Who Not To Follow

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting
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Today’s Date: March 19, 2006

Who Not To Follow
by Dan Trygg

"Upon the chair of Moses the scribes and the Pharisees sat. 3 Therefore do and be-keeping whatever they tell you, but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being 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 call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called leaders, for you have one leader, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Matthew 23:2-12

Once again, the subject of leadership comes up in Matthew’s gospel. Do you think he is trying to get a point across? We have seen Jesus address this issue on several occasions because of the behavior and attitudes of the disciples (18:1f; 19:13-14; 20:20-28). They had been raised in a religious and social environment with models of leadership that were hierarchical and domineering. Leaders demanded respect, honor, privilege and obedience based upon position and social status, not upon character or wisdom. The Lord had tried to show them that leadership in the kingdom of God was not at all like what they had been taught to expect. Having just weathered repeated attacks from the scribes and Pharisees, He took this opportunity to use their very visible and well-known example to point out to the crowds, and His disciples, what to avoid in leadership. Then He restated and reaffirmed the essential nature of He expected of leaders and leadership among those who would follow Him.

The first verse of the chapter clearly ties Jesus’ teaching to same context as the previous chapter. The word "then" is an adverb of time, meaning "at that time", so Jesus’ comments here follow up His verbal repulsion of the attacks of His opponents, and His embarrassing riddle which sent them in retreat (22:41-46). Now, He is on the offensive, …and He does not mince words. His attack actually goes down through verse 36, but we are only going to consider the first portion, …before He really lets them have it.

He begins by saying that the scribes and Pharisees "sat" in the "chair of Moses". In other words, they have placed themselves in the place that Moses had. They claimed to only be interpreting the Law which God gave to Israel through Moses. (In reality, however, they actually added a multitude of their own customs which came from their interpretations, and formed a secondary law based upon their opinions and traditions. Jesus addressed that later on in the passage.) The "chair of Moses" would be akin to a professor’s chair at a university campus. It was a position of respected authority from which teaching and interpretations were made. It was not a literal seat or throne, rather a figure of speech used to describe the function and position which Moses had, i.e., he was the Lawgiver. Notice that Jesus says that they "sat" in that position. He does not see them as having been appointed by God. They were self-designated leaders, but they brought nothing fresh to their generation. They took it upon themselves to fulfill a Moses-like role, by interpreting the Prophet’s words. Their authority was an inherited, or stolen, authority. They built upon the work of others, rather than establish something fresh from God (Matt. 7:28f; Rom. 15:18-20).

Jesus’ next point was that His disciples ought to respect and follow what the scribes and Pharisees taught that accurately conveyed the meaning of Moses’ commandments. Jesus’ language is actually "do" and "keep-and-be-keeping" what they say. There was truth there, …and truth ought to be carried out and ongoingly observed. He warned them, however, not to do according to their deeds. Why? Because they do not practice what they preach. They do not do what they themselves teach. Jesus was not a fan of the "Do as I say, not as I do" philosophy, but He did acknowledge that we must respond to the truth, even if those who teach us are poor examples. The scribes and Pharisees were poor role models, except when it came to study of the Law. They were experts in what the Law said, and should be respected in that arena.

When they taught the Law, however, they added heavy burdens to people’s spiritual load. Instead of helping people with any practical counsel, they loaded them down with more and more minute examples of obligation. Their interpretation focused on ritual purity, legalistic duties and minutia of the Law, while missing the broader picture of God’s heart to protect, bless and provide wisdom to His people (Deut. 4:5,6; 5:29). They loved to expound on hundreds of ways to apply the principles of the Law, but gave no counsel to help people carry out what they taught. They did not come alongside to comfort, help and encourage those who wished to obey. Instead, they simply added to the burden and pretended to be superior in the performance of their religious duties.

This leads into Jesus’ next criticism. They performed their religious duties and good deeds to be seen by people. Their righteousness was primarily for the public eye. They did not do good deeds for others, unless there was some praise and recognition to be gained. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 6. He taught His followers to keep their deeds and giving out of the public eye (vss. 1-6,16-18). The true heart of a person will be revealed by what he or she does when they believe no one else will know. The scribes and Pharisees put on a religious mask in public, but could be something else entirely when out of the public view.

Following this general statement, Jesus gives several examples where this tendency to seek public recognition were quite evident. They dressed to impress, wearing very noticeable religious clothing. They purposely enlarged their religious apparel and paraphernalia to be seen by others. (It is important to state that their motive was the issue, not the size of what they were wearing.) Secondly, they loved seats of honor at feasts, and at the synagogue. They loved to be displayed as important before others. Thirdly, they loved being publicly greeted with titles of importance. They loved the recognition of their person and their accomplishments, for it made them feel important and powerful. They were name droppers and social climbers, and nothing was more satisfying than being acknowledged as a significant and honored person in the presence of others.

At this point (vs. 8), Jesus briefly shifts direction away from pointing out the flaws of the scribes and Pharisees to comment on this latter point. It is a good rule of thumb to notice what the Lord considered important enough to repeat, or to specifically emphasize. "But y’all do not be called, ‘Rabbi’." The structure of the Greek is emphatic, "But you (yourselves)…" Jesus is clearly chiding His disciples not to do as the scribes and Pharisees did, especially in this area. "Do not be called…" The verb here does not indicate that we must police what others may say (for we do not have control over that), but that we ought not to insist or suggest that people use special titles for us. The word, "Rabbi", comes from the Aramaic word, "Rab", which means "great one". A "rabbi" was a title of respect and deference given to a teacher of the Law. Jesus wanted to remove the tendency to exalt some people above others, because it engendered pride for those who are lifted up, and also minimized or marginalized those who were not being recognized. Jesus said, "Do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers." It is enough that God is our Teacher. We are all to be learning from Him. We are all on the same level. We are all brothers and sisters. Sure, some of us may know more than others, but that does not make us "better" than they are. We should want to share what we have learned that may be helpful to others to benefit them, not use our knowledge to exalt ourselves.

"Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven." Note that the focus changes from "don’t be called…" to "don’t call anyone…". This is about our practice of addressing others. Jesus does not mean that we should not call our male parent by this title. The whole point of the title comes from the normal, natural relationship of respect which we develop toward our fathers as we grow up. If we didn’t even call our dads "father", then the title would soon become meaningless. So Jesus is not commanding us to stop referring to our dads in this way. What He wanted to put a stop to was the practice of calling other people, religious and political leaders, by this term. At the time of the NT, this was a term of respect and endearment for rabbis and honored men of the past. Certainly, to apply this title to religious leaders today would be wrong. Jesus said that we should reserve this title for God, and not apply it to other men on earth.

"Neither be called leaders, for you have one Leader, the Christ." The Greek word for "leader" is kathagetes, and only occurs in this verse. It refers to one who is both a teacher and a guide, and therefore a "master" to his followers. Jesus said that we should not be called "master", "guide" or "leader" in this way, because He is the One we are to be following, not some human being.

The fact that Jesus took the time to speak about titles in this way indicates that this is an important issue. Apparently we can easily attribute too much to a person, or even believe too much about ourselves, if we get used to titles like these. We can give, or take, too much power by the use of titles. This distracts or confuses us, and takes our focus off of where it should be, …centered on God alone.

Jesus finishes this brief interlude by reminding His disciples once again that the greatest among them will be the servant. Furthermore, those who would exalt themselves will be humiliated, but he who humbles himself will be lifted up. This principle is on the lips of Jesus on several occasions, recorded so that we would not miss the lesson (Matt. 18:4; Lk. 14:11; 18:14). We are not to be self-seeking, as the Pharisees and scribes were. Rather, we are to be like our true Master, who was willing to give up power and privilege in order to seek, save and serve the lost and the hurting (Phil. 2:1-11; Mk. 10:43-45).