The words of Matthew chapter twenty-three could have come straight out of the books of the Old Testament prophets. They are a challenge to the spiritual teachers of the time, and also a judgment for their failings. From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he has preached against the ineffectiveness of spiritual teachers. Now he challenges them directly.

The charges can be found in verses four and five. According to verse four, the Pharisees and teachers of the law put heavy loads on people’s backs. These are the many traditions that they add to scripture. Their teaching doesn’t lead anyone to serve God. They actually make it more difficult. And in verse five, Jesus says that they want to be noticed. Everything they do is for show.

Some of the details here deserve a little extra study. Jesus says that these teachers of the law made their phylacteries wide and their tassels long. These were two symbols of the special nature of the people of God. You can find each described, in a way, in the Old Testament.

The tassels were a part of the dress code of the people of Israel. They were given some specific instructions about clothing. For example, they were not to mix cloth or blend fabrics in their garments. You can find that in Leviticus 19:19. A modern cotton/polyester blend would break that law. The instruction is an example of a dedicated people, a nation that would be completely devoted to one God, to one principle, to one obedience. Pure silk or pure wool would be a better illustration of holiness than a mixture of three different synthetic plastics mixed in together.

In the same way, the tassels set Israel apart from their neighbors. In Numbers 15, starting in verse 37, God tells the people to add tassels to the four corners of their garments. That may not mean all garments, but certainly the items with four corners. Some suggest that the Matthew passage was talking about the prayer shawls of the Pharisees. In any case, the intent of the instruction was clear. When you see the tassels on your garment, you will remember your God.

But Jesus accuses these Pharisees of making extra long tassels and forgetting about God in the process. They kept the commandment but lost the meaning. Here they are thinking only of themselves. They want all the attention when they attend a banquet or meet in the synagogues, which is the equivalent of going to church. So they worry over the length of the tassels on their shawl, thinking that the size of the tassel will suggest that they pray more than any others. It would be better simply to pray and not be noticed.

The phylactery is a more shadowy example of tradition. Deuteronomy 6 is a great chapter in the Old Testament. Here you’ll find the instruction to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and soul. Teach these commandments to your children, and write them on your heart. In Deuteronomy 6:8, God told the people to tie his commandments on their forehead and arm, and in the next verse, to write them on the doorposts.

Out of these verses, the people got the idea of the phylactery. A phylactery was a small box containing a bit of scripture. The box had long laces, which were used to tie the box to the forehead or arm. You can see, even today, traditional Jewish men and boys wearing these small boxes. But the entire notion of the phylactery is suspect. The purpose of the instruction was to include God’s commandments in every part of your life, when you sit, when you stand, when you walk. So the idea of a box on your head is simply an illustration of the word of God in your heart.

From the beginning, then, it was easy to change the idea of a transformed heart into a tedious repetition of outward actions. But Jesus doesn’t attack the idea, in itself. He condemns the apparent misuse of the phylacteries. If they were a sincere attempt to serve God or to remember his word, they would probably be a good thing. But to the Pharisees and teachers of the law, they had become one more way to show off in front of the crowd.  

And that took some effort. When wearing a phylactery, the box sits right in the middle of a person’s forehead. So it is impossible to miss, even if it is done discreetly. But these Pharisees have apparently made the ribbons or the box wider, so that they are even more garish. The original idea, once again, was to hide the word of God in your heart. So the empty tradition doesn’t accomplish what God originally had in mind. A good tradition would be no problem. This tradition is worthless.

There is even a problem with the title that the Pharisees seek. They are called Rabbi, which means teacher, basically. In other places, Jesus talks about the teachers in the church. The title was not a problem in that case. If someone teaches, they are a teacher. So there must be something different here.

The term rabbi must have carried a heavier weight of authority. Jesus says that they are not to be called Rabbi, because you have only one Master. The title is a sign of authority and honor. That would naturally be attached to the life of a good teacher. But this is different. This has become a social phenomenon. They are the cultural elite. They are the most important people in the community. That in itself was a problem. But to make matters worse, they don’t teach. It is unclear which of these is the larger problem. I suppose, in the end, it doesn’t matter. They are two sides of the same sin.

The first few verses of the chapter summarize the problem, and the result of this bad behavior is a series of pronouncements. Seven woes. They sound like the condemnations delivered by the prophets. The phrase is found all through the Old Testament, and again in Revelation, among others. Isaiah 5 would be a great example. Woe to those who say that evil is good.

It might be difficult to find a similar phrase in modern English. It warns of judgment and names the charges, like a list of accusations or a legal indictment.

Here in Matthew, the list includes:

Verse thirteen, they shut the door to the kingdom of God. They are keeping people out of the kingdom. They are turning people away from God, turning them toward an empty tradition instead.

Verse fifteen, they travel miles and miles to win someone to their tradition, but the result is not real obedience to God. The language is extremely strong here. This is not some little difference of opinion about how best to serve God. The tradition is killing people. It is keeping souls away from God. So Jesus says that the converts are twice as much a son of hell as the Pharisees who recruited them.  

Verse sixteen, they are blind guides. They quibble about which promises are valid and which can be ignored. They might promise a gift to God, but then they immediately look for a loophole. For example, they might have sworn by the temple, but if they didn’t swear by the gold of the temple, then it wouldn’t be legally binding.

The entire discussion becomes a dizzy circle that goes nowhere. Earlier in Matthew 5, Jesus had told the people not to get caught up in these complicated oaths. Don’t swear by the temple, or the gold, or heaven, or earth. Just let your yes mean yes. Here is a good example of what he was arguing against. The fine distinctions of the Pharisees seems to be little more than an excuse to not do what they should do. They want a way out. They are better at arguing their way out of the law than they are at keeping the commandments of God.

Verse twenty-three, they give a tithe of things that don’t matter, and once again they miss the point. Jesus describes a person who meticulously measures out a tenth of all their dill, which is a small, insignificant spice, unless you are a pickle fanatic. These Pharisees and teachers of the law will bring an exact measure of dill to the temple and then congratulate themselves on how righteous they are. But they turn a deaf ear to God’s call for justice, mercy, or holiness. There is no changed life. There is no heart given over to God. There is merely the senseless attention to a long list of empty ritual. As the scripture says, they strain out the smallest gnat, but then swallow a camel.

Verse twenty-five, they clean the outside of the cup, but the inside is filthy. They carefully arrange the outside of their life, but their heart is spoiled and mildewed.

Verse twenty-seven says the same, only in stronger terms. They are tombs, painted white on the outside, but full of death inside. They look righteous on the outside, but inside they are hypocrites, phonies, and zombies.

Verse twenty-nine, Jesus accuses them of preparing graves for the righteous and the prophets. They are killing those who want to serve God. They will do the same to Jesus, in a short time.

At the end of the chapter, there are a few words that Jesus speaks to Jerusalem. They ring out as a total contrast to the neglect of the spiritual leaders of the day. Jesus has longed to gather the people together like a mother hen might gather her chicks. He always wanted to bring his people to a place of shelter, safety, and life. But they wouldn’t allow it. In the end, they have missed the real treasure in the commandments of God. They bring us closer to the one who loves us. That is something that empty tradition can never do.