brothers and sisters...You have only One Teacher...And don’t call anyone on earth ‘Father.’...You have One Father...He is in heaven...And you should not be called ‘Master.’...You have only One Master, the Messiah...Whoever serves you like a servant is the greatest among you...People who think they are better than others will be made humble...But people who humble themselves will be made great...
When we are all brothers and sisters we see better justice and are all equal...The privileged Pharisee, as a brother, would be better if he served and were humble to his brothers and sisters and serve them...Giving up one's privilege is not an easy thing to do...The privileged are comfortable...Leaving their comfort would cause them to resist...So Jesus is telling us to things about the Pharisees and mankind in general...The Pharisees knew the Law of Moses and the people were to follow those teachings...But how they behaved in their personal lives and how they ought to act toward others did not match Moses' teachings...Man sometimes says the right thing and then goes out the door and behaves different from what he has just said...C. S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity, "In other words, when you are dealing with humans, something else comes in above and beyond the actual facts...You have the facts (how men do behave) and you also have something else (how they ought to behave)...In the rest of the universe there need not be anything but the facts. Electrons and molecules behave in a certain way, and certain results follow, and that may be the whole story...But men behave in a certain way and that is not the whole story, for all the time you know that they ought to behave differently."...
Dr. Martin Luther King saw this type of privilege in the modern world and wrote, “I had gone to the meeting with a great illusion...I had believed that the privileged would give up their privileges on request...This experience, however, taught me a lesson...I came to see that no one gives up his privileges without strong resistance...I saw further that the underlying purpose of segregation was to oppress and exploit the segregated, not simply to keep them apart...Even when we asked for justice within the segregation laws, the “powers that be” were not willing to grant it...Justice and equality, I saw, would never come while segregation remained, because the basic purpose of segregation was to perpetuate injustice and inequality.”...