Matthew 23 explained: Looking Good Versus Being Good

Teaching without living it (vv. 1-7)

To sit in Moses' seat meant having authority to explain the law given through Moses, so Jesus says to follow that teaching but not the teachers' example. Phylacteries were small boxes holding Bible verses worn during prayer, and the law commanded tassels on a cloak's corners; making them extra large was a way to be seen as holy.

No titles, only servants (vv. 8-12)

Rabbi, father and instructor were titles of honor, and Jesus tells his followers not to chase them, since God is their true Father and teacher and they are all equals. Greatness here means serving others, and those who promote themselves will be brought low.

Blind guides and oath loopholes (vv. 13-22)

Jesus accuses these leaders of blocking people from God and passing their own faults on to new converts. Some taught that an oath sworn by the temple did not bind you but one sworn by its gold did, and Jesus answers that every such oath really involves God (verse 14 is missing from the oldest manuscripts, so many Bibles leave it out).

Small rules, big neglect (vv. 23-28)

They gave God a tenth of even tiny garden herbs and strained their drinks to avoid swallowing a gnat, which the law counted unclean, yet ignored justice, mercy and faithfulness, like swallowing a whole camel. Tombs were painted white so people would not touch them by accident and become ritually unclean, and Jesus uses that image and the cup to picture people neat outside but corrupt within.

The blood of the prophets (vv. 29-36)

Honoring dead prophets while opposing living messengers puts these leaders in line with the ancestors who killed them. Abel is the Bible's first murder and Zechariah's killing in the temple court comes near the end of the Hebrew Bible's order, so this means every innocent death from first to last; why Matthew names Zechariah's father differently from Chronicles is unclear, and many link the coming judgment to Rome's destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Lament over Jerusalem (vv. 37-39)

The tone turns to grief, as Jesus pictures himself as a hen longing to shelter her chicks while the city refuses. The desolate house is most often read as the temple, and the closing words quote Psalm 118, the same welcome the crowds shouted when he entered the city.

Key verse: Matthew 23:23

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the judgment announced at the end of the chapter was fully fulfilled in Jerusalem's fall in AD 70 or still looks ahead, and on whether verse 39 hints at a future day when Jerusalem welcomes Jesus.

Something to think about

Why do you think people, religious or not, so often find it easier to look good than to be good?