Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: And today on reading the Gospel, we are studying the seven woes. This is found in Matthew, chapter 23, verses one through 39. It's also found in Mark, chapter twelve, verses 38 through 40. And Luke, chapter 20, verses 45 through 47. Follow along with us as we read. And Matthew, chapter 23, beginning in verse one.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses seat.
So do and observe what they tell you, but do not do the works they do, for they preach but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear. And they lay them on people's shoulders. But they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. And they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues. And greetings in the market places. And being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth. For you have one father who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor. The Christ, the greatest among you, shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. And whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves.
Nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you travel across sian land to make a single proselyte. And when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Woe to you, blind guides, who say, if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. You blind fools. For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, if anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath, you blind men. For which is greater, the gift or the altar? That makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it. And by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. For you, tithed mint and dil and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. This you ought to have done without neglecting the others, you blind guides, straining out a net and swallowing a camel.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. You blind pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside may be clean.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. For you I like white shed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead peoples bones and all uncleanness.
So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. Thus ye witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers, you serpents. You brood of vipers. How are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth. From the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Baruch, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say, all these things will come upon this generation.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings? And you are not willing.
See, your house is left to you desolate.
For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: So, as I'm reading through this, a lot of the things that the Pharisees are doing are good things, right? They build monuments. They travel around the world to make disciples. They wash the outside and make sure it's clean. They make oaths, you know, you go through this, they're doing good things, right?
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Apparently. But there is a disconnect between the motive of those good things and what is inside the heart.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: There's a word for that. We call it hypocrisy.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Hypocrisy? It comes from a greek word, the mask worn by actors in public plays when the same actor was playing different characters. So they were putting a mask on the face to play a different character.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Taking that theme, you can think actors, they'll often say, I have to get into character. Give me a moment. Let me get into character. And they'll switch over and become someone that they're not exactly.
You can watch people in movies where they're always the bad guy and you meet them in real life and you think that they're like that. But their character, who they are in real life, might be completely different. They might be loving and kind and gentle. And this is what the Pharisees are doing, is they have this outward show that looks good, but inwardly their hearts are not there. They might be doing it for fame, they might be doing it for praise. They might be doing it for position, political.
Whatever the reason, they're not doing it for the right reason.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So Jesus Christ has these seven woes, putting together Pharisees and the scribes, the most educated people in the word of God, and calls both of them together hypocrites. That they are projecting a life of godliness. But inside they are empty. Those works were not coming out of faith. That is a trust relationship in God. This is why Romans chapter 14, verse 23, says that whatever does not come out of faith, our trust based relationship with God, that is sin. And here in this chapter is hypocrisy, is this huge discrepancy between the two worlds, the outside versus the inside.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Yeah, they're. They're telling others to do things that they themselves wouldn't do.
There's a lot, and I think many people have been driven away from the church because of hypocrites.
I would be a Christian if it wasn't for the Christians.
There's that quote, the famous thought that, you know, if it wasn't for these people, the church would be pretty good.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: The largest international studies about why young people are leaving the church shows that the reason number one is the hypocrisy of their parents, their spiritual leaders, of their churches.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: You know, I've heard the term that churches are hospitals. They're supposed to be hospitals for the sinners. Places where people should come when you get there. Oftentimes people are dressed in their best smiles on their face. No matter what happened that week, it could have been the worst week in the world. But they're there, happy, putting on a show.
Should we then come like totally broken down?
Who we are, angry, everything.
How do we not be hypocrites when we come to worship God?
[00:10:29] Speaker A: That is a very good question. And you need a lifetime of wisdom to. To find the sweet spot between coming as you are on one side, on the other side, having the church as a support group of like minded people, those who are fighting for the same cause.
So I summarize this tension, and I present the solution with a very simple we have to come to goddess, and I mean public worship as we are, but we have to live as he is.
The problem is not that we come broke to Christ. The problem is that we do not accept the healing power that is being offered to us. And we move like Israelites in the Old Testament, in circles, as they did for 40 years in the wilderness. And we do not advance, we do not grow spiritually.
We are called as we are, as the disciples were called. Right? With all their character defects, all kinds of ideas. One of the Simon de zealot anti government movements. But eventually they are transformed in the presence of Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus Christ is offering his yoke. Take my yoke upon you. And this yoke is an instrument to keep us close to him and to learn his character, because he's humble and meek.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: So Jesus is asking us to do the good things, but to do them for the right reason. Yes, to do it, as you said, to be changed for relationship. That we're not doing this so others can see it. We're doing it so we can reflect Christ more.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: It seems that the Pharisees and the scribes, they picked the wrong audience. For them, the audience was people. For us, the right audience should be God. We do this for God. And by loving God, by trusting, serving, following him, we are being transformed little by little. And people are going to see the good works that God is doing in us.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: And that's the wonderful thing. When God does it in us, he changes who we are. So we desire to do those things.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: So we're not hypocrites. We're not up there saying, do these things or even going out and doing something that we really don't want to do.
When God lives in us, he changes our desires. So we want to do those good things.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Yes. And I like how this chapter ends on a positive note, presenting the solution. It was quite late. Jesus was about to be crucified. But this solution is not only for that generation. It's for the disciples of the disciples. And until last day, it is God as a loving father, as a hen, gathering her brood under her wings.
And this is an invitation, and we can accept it or we can reject it. Those people to whom Jesus was speaking, they were not willing. He says that mean they rejected it. And because of that, their house, the house of the Lord that time was left desolate. But this is an invitation for us, this beautiful picture. And I grew up on a farm, and I know what hen and chicken, how they gather when they just see something on the sky, like a vulture or so. And this is how God invites us to come close to him. He is ready to protect us from the evil one, to provide the conditions for us to grow right? Security, the worms, the food, everything that we need. And by doing this, we will be able, as the last verse says, one day, to say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Let us pray.
Father God, may we not be too proud to come to you and to be gathered under your wings like a hen gathers her chicks. Father, may we not think we're too old for it or too mature or too special. But may we surrender to you and allow you to work in our lives.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: So that on that day when Jesus comes, we can look in the clouds and we can say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That we can be ready for that day and look forward to it.
Father, help us to have joy in our hearts when we do the things you want us to do, because we have Christ living in us. In his name we pray. Amen.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Amen.
